The Battlefield franchise is near and dear to my heart. I have incredibly vivid memories of the huge hype leading up to Battlefield 1942, the bewildered excitement, the confusion. What do you mean I can be a soldier and drive a tank and steer a battleship? HOW?
Battlefield 1942 and its slew of excellent successors – Vietnam, 2, and especially 2142 – ran along the cutting edge of class-based, team-oriented objective multi-player in the competitive scene. Battlefield has inspired many of the industry’s finest titles, from Star Wars: Battlefront to the Enemy Territory games, to Red Orchestra and a handful of others. Battlefield has always led the way in large-scale military multi-player mayhem.
The adage: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” doesn’t seem to be first in mind with the Visceral Games team for the franchise’s newest outing Battlefield: Hardline. They’re looking to take the franchise in a very different direction with a strong campaign featuring a TV-centric episodic structure, big-name voice-over actors and likenesses, and a highly-modified multi-player dynamic. As per usual policy, EA has given Visceral the greenlight on a Beta test to run the new mechanics around the corner and see how they hold up. The Pixelated Geek staff, particularly PXL Plays! Johnathan Crass and your truly, have spent the last several days pulling heists and TASER-ing bros in order to bring you the most honest and grounded of impressions.
First and fore-most, it’s definitely still Battlefield. The promised mechanical shifts have taken the form of an alteration of game-mode in a more thematically appropriate direction, but at the end of the day this doesn’t change that much. The Heist mode presents a pair of objectives to the criminal faction – their job is to plant a demolition charge on the objective, defend said charge until it detonates, and then remove a package from the objective after it has been successfully blown, and deliver it to an escape route. Each match begins the same way, with the same objectives, and this can make for a very repetitive game-play dynamic. The introduction of a very few ‘Levolution’-style destruction mechanics allow players to alter the geometry of the map, but in a very structured and predictable manner. The combination of the consistent objective and predictable environmental destruction leads to almost every match feeling very close to identical, which is a weakness the Battlefield franchise had heretofore distanced itself from.
The game-play is virtually identical. Sure, the kits see some differences in equipment, but there are still the medic, engineer, heavy, and sniper classes with predictable class limitations, and their roles are unchanged. The proper balance of classes is still vital, and the Battlefield mandate on teamwork is still absolutely crucial to success. I don’t think anyone expected, or wanted a massive alteration to the game-play dynamic, and Visceral has left it largely intact.
Pixelated Geek’s PXL Plays! Battlefield: Hardline Hands-On Pt. 1
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qWYGTRtSPY&list=PLJNWytfdD-RVPXLL-WVQS9hfcTwKG5jt3&feature=share&index=34[/youtube]
And so, the Battlefield magic is still in play – the flexibility of roles, the multiple avenues of attack, the team-focused game-play. But the Heist mode, and it’s much weaker cousin Blood Money, don’t necessarily fit in well with the mechanics of the franchise. Blood Money involves 3 objectives: a vault for each time, and a stack of cash placed between them. Players are tasked with moving into the central objective, loading up with cash, and safely moving back to the vault to secure it. The players have a limitation on the amount they can carry, and the team that reaches a set amount first wins. When it’s played effectively, you’re either camping an objective, or you’re a glorified pack-mule. When it’s played badly, it’s an every-man-for-himself free-for-all. This mode would work far better in a smaller, more limited, less team-work oriented shooter like Call of Duty or something of its ilk. I’ve played perhaps 10 matches of Blood Money, and the chat was almost exclusively filled with complaints about the mode. I have never had less fun in a Battlefield game than I did in Battlefield: Hardline’s Blood Money mode.
The addition of gadgets – a throw-back to the Special Forces expansion of Battlefield 2 is a welcome one, but more in concept than execution. Tear gas and gas masks are effective area denial and counter tactics, and the TASER is a real joy if you can manage to land a hit with it. The grappling hook and zip-line are conceptually excellent, but their execution is less-than-stellar. Both have usage restrictions that make them almost too specific for more than one or two uses on a map – the zip-line is quite effective at connecting the rooftop of a building adjacent to the objective building, but only at a specific point and angle. The grappling hook has to be used within a specific range and angle and both of those are entirely too limited.
Additionally, the weapon load-outs and gadgets aren’t restricted to a faction – which seems like a missed opportunity to provide interesting, asymmetrical experiences in the multi-player. It beggars belief that a criminal organization, no matter how well-organized or -funded would have access to the same armaments and resources as an even moderately well-supported law enforcement organization, especially those tasked with handling this sort of enterprise. The map shown in the Beta – traditionally the arena the dev team is most proud of at this point in development – is also remarkably bland. Almost every encounter that occurs is restricted to 4 limited locations that comprise perhaps a quarter of the map, leaving large areas an empty, un-utilized wasteland.
Pixelated Geek’s PXL Plays! Battlefield: Hardline Hands-On Pt. 2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I4a4lLl9hE&list=PLJNWytfdD-RVPXLL-WVQS9hfcTwKG5jt3&feature=share&index=35[/youtube]
That is, as a whole, a great representative of Battlefield: Hardline – it’s a neat idea, and it could be really quite good. As it stands right now, it’s hard not to think of Battlefield: Hardline like over-priced DLC – but 4 months is a long time, and Visceral has one of the better track records in the industry. I’m tentatively excited at the direction, and hope that we won’t be disappointed.
I spoke briefly with Johnathan Crass about his viewpoints on Battlefield: Hardline which are a good deal more positive than my own. He describes the title as a strange cousin of the Battlefield franchise that grew up watching marathons of NYPD Blue, and the Wire, and allowed itself to be inspired by recent titles like Payday 1 & 2, and CS/CS:GO, as well as Hollywood Blockbusters. This reminded me that a goodly portion of why we should be excited about this game will be the campaign – Visceral isn’t known for strong multi-player experiences, and this certainly eclipses the last best effort by a goodly span. Visceral is known for white-knuckle campaign work, and given the premise, Battlefield: Hardline could be a great step forward in a franchise that is known for weak campaign experiences.
Battlefield: Hardline will release October 21, 2014 on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, XBOX 360, and XBOX ONE.