The battle’s done and we kind of won
so we sound our victory cheer
Where do we go from here? — Once More With Feeling, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 2001
Now that the Beta is done, the question is “Did we like it?” That is a trick question, really, because a lot of people played it and had fun. No, the real question is “How much do you want to pay for it?” With no worries about money, I’d have no problem paying full price, maybe even pre-ordering the game. Well, almost no problem, but my issues won’t apply to everyone.
GTA V is coming out on PC, and that is a must have for me. That doesn’t reflect on Hardline itself, but I’m not going to wait on GTA and get Hardline instead. The GTA series is one of my all time favorites, and I’ve played every one since GTA 1. I’ve grown used to the wait for it to come out on PC (got a PS2 to play GTA 3, way back when). The price for GTA V and Hardline are the same, not counting the extra for the Hardline Deluxe.
Other cool games are coming out as well this spring. So deciding how to best spend our money to add to our gaming collection requires some thought. GTA V is on Steam, so for us, one copy will let all of us play it, with separate saves and achievements — just one at a time, not together. Hardline multiplayer means one copy per player. Two copies of each at full price is a lot — not really more than two BF4 Premium pre-orders, but I don’t like to drop that kind of cash more than once a year, and then on the best games I find out there. We still have the fall game season to pay for, more good games to get. Hardline’s single player adds value, but how much is that worth? We won’t know enough until the game comes out and we get a chance to play it, or at least let reviewers play it for us.
How much you want to spend is a personal decision. I liked playing the Beta, and would love to play more of Hardline. It is a game which, like any Battlefield game, is improved considerably in multiplayer when played with friends. I’m likely to treat Hardline as a BF4 alternative when we want a change of pace if our gaming community really takes to it.
So let’s get to what worked well in the Hardline Beta, and what can use improvements.
First, a quick item. The term Hacker for the commanding boss leading the team has way too many bad connotations. The fact that game (and computer) hackers in real life cause endless trouble, that nobody enjoys having a “hacker” in their game, and a professional — police, corporate, or criminal organization — computer manipulator wouldn’t accept being called a mere “hacker,” all suggest that a different term should be used instead.
I suggest Technician. Like the kit roles, it could apply to both sides and still sounds like an official title, not some jerk working from his basement.
Was Hardline Beta Good?
The Bank Job Heist mode played very well once I was with players who understood the objectives. It is an intense, infantry-focused map, and really makes great use of the tools Hardline adds to the game. We zip between rooftops and climb up walls to quickly get to locations otherwise too well protected to brute force our way through. The game balance worked well too, with both sides winning games.
Hotwire is simply a blast to play. It could be improved, but it was consistently fun and very different from the classic Battlefield modes. With nine maps to play on — haven’t seen enough of them to be sure how they will all work — it should allow for fun team play.
Conquest was straightforward, but the choice of types of vehicles and Hardline’s weapon and gadget picks make it play differently from Battlefield 4. The Hacker presence does affect this, as well as the other game modes. It is easier to jump in and out of that role, so I expect to see it used more often in Hardline than BF4. The Hacker’s “traps” aren’t lethal, but do affect play, while the camera and GPS sensing really change your strategy, especially if you are trying anything sneaky.
So what about the rest of the multiplayer game? Blood Money was fun, and I expect it to still be so, especially with more maps. Hotwire on Everglades map looked good, so more is just going to be even better. The Heist mode seems pretty solid as well. The two mission modes, Crosshair and Rescue, sound good but we haven’t seen enough to see how it will actually play.
Conquest and Team Death Match are classics and should always work OK. Straight up fights, without the crime related themes, but shooting and killing is what FPS are all about, after all.
The Unknown Future
EA has pushed — with ads, tweets, facebook postings, etc. — Hardline, especially in these last couple of months prior to the Beta. They’ve done a good job presenting what the game is about, and what it will play like, both in multiplayer and the single player campaign. We know what we’ll get with the game, and the Beta showed fairly well how it plays on the maps and modes we tried. But we don’t know anything about what EA and Visceral are planning to do with this game in the future.
BF4 had a whole preplanned season of Premium content and DLC expansions. BF3 had as well, but Premium wasn’t issued immediately on launch. But if we go back to BF Bad Company 2 (from 2010), the VIP program added a series of additional maps over time, which eventually (as in, if you buy it now) were added for free to the full game package.
Then there is “This Season On Hardline”. Sure, the stuff is all just good videos of game play from the Beta now, but that line suggests that there could be future seasons, in keeping with its Cop TV show theme. If this game takes off like I think it can, there is room to add a lot of stuff to it, without waiting for a Hardline 2 version. We could have additional single player action, maybe some coop game modes (smaller story based multiplayer), and of course, many more multiplayer maps. You could even see a variant of the BF2:BC Vietnam concept, with a new setting (old school Untouchables vs gangsters or 80s Mafia movies?)
Since we don’t know what will come in the future, this is just speculation and can’t really be used to judge when and if to get this game. That we have to decide based on what we see before us. To me, this game is good, and I expect to play it.
