In about 24 hours, EA is opening up a multiplayer beta mode for the highly anticipated game Battlefield: Hardline, which is being officially released across just about all consoles on March 17th. The beta period – which is only open for five days – gives the public the chance to road test three of the game’s seven multiplayer modes. We had a chance to go hands on with the open beta at a special event last week, and give you this hands-on look at what to expect when you get your own chance to play the game tomorrow.
Hotwire
Reflecting the single player mode of the game, Battlefield: Hardline pits criminals against the police, and in multiplayer mode, you join teams of 16* in one faction or the other.
In Hotwire, your job is to steal as many cars as possible and destroy the police in the process. As the police, your job is, essentially, to kill the bad guys and repossess the cars. It’s a simple concept, but one that does take a while to get your head around – both in terms of actual gameplay (e.g. the controls) and the concept itself. It all seems good in practice, but when everyone seems to be in the same boat (confused), everyone just ends up killing each other. Which seems to defeat the purpose. Watch some of the action here:
Two maps are available in the beta period for this mode: Downtown and Dust Bowl. Downtown seems more suited to the task at hand and was primarily what we played in during our trial.
Conquest
This is where shit gets really fun. Up to 64 players* can take part in Conquest – a favourite mode of the series – in the excellent Dust Bowl map. Just wait until the dust kicks in. Not only is the effect visually amazing – you can almost smell the particles – but it adds an excellent layer of gameplay.
The goal is, as a group, to capture as many territories as possible, in whatever manner you see fit. The team with the most points at the end, wins! The strategy seems to be to try to get as many players to go and capture one spot at a time. If you co-operate well, you probably would have left players behind to guard the area. Those that were managing to do this were certainly the ones who were getting further than the rest. Though once you found the hidden rocket launcher.. or if I stole a gas tanker then deliberately exploded it on all of you…. then it was anybody’s game… and it’s a game I could play for hours.
Heist Mode
I really loved this mode as well, which like Hotwire allows 32 players per game*. You’re randomly grouped in with the police or with the criminals. The criminals are tasked with retrieving a package from a safe in the Bank Job map, then working together to deliver the package to a drop point. The police are there to stop, kill and retrieve the package.
The map puts most of the pressure on the criminals, with vantage points clearly giving the police the upper hand. Criminals rarely get far. But once you get to know the ins and outs of the map, there’s plenty of ways to outsmart the opposing team. But you definitely need teamwork to make that work, especially when you’re playing as the criminals.
Death is not the end…
So, what happens when you die? Well, this is where things get interesting, because you can use your death to give you a chance to change your character’s armour, weapons and even the sort of criminal or policeman he is. In the bank heist mode, for instance, I realized there were some great vantage points hidden around, so I became a sniper and tried my luck in shooting from a higher point. Though I’m a terrible shot, it’s something I’ll be able to work on when beta goes live.
And though this is very much about being a “team” effort, in all the modes, ultimately you want to be the highest ranking player of your group, which requires you to not only work with the other players, but kill harder, move faster and act stronger than everyone else. Which I can’t say I was great at doing. But… I’ll see you in Beta?
Helicopters are cool.
I really enjoyed getting into a helicopter and taking out enemies from up high. In conquest, I also enjoyed being inside a armoured vehicle, spraying the landscape with bullets. This is another great thing about death – you choose where you get to come back. You’re able to spawn alongside another member of your team who might be driving that truck or flying that helicopter. And when they leave the vehicle, you can take over or return to moving around on foot. In modes like Hotwire, particularly, you can earn points simply by driving around for long periods of time without being killed. Just do a few jumps while you’re at it.
Hacker Mode
We weren’t able to trial hacker mode during our beta preview, so here’s the blurb from the official website: “Similar to Commander in Battlefield 4, Hacker mode takes surveillance to the next level as the Hackers can take control over security cameras, spot enemies and specify areas on the Battlefield for their team to attack or defend. Hacker mode will be playable on all modes in the beta.”
Sounds cool to us. And we’ll be interested to see how that affects the gameplay we experienced.
So… early thoughts?
This could be very, very addictive. The Bank Heist and Conquest modes are among the best I’ve played in a multiplayer shooter. That said, I’m not sold on Hotwire – I still have no idea what I was doing, so it really just came down to me trying to get points by killing people, which didn’t really make it any different to any other multi-player experience. But I assume with a bit more time players will enjoy the strategy involved – if there really is any… beyond killing people and stealing cars.
I think players will be a blast getting their hands on a free beta of this. It’s quite genius really – who wouldn’t want to then buy the game once it comes out? The Battlefield Hardline open beta goes live on February 3rd PST for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. You can pre-load the beta on PC via Origin beginning Monday, February 2 at 10 AM PST. Grab all the details you need about it here: http://www.battlefield.com/hardline/news/battlefield-hardline-open-beta
Battlefield Hardline then goes on sale March 17th on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. For more details head to: http://battlefield.com/hardline
*On PS3 and Xbox 360, all modes support 24 players only – two teams of 12.
The game was roadtested on PS4 thanks to EA.
