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Preview: Battlefield: Hardline multiplayer

EA invited Stevivor and enough other Australian journos to get an early preview of multiplayer within the upcoming Battlefield: Hardline multiplayer beta. This is what you can expect when it unlocks in less than 24 hours.

Perched high on an overpass, the sight on my sniper rifle starts to shake uncontrollably. Doubting that Visceral Games has implemented muscle fatigue or nervous anxiety simulations, I pull out of the sight just in time to see a crane that towers over the level come crashing down onto the bridge opposite my position. Two cars roar around the corner and skid to avoid the debris, one driver jumping out of the passenger door. I zoom in to take the shot but dust clouds my vision, so I pull out my pistol, leap over the railing and move in on foot, where I am promptly squashed by an oil tanker.

Hotwire is new to Hardline, and plays as close to Burnout as it does Battlefield. It is anchored by the impressive driving engine; well-tuned controls, solid physics and an impressive sense of speed for driving in a first person shooter mean Visceral Games can offer game modes that lean on those mechanics without fear of them offering only novelty value. Hotwire works on the Battlefield ticket formula, but points only tick from your opponents total by your team commandeering select ‘hot’ vehicles and driving around above a minimum speed. These hot vehicles respawn upon destruction and can be filled with teammates for drive-bys and some impressive passenger seat combat.

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Passengers can sit and shoot from the car window frame, open up the back doors of vans and switch to empty seats in a vehicle with ease, and the combined firepower of a full car can take down other vehicles relatively quickly. Car to car combat is limited to ramming, but T-boning an unsuspecting car full of cops with your tanker is more than enough fun. Driving physics are relatively forgiving, you can get airborne easily, cars drift and corner smoothly and it takes some effort to nudge and barge another vehicle. There are more than just the ‘hot’ cars to get around in, cop cars, vans, bikes and choppers abound, making getting to the action a smooth experience.

That said, being on foot in Hotwire can be a chore. There are some advanced tools to take care of those on four wheels; traps and heavy weapons pickups being two, but standard firepower and grenades weren’t very effective against fast moving targets and as the object of the game is to drive around at speed for as long as possible there wasn’t much incentive to combat for those in a hot vehicle. When you do dislodge a driver it is an achievement, sniping an oncoming opponent or spraying at a passenger and having them tumble from their window perch make for highlight reel moments, but often I felt ineffective as those in cars did laps while I tried to find my way to whichever hot vehicle spawned next. Hotwire is great fun in cars, and will be an incredible experience with large player numbers (we played about 10 on 10, a full game would be outright insane) but may lean toward novelty rather than a strong competitive gametype. As a diversion, it was outstanding.

Heist mode is new to Battlefield but hardly an original idea, seeing a team of criminals break in to a vault then taking their loot to set escape points on the level under the attention of an opposing team of police. There are plenty of twists within, the criminals have to blow up walls and the vault itself, and in the level we played the escape points were cleverly placed to create some fun shooting gallery scenarios. A dropped loot bag returns to the vault on a reasonable timer, meaning teamwork is required to continually move the payload to the target but you will get at least one or two shots at moving it on unless completely dominated by the opposition.

The level design made Heist mode for me. One escape point sits atop a parking garage, giving the defending team a great sniping opportunity if they can break enemy lines and perch themselves opposite. Criminals can attack from the ground level, a slow grind that leaves them susceptible to sniper fire, or move to the roof opposite and zip-line or grappling hook their way across, going for the Hail Mary surprise attack. The other extraction point sits at the end of a more traditional alleyway, allowing a roadside approach with some cars for cover or moving through the bank using pillars and garden walls for protection before engaging in a mid-range shootout. Internally the bank offers some great shootout moments too, close range firefights through security doors, Matrix-style shoot-outs in a pillar filled lobby, multi-level combat around grand stairways. Well co-ordinated teams are going to dominate Heist, but in an evenly balanced game it is a lot of fun.

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Conquest is the final mode of the beta, the ‘capture and hold’ control point mode that felt the most like traditional Battlefield. Choppers fell from the sky, cars roared around and snipers picked off the weak from afar, but we probably didn’t have the numbers to do the mode justice, with up to 64 players supported. When firefights centred on a single checkpoint it became an intense game of attack and defence, but too often control points had to be left undefended. While half the team ran around securing (then losing) abandoned checkpoints the rest engaged in firefights around the centre control point. This was more a case of not enough players than any fault of the game, but with two fresh modes Conquest felt like the most pedestrian experience of the day.

I haven’t got too much to say about the shooting itself, but not for lack of quality. It is as tight as you would expect from Battlefield, but it doesn’t stray from the long proven formula of the series. At this stage you either like it or you don’t, some fast cars and bank heists won’t change your mind. Classes can be heavily customised with an intimidating number of weapons, accessories and equipment, I spent most of my time with a grenade launcher and grappling hook to both defend against vehicles and play with the new toy. I also played around with Hacker mode for a while, in Heist it proved effective for revealing enemy positions, activating cameras and unleashing gas on unsuspecting enemies, but for the most benefit you need good communication with your small squad and overall team. Organised teams will make great use of this feature but in public games you are probably better off with a weapon in hand than a computer.

The Battlefield: Hardline multiplayer beta opens 3 February and concludes 8 February, available on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC via Origin. PC players can pre-load the beta now, while current-gen consoles will be looking at an 11GB download, last-gen 4GB. As an open beta it will be free in the respective console stores. Battlefield: Hardline arrives 17 March for all platforms. You can find more information on the beta here. We previewed the Battlefield: Hardline single player campaign back in November which you can check out here.


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About the author

Stuart Gollan

From Amiga to Xbox One, Doom to Destiny, Megazone to Stevivor, I've been gaming through it all and have the (mental) scars to prove it. I love local multiplayer, collecting ridiculous Dreamcast peripherals, and Rocket League.