Usual scenario: take one player who’s unfamiliar with popular franchises and give him a beta from one of his favourite genres. This is what my story is about yet again. Dinner’s served, no desserts though, the cat took it.

The last time Battlefield had a release was back in the end of 2013 with Battlefield 4, which was a stepping stone towards the consoles of the current generation. It’s probably not harsh to say that the retail release wasn’t standing quite strong on its feet upon release as much as its predecessor, Battlefield 3 did – however, that game never got a PS4/XB1 release, mind you.

Now, the situation is changing: Battlefield decided to leave the game rush of the Fall (there were weeks in November when there were no less than 6 or 7 releases!), instead, Visceral and EA has targeted a Spring release for Battlefield: Hardline.

Cop or a robber?

In this game, you can choose from two sides: if you always dreamed of being a doughnut-eater, pick the side of the police; if your aim is to be a master thief, choose the side of the robbers. This doesn’t cover the meat enough: under the cover, it’s still a Battlefield game, which can be quite felt during the gameplay.

 

It doesn’t matter that the beta has cars, it’s still clearly sticking to the roots of the franchise. I’m not saying that it’s a Battlefield 4.5, but it’s not far from that either.

Grab the money and run!

Still, there’s some additions compared to Battlefield 4 though since we have two game modes called Heists and Blood Money. (Excuse me, it seems that some people in tuxedos and funny looking masks are running away while shouting Payday 2… yes, they might be right!)

So in Blood Money, there’s going to be a stash of money in the middle of the map. Both teams will have to try to get to it. The player can decide how much money does he or she wants to take. A circular HUD will help: every circle means 100K dollars and here’s a nice touch to it. It’s basically a psychological minigame: is the player greedy? Will he risk up grabbing more than a million with the chance of being shot down by others or just go for survival and grab a smaller sum? Greediness equals death, and that’s not all: you will only get to know the location of your own safe when you have money with you.

You can also kill others to take their money, or better yet, try to locate the rivals’ safe to grab whatever they have mounted into that thing. This can all result in a dynamic and fast paced match in Blood Money. It’s just like a good old Capture the Flag in a different aspect!

Heist mode is on the money?

Sadly, I don’t think Heists lives up to its name, I didn’t find it as fun as Blood Money. Basically, two vans appear, the robbers have to blow the doors off before the cops try to catch them, then they have to go for the vault and run to the destination, which will be guarded by the police and… that’s about it. Why do I think this mode is a bit off compared to Blood Money?

Simple: in my opinion, Payday 2 has performed much better in this style. There’s a better communication between the players in that game than in Battlefield: Hardline. And the level which I played on (I think it was called High Tension) just felt too easy. The whole game needs to more dynamic to make it a real success.

We need cops and robbers, but no bugs please

Still, almost everything is in its place, so don’t get me wrong. With 32 players on board, the servers will provide much fun with hopefully no lags and errors (I hope Visceral/EA will not end up with what 343 provided the players with when Halo: The Master Chief Collection released…!), and if Battlefield: Hardline can run as stable as it did in the beta, then there won’t be any problems.

Now, I’m out, where’s my grappling hook…

 -V-

---