Battlefield Hardline: A New Kind of War

Ea confirmed earlier this week that their rumored Battlefield: Hardline game is an actual thing and also kind of not a Battlefield game at all. To further mix things up, this “Battlefield” game is not even being made by DICE, developers of every single other game in the series. Even though I think the name is more of a ploy to sell more copies than anything, I think there is a ton of potential is Visceral's new take on the Battlefield formula.
A New Kind of War
Perhaps the biggest and most shocking aspect of this announcement is the fact that this is not technically a “war game” at all. The game will be set in the forever war of Cops vs. Criminals. Now my knee jerk reaction was “WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS,” but after quick thought I turned around completely on the idea. For a long time most of us have dreamed of a great heist game. Grand Theft Auto V surely tapped that vein but only enough to make us want more, same for the two Payday games that have been released.
Now the whole heist idea hasn't been confirmed, but many leaks have pointed to game modes that are rumored to revolve around this sort of thing. My mind started to wander and I instantly began putting together some wonderful moments that could come together if some basic Battlefield tendencies stay intact.

For one, I fully expect to see vehicles in Hardline and secondly I expect to see some sort of destruction. Given that this will take place in huge downtown streets, I expect the damage will be more tactical than anything else and that could directly feed into how heists play out. Imagine having the freedom to blow through any wall to reach your destination. Take down the north wall and weld through the steel doors or blow up the roof and rappel down into the vault. If big maps are in question we could certainly see car chase sequences of players chasing each other over a map before finally escaping. We really don’t have too many details on exactly what to expect form the game but my mind has wondered enough to convince me to pay attention to what EA has in store.
A New Set of Hands on the Wheel
The second of the two punches Battlefield fans received in the announced of Hardline is just exactly who is working on it. EA has confirmed that Visceral Games, best known for the Dead Space series, will be helming this installment of Battlefield. With the good track record there is little to worry about by this part of the announcement. DICE surely has their hands full with the next installment of Star Wars Battlefront and most likely in early development for the Battlefield 5. That’s not even mentioning the fact that Mirrors Edge 2 is in there somewhere along with the constant support and DLC for Battlefield 4. Having fresh eyes on a new project can sometimes cause fans stomach to turn and for good reason but I think this might be a good fit for this new take on Battlefield and one I am looking forward to seeing.
The Leaked Trailer
So yet another piece of content was recently released for Hardline. A seven minute video featuring voice over has made its way onto the web and if I had to guess this is the very video we will see during its appearance on E3. It is still light on details but gives us the jist of exactly what to expect and what they are really going for. Unfortunately yet unsurprisingly, the video has been pulled by EA so I will try to fill you in on some of the details we saw.

The single player is still the least interesting aspect to me but it looks much better than anything else I’ve seen for the past two Battlefield games. It is described as taking on a cop drama approach filled with things like cliffhangers to further push the “TV” setting. If there is one thing that stands out though it’s the fidelity of the characters, man Battlefield 4 is a great looking game but to me Hardline seems to definitely be upping the ante in the technical department.
Naturally, since this game is Battlefield, the multiplayer is the selling point here and it honestly looks more like past games than I thought it would. I had a picture of something resembling Counter-Strike but what was shown was all out war on the streets of a major city and in the middle of a desert. We get a glimpse at huge explosions, car chases and attack helicopters.

The game modes though seem to all be quite unique, including the rumored heist game mode and car chase modes. They all seem to have the flair that Battlefield is known for but from a different approach with things like gadgets. Gadgets are there to shake things up, make the battleground much more intense and unpredictable. The major one shown was the grappling hook that could be shot anywhere on the map which sounded like it would make for a great time.
Hopefully, more details will see the light of day when E3 gets going but for now we can only speculate on the finer details of Battlefield Hardline. While I still have some concessions about the name choice, for the most hard I am extremely intrigued about what this game has in store.