Interview: Ian Milham on Battlefield: Hardline

During 2014’s Tokyo Game Show, Stevivor met up with Ian Milham, the Creative Director of the upcoming Battlefield: Hardline to discuss some of the controversy surrounding the new entry in the Battlefield series and what long-time and new fans can expect when it’s released.

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Brad Stephenson, Stevivor: Battlefield: Hardline appears to be a bit of a departure from the main Battlefield series.

Ian Milham: Yes, thematically.

Stevivor: You wouldn’t say so in any other way?

Ian Milham: Well, one of the things that we were conscious of as we were kicking it off was we knew we wanted to make something different thematically and what we didn’t want was for some people to be saying, “Right, yeah. You have your cops and robbers game and you just slapped Battlefield on the box to sell more copies.” So we spent a long time actually identifying what were the key ideas, what does something that has Battlefield on the box need to have.

Small maps, big maps, destruction, team play, vehicles, classes, the whole sort of tool set which actually can apply to a lot of different worlds and themes which has historically –and I think it could here– we knew because we were challenging so much of people’s acceptance because we were changing so much of the tone that we knew we needed to get some of the fundamentals really right for it to be called a Battlefield game.

Stevivor: Right. At first it’s quite controversial changing it from the usual military to the cops and robbers but for me, as someone like myself who is new to the franchise, I actually find this a lot more appealing.

Ian Milham: You see? We were thinking about that a little bit. We started this in February 2012 so Dice was still going to be working on Battlefield 4 for a year and a half after and it felt like they were doing a proper job with the military focus so it seems silly for us to be doing the same thing.

Stevivor: Was there a personal reason from anyone on staff for the shift from more military focus to police?

Ian Milham: It wasn’t like we had any distaste for doing a military one. It just seemed to make sense as a new team to the franchise to do something different and especially making another game in the series more interesting for ourselves and those in the audience.

Stevivor: I’ve noticed in game modes, Blood Money and Heist you can play as the criminals. Will this option be available in the campaign as well?

Ian Milham: When we were first talking to people about what possibilities they were excited about in the game, people were a lot more interested in both sides of the law and the grey area. Cops aren’t always good and criminals aren’t always bad. It’s a lot more like a police drama sort of world rather than a simulator tactics sort of thing. So in the single player, yes you do get to play as both the cop and the criminal but as one character who experiences both.

Stevivor: So really exploring the grey areas. Interesting.

Ian Milham: And of course in the multiplayer you can play both sides.

Stevivor: So, are there branching paths then in the main campaign?

Ian Milham: In the way that we’re playing both sides of the law. We did want more choice in the single player. It’s not just a shooting gallery because that’s the soldier fantasy. The soldier fantasy is, “There’s a bad guy, shoot him.” But that’s not how cops and robbers work. With cops and robbers, they’re in the same room and yelling at each other. You can sneak up and arrest them and all kinds of stuff. It’s much more different with a lot more choice and a lot more depth because of the investigations. There’s a lot more going on.

Stevivor: Is it more of a morality based system or more plot driven?

Ian Milham: It’s more plot driven. We didn’t want to make it about the moral choices. It’s a triple A shooter. It would be a rather clumsy way to address those issues.

Stevivor: (laughs) Yeah, yeah.

Ian Milham: Exactly. We made it more about plot and the kind of person who just wants to have a good time and play it more like a traditional Battlefield game, that’s possible and valid but someone who is more of a single player enthusiast who wants to spend more time playing and find out more about the world, we allow for that too.

Stevivor: There’s more player choice in regards to how violent problems can be solved in the game?

Ian Milham: Well, you’ve got a gun. You can use it. But on top of that there’s a lot more. There’s the possibility of a lot of non-lethal options. You can sneak. You can arrest. The single player robber/cop mode is not about who has the bigger gun. It’s much more about, “Here’s an objective. There’s a room full of guys. I can simply thread the needle and not engage them at all, I can strategically distract and take them down, maybe get one guy in handcuffs and interrogate him so he tells me where the other bad guys are and other things I need to know.” There’s a lot more systems going on.

Stevivor: It’s going to be equally rewarding on both sides of the law?

Ian Milham: Absolutely. There’s no doubt. I think the person who takes their time, who closes cases and does more investigations is going to find more significant rewards in terms of unlocking things and getting money to purchase stuff. But at the same time, as a Battlefield fan, I don’t want to be lectured to about having to do all that so we’ve covered both bases.

Stevivor: Any changes to the online modes at all?

Ian Milham: Yeah, more changes than have ever been made in Battlefield before. We’ve got four that we’ve announced and we’ve got a lot more coming. There’s Heist, Blood Money, Rescue and Hot Wire and we’re also bringing back some classics.

Stevivor: What would you say to someone who has never played a Battlefield game before? Would you say this is a good place to jump in?

Ian Milham: I really think so as we’ve tried as much as possible to bring all the things that make Battlefield so deep. It has so much going for it and here’s an opportunity to take all those features and try them with a new feeling and we’ve definitely tried to make it more approachable.

We have a long console history at Visceral. We’re making it console friendly and ready to go and no matter what sort of multiplayer experience everyone is looking for, we’ve got everything from hardcore or Esports focussed modes to more action packed and more accessible modes and everything in between.

Stevivor: It’s been announced for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Is there going to be much of a difference across console generations?

Ian Milham: Well, clearly we’re still working out everything we have to do there. I think rendering is the most obvious. We’ve set our baselines and we have a history of doing a good job on all the platforms but, you know, PCs keep evolving and keep getting better and better. We just added big time rendering features last week and we’re still going to be adding more right up to release so people will obviously see differences there.

Stevivor: Are you more designing for current generation consoles like Xbox One and PS4 and backscaling or are you building for last gen and upscaling to current?

Ian Milham: We try to do a good job with all of them so it’s a bit of both. We have it running now on all platforms and we’re going to be doing a beta on all platforms.

Stevivor: So, I don’t have a Wii U.

Ian Milham: *laughs* Well, don’t worry. It’s not on the Wii U.

Stevivor: Any thoughts on skipping that console?

Ian Milham: The controller… and the world… we build for the platform that really makes sense and that we can deliver an awesome experience on. I think the Wii U is perfectly capable and has a lot of cool stuff but we don’t want to make just a dodgy port and what that platform is about doesn’t work with what we want to do.

Stevivor: Any plans for Kinect or Playstation Eye?

Ian Milham: We haven’t announced anything yet.

Stevivor: So does that mean there will be something announced? *laughs*

Ian Milham: *laughs* We haven’t announced anything yet.

Stevivor: Thank you so much.

Ian Milham: Thank you.

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Battlefield: Hardline is due for release in early 2015 on Windows PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.