Battlefield: Hardline was finally announced at EA’s E3 2014 press conference. Reps from DICE and Visceral Games took the stage at the biggest video gaming stage of the year to introduce the newest vision for Battlefield, and boy, is it chaotic.
The game is different from previous Battlefields in its theme: the drama between cops and criminals. The presenter onstage described it as “more like a great TV crime drama than traditional shooter.” Players will play as either cops or criminals with goals to either commit a crime or stop criminals from doing so–a classic model for this kind of theme.
Using a PlayStation 4, EA demonstrated its 32-player Heist game mode, where criminals targeted armored trucks on the busy streets of Los Angeles. Once the cops were gunned down and the armored truck blown open, the player made off with “the package” in a spectacular way: he simply got into a car and drove off.
This is one part of Heist mode. Now that the player has the package, he and his squad must escape the police (i.e. other players), who are pursuing him in a helicopter.
Despite cheesy lines like “DON’T TAZE ME, BRO!” the gameplay was chaotic and looked rather fun. The player destroyed a building and a half spectacularly in the process of his escape, making PSU’s own Tim Nunes declare that EA should make a Godzilla game. Graphics look very nice as far as the environment is concerned, but character models are just okay in comparison–arguably less important in a first-person shooter, but still a nice detail to get right.
The Battlefield: Hardline beta is now live on PS4 and PC. The release date for the game was not announced at E3, but was announced on the official trailer below as October 21.