I’ve had a few hours to play the Beta yesterday, and it is fun. But not so much fun that I have to go “Wow, I need to buy this right now.” Still, six weeks from now things may change, including how much spare money I have lying around, and which of my friends get it.
First, a useful quick link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BRCKbiWcIo
JackFrags all you need to know video offers a decent introduction to the game. The game itself is action movie cops and robbers. The weapons available, game modes and missions, and even the general physics are not meant to reflect anything like a realistic police — even SWAT — environment. The voice acting — lines in the multiplayer, haven’t seen single yet — fit into this. The car radios play in-game music as you drive, to fit the situation. I don’t know if we will have the ability to add our own user music to this, but it is a very nice action movie theme touch.
One quick bit people might not have mentioned: the game and map loading times are very fast. About 10 seconds to load off my SSD, and very short when reloading the exact same map. The Bank Job map in Heist mode runs only that map, so new game rounds start with only the delay for players to “ready up” and join. I don’t know how much of that is due to the Beta configuration of the maps or the number of players on these servers, but for a quick action game this is a welcome change. I’ll check it off my laptop hard drive soon. Edit note: approx 30-40 seconds for the conquest Dust Bowl. Not bad, but not especially fast. Maybe the SSD and 16 GB of RAM make the difference, not sure which is most important.
Hardline isn’t a reskinned Battlefield 4, not anymore. The squad and team mechanics, and the weapon handling, as well as the underlying engine, those are all Battlefield. But the game itself plays out quite differently from a typical Battlefield game. The four kits play their roles much differently from Battlefield. The unlock and customization system is also very different Enough so that figuring out what to buy with your cash (game points/XP) is hard to decide. You do rank up, but that doesn’t, by itself, unlock anything. You have the choice what to get and when, limited only by the money you’ve earned in game.
Money and ranks come extremely fast in the Beta. I haven’t seen confirmation, but suspect that points are boosted in the Beta, to give players a chance to try out more stuff.
Map destruction on the three maps in game is limited. The micro-destruction in building interiors and little things is excellent. I believe that this is a performance issue, and more may be included when the game is optimized. Other maps may have more, and that is also a map design issue — a fixed arena vs one user-customized by explosions.
Hotwire and Heist are a lot of fun. The objectives are fluid — moving cars and movable money — and the game pace is likewise fast. I found the objectives hard to see in the in-game view at times with all the other things highlighted in the HUD. You can always check the map, but I think that the key objectives should be very clear. This is especially true in Heist. The money packages can be above or below you, and knowing exactly where they are is essential as they are what you need to win the game. The objective markers should be more animated and colorful, so they are easy to see and distinguish from the player and other markers present on the HUD. I’d go with a gold tint (most are money based) with neon glowing team colors of red (enemy) or blue (friendly).
