Dollar Bills and Explosions - Battlefield Hardline Beta - C4 Edition

Its not the start of a blog and beta run if I don't have some form of caffeine, normally a black coffee to get the brain firing on all cylinders.

'BETA'LLEFIELD.

Sitting in a dark room like a vampire, trying to remember the last time I opened my curtains, I'd say mid October.

So greetings people, this is my first sit down with the Battlefield Hardline Beta, I'm quickly reminded of the theme of this game as a quick edit and flash montage is burnt into the back of my mind with dollars, watches, c4 explosions and fire all flashing before me in a quick 20 second burst of 'look at me'

This subsequently turns into a good cop or a bad robber? who knows?! I can see cops in his glasses so I'm going to say bad robber.

The first thing I notice is that they've put a LINE through HARDLINE, clever Visceral games, but that doesn't blow my socks off like the Facebook integration, no Battlefield you can't black mail me into advertising your game to my friend in return for an In game battle-pack, not yet anyway.

First things first and most importantly I need a Badman patch to show I'm representing the U.K, I soon start laughing at a patch of 3 legs running in a circle. This amuses me and enlightens me that this is in fact the flag for the Isle of man, nothing manlier than 3 armour clad legs rolling along.

Its a real flag, Honest.

I look to customise my load-out, looks like I need 2 years wages to buy an AKS-74U, no wonder their robbing banks.

In total there are 3 match types.

Firstly we have Heist, the aim here is to rob a vault, escaping via helicopter get away, unless your lucky enough to be a respawning police officer, then your job is to prevent the escape.

Secondly we have Hotwire, this one sounds fun! Find and capture vehicles stashed around the level, drive the vehicles at high speed to deplete the enemies tickets.

Last but not least we have the classic Conquest mode, a staple part of the Battlefield franchise this high intensity game of 'control the points of interest' is my personal favourite.

I want to be a robber with a shotgun, If payroll permits it that is.

It kicks me straight into a match, it explains how to select a class and what roles it offers to the player.

100K back pack.

OPERATOR: Assault Rifle, First Aid Kit.
MECHANIC: SMG, Grenade Launcher.
ENFORCER: Shotgun, Ammo Crate.
PROFESSIONAL: Sniper Rifle, Tripmine.

First match and I choose the operator, gotta love me them heal points.

Turns out my wish doesn't come true and I'm a copper

The first thing I notice about Hardline is the serious change of pace this game offers compared to other games in the franchise, on a more positive note I stop the bag carrier dead with a head shot only to get blown away by a shotgun blast to the face seconds later.

There still seems to be the same problem most FPS suffers from and thats spawn camping scumbags with shotguns.

The first match I play is Heist, the lay out of this map can quickly change your style of gameplay, be it the tight claustrophobic corridors of the vault chamber, stalked by teams of shotgun toting maniacs or the open streets, sprawled with roof top snipers and full frontal assaults this mode offers multiple play styles to be quickly adopted on the fly upon death.

Do it now!

Every soldier has seen Predator as their screaming 'Get to the choppa'.

I adopt my new play style as the match is taking into the open streets, I swap to a ENFORCER class dropping ammo down for the long defence of the loot, this slows down gameplay a lot as swarms of robbers assault trying to re capture the duffle bag full of money.

This takes us to an easy win, dropping the bag in a large open area can bring the end of a match round very fast if defended well, chewing through tickets as they throw lives away for the greater good.

Hotwire on the other hand is completely different, that much so it doesn't even fell like the same game and more like a first person game of Burnout Paradise as I tear it round the streets at high speed in my sedan.

It sounded amazing when I read it but I spend 15 minutes driving around a map mowing people down till I finally die, my thought of high speed car chases being pursued by a car full of pressing cops trying to blow out my tires, money spilling out of open windows as my clan of robbers fire back never comes to fruition.

Hotwire mode? I think not.

Instead I drive around in slow circles performing three point turns where I can, the only excitement coming from an oncoming gas tanker firing past me, but instead of exploding and my car flipping down the streets I'm left driving down the street, slightly of track I might say.

The match ends quickly as the opposing team never manages to capture a checkpoint.

I tire of this game type rather fast, one benefit is the easy 2000 points my sedan gain's from a lovely Sunday drive around a sandy park.

That sniper.

I tackle the Large Conquest mode head on and call in the help of brother dearest, we join a party, fire up a squad and launch straight into a match no problem.

This is your standard defend and assault mode but its mostly just a snipe fest, certain weapons seem slightly overpowered compared to others.

when I'm out gunned by AK74U from a distance I call bullshit.

Some cool additions are added rewarding players spawning on there squad with extra cash, this being your main currency for buying upgrades and new weapons, Also the game starts to flex it's technical muscle by throwing in a very 'American Sniper' sand storm into the mix only this looks more realistic and fun than that of Bradley Coppers outing.

We bro it out for 3 match's and three wins.

Manic Army!

Caleb

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