After 3 years somebody finally thought I did something
special enough in my gaming articles to merit letting me in on a closed
Beta.
Well, at least that's what I tell myself. I'm sure if any of your gaming hours are
spent in EA's Origin client you saw the plea to join the closed Beta for Battlefield: Hardline. No matter, it's a closed Beta which means
everything I do is being closely watched by someone. Which is great since my play style is a
little different from most online gamers.
Maybe some of that weirdness will end up making a better game. I wouldn't lay any money on it though.
So what about it?
What's Battlefield:
Hardline like?
In a word, It's a lot like Battlefield 4 but the maps actually resemble the urban maps in Battlefield 3. It's pretty much a run and gun affair with
vehicles thrown in for good measure.
After logging into Origin you're taken to a Battlelog webpage
very similar to Battlefield 4 where you can check your stats, outfit your
character and chose your server. The
game starts with a spawn map very similar to Battlefield 4 with a minimalist overview of the action on the
ground. You're either on the side of the
cops or the crooks and you've got a limited amount of time to steal the loot or
keep it from being stolen.
Just like Battlefield, you've got 4 classes to choose from including:
The Operator, which is
a medic.
The Mechanic, which is
an engineer.
The Enforcer, which is
an assault class.
The Professional,
which is a sniper.
Each class has special perks, weapons and loadouts with upgrades
available as you earn cash awards from
your adventures. This is virtual cash by
the way, not the pay to play variety.
After you've chosen a class it's time to decide whether
you're on foot or in a vehicle. Although
that's not a hard and fast rule. I've
even seen crooks steal cop cars. If you
like running around then by all means do but
I always find it more fun to
sample the vehicles and see what kind of carnage I can whip up.
Your chosen ride can be anything from hulking Police command
vehicles to muscle cars and helicopters.
Both Cops and Crooks have access to an assault vehicle although the
Crooks seem to have improvised a bit.
The cops have an all out assault vehicle similar to the assault
transports in Battlefield 3 and 4 while the crooks get something that
looks like a VW Jetta with a 50 Cal assault turret bolted on top. Who says Visceral
doesn't have a sense of humor?
Once you spawn it's off to the races. The premise is simple. You're either going after the loot or
protecting it.
They call the first game mode "Heist" and it's
similar to the "Rush" game modes in Battlefield games. The only exception is that instead of arming
bombs and protecting them till they blow up you're going to be trying to blow
up bank vaults (or protecting them) around the city and get the goods back to
your getaway helicopter.
The other game mode is called "Blood Money" which
is more like Team Fortress 2's Capture the Flag. Players either try to rob a bank and get the
loot home or try to prevent that from happening (if you're the cops.)
The games move very fast and I actually played 3 games in 30
minutes with a full 32 player server.
For a beta the lag wasn't bad at all and even my crusty old GTX 260 216
card (DX10.1) handled Battlefield:Hardline
with ease.
If you've played a Battlefield game in the past 5 years then
this game is very familiar to you. That
includes the flawed Kill Cam, texture tears and glitches. Still, it's more fun than Battlefield 4 and seems to have at least
the same level of polish. Which doesn't
say much for Battlefield 4 does it!
The closed Beta is apparently over now and I think I know
why. I never found a lack of servers but
I did find a serious lack of players.
EA's extended
the Beta period and opened it up to all players which has resulted in an
increased population although there are still plenty of empty servers. At least with all the additional player
activity they'll get more data than the pitiful 4/32 that was common before
they opened it up.
The video below represents the average player experience in
the game. There's some epic moments but
for the most part it's textbook Battlefield.
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