Battlefield Hardline

Recently EA announced a closed beta for its newest instalment in its Battlefield franchise. All you needed to do (and still can do at battlefield.com/hardline/beta) was give in your details and hope that EA decided to pick you. To be honest with you, I would honestly go for it. You only lose about 2 minutes of your time, and potentially get to test a triple-A title for zilch. I mean, what do you have to lose?

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be chosen for the Beta, (although I believe that pretty much everyone is chosen) and immediately went to download the game from origin. The interface itself is very similar to battlefield 4 in that you have do everything pre-game through your browser. You have a profile, loadout and can choose your server/game mode there.

The setting of Battlefield Hardline is basically cops versus robbers. However, add into that tried and tested formula the guns and mechanics of the Battlefield series, and you should get a really good game! Currently since we are in beta the game only has two game modes, namely Blood money and heist. Blood money is a really fun capture the flag mode where you have to steal money from a neutral safe and bring it back to your own. At the same time you can steal from the other sides safe, while they can do the same to you. Heist description

I played several rounds of this mode and was really satisfied. The gun play from Battlefield, which was ok to begin really melded well with the concept of the game mode. I found it really enjoyable when I was stealing the cash, the adrenaline was rushing as I waited there to pick up the cash and I was elated when I managed to take someone down who was about to rake in big time. Furthermore, the tactics of this game mode are wide-ranging and can be completely different. For example you can play extremely aggressively, camping out your opponents safe and kill them every time they try to bring money there, or extremly defensively by just defending your own safe. All in all it made for a really good gaming experience.

The heist game mode is similar, but instead of both teams needing to steal money from a safe, we have the robbers needing to crack a safe and then carry the flag for a set amount of time. The cops need to stop the robbers from doing this. Simultaneously the robbers have a limited number of respawns, while the cops can die as many times as they want. I found this mode really good as well, however I think that even just a little teamwork would make this way better. However, as always battlefield players are quite a selfish bunch.

In terms of new content, apart from the game modes, we have the addition of new meelee weapons, like police batons and baseball bats. Furthermore, the inclusion of a riot shield which stops most bullets really is different from what we have seen before. The best addition in my opinion though is the grappling hook and a zipline. This gives the already interesting movement options a new dimension which can lead to completely new tactics to take out your enemies.

All in all considering that this game is in beta, as well as being actually a quite demanding game I was really impressed by how well it ran. Very rarely did I have any lag or performance issues. Everything was really smooth and looked really good.

However, if we remember that Battlefield was released less than a year ago, should EA be bringing out the sequel? I honestly have to say no. Battlefield 4 was a mess when it came out, and still occasionally suffers from bugs and glitches. Hardline proves that Dice can actually bring out a well-optimized game that runs well, so why hasn’t this been applied to Battlefield 4? Why release an entirely new game for an outrageous price, when the engine is the same, most of the mechanics are the same and there is relatively little content. To be honest, I really think that it would be better if Dice had released this game as a DLC, and I would perhaps be more inclined to buy it. However, for to be paying the whole £60 or whatever it will cost is really ridiculous considering I already have Battlefield 4. I am sorry EA, but regardless of how good Hardline is, I will not fall for your money making schemes. Shame really, because as an add-on I would have definitely bought it and advised others to get it as well.