The Battlefield Hardline Closed Beta is playable in Outpost Antwerp up till the 26th of June. Our resident gaming critic, Andreeas Firoiu - aka Zetta, broaches his first impressions of the new Battlefield franchise in the birthing episode of The Zetta Files.
"Cops And Robbers is one of those essential childhood games everyone plays with their friends. This classic struggle between good and evil is part of growing up and many hit movies and shows make use of it to great effect. Battlefield Hardline brings this classic game to life with great visuals, powerful sound design, interesting gameplay and a deep, but enjoyable multiplayer we enjoyed playing with the other gamers at Outpost Gamecenters Antwerp. This is a heist you won't want to miss.
The Battlefield Hardline Beta gave us a chance to test out the multiplayer with several hundreds of other players recently. Naturally we took it for a spin to see how this new Battlefield runs. While EA only provided one map, two game modes and a limited selection of weapons to test out, we had a great deal of fun either stealing heavy loot from other players or preventing our fellow gamers from doing the same.
The two main modes we got to try were Heist and Blood Money. Blood Money is your standard capture-the-flag type game where you take money from a vault and either drop it off as loot at your base or secure it as evidence against robbers. It's not the deepest gameplay mode, but it's fast and fun, especially for quick rounds between the meatier Heist mode. During a Heist game, the robbers have to blow up several armoured trucks and drop off the packages they contain at designated areas. The cops have to stop them from completing their objective. It's a more strategic mode where squad-based gameplay is essential to the success of both sides with players taking on various roles with numerous possibilities each.
Both sides have four classes they can use and customize as they see fit. As you use them, they'll grow in rank and level, which unlocks new weapons, modifications and gear they can buy such as riot shields, strategic Batman grappling hooks and zip line shooters. The Operator is your standard medic class that can revive and heal other players while the Enforcer is a heavy soldier wielding high-calibre machine guns and shotguns. The Professional is for the sneaky sniper types who like taking shots from afar. Finally we have the Mechanic who deals with the rides.
One of the interesting parts of Hardline is how Michael Bay the entire thing feels. While this isn't your average military scenario, both the cops and robbers have access to some pretty impressive ordinance including heavy-duty riot trucks, armoured plated cars with mounted machine guns and helicopters. You'd think helicopters would be overkill for these kinds of encounters, but the robbers have gotten their hands on rocket launchers so it works out. This leads to some very visually impressive "Wow, did you just see that?" moments when helicopters get blown out of the sky and in one game an entire skyscraper came down right on top of us. Most Marvel movies don't even go this far.
While the falling skyscraper was exceptional, we have to admit the game looks really good. The textures look detailed, the animations are very fluid and the whole experience feels polished. The sound design also gets some positive marks for the gunshot sounds, the radio banter between the cops and the robbers and finally for the fun little news segments that start each round. They make the game feel like a news report surrounding a crime in progress and it's a neat little framing device.
Overall, Battlefield Hardline feels solid as far as this beta was concerned. The servers held up well, the players we played with seemed excited and the matches were enjoyable with loads of depth. The only limiting factor was indeed the fact that we only had one map to play on. Despite this, we feel Hardline could become a very successful entry in the Battlefield franchise and we're already very eager to play the complete game when it releases on the 21st of October. Get your guns out lads, there's some heavy scores to earn and cops to blow away!"
Andreeas Firoiu - aka Zetta
Gaming for the glory days of the NES and analysing games even before he graduated high school, Andreeas has been playing and writing about games for most of his life. With a vast collection of games, more hours spent in game than in real life and the experience to dissect a game to its core, he'll provide you with an entertaining, but in-depth opinion of any game you'll let him play long enough for him to beat.
Andreeas has over eight years of experience as a gaming journalist and reviewer. Not only has he written pieces for over five different gaming websites, but his work has also been published several times in two gaming magazines. With over a hundred written reviews all over the internet, you can be certain he'll give every game the fair and just analysis it deserves.
