One of developer Visceral Games key pillars of focus for Battlefield Hardline is speed. From the gadgets and gear to the faster cars to the increased player movement, Hardline has been designed to get you into the action more quickly. Sure, it may feel different than past Battlefield experiences, but it's a design decision that Visceral Games arrived at with your help.
"This is one of the fun things about multiplayer game development, it's highly iterative. That means we've built something, we've playtested it, we've changed it based on feedback," explained Battlefield Hardline's lead multiplayer designer Thad Sasser when asked what motivated the developer to create a more fast-paced Battlefield experience.
"I like to use the mantra 'fail fast, follow the fun,'" he continued. "You try a whole bunch of stuff and you follow the things that work. What we found that really worked and helped us create a unique identity that was different than Battlefield 4 was focusing on speed — on the faster cars, on the faster player movement, on the faster engagement and the faster back into the battle."
"All of these things, we're basically addressing some of the complaints we heard in Battlefield 4 — the whole 'I don't like to spawn in, run for ten minutes, and then get shot by a sniper I couldn't see and then repeat the process.' This is kind of reaction to some of the feedback we got early on in the project," he said.
Despite working off player feedback, there's also the worry that a new, faster Hardline might alienate some traditional Battlefield fans. As we wrote yesterday, Sasser isn't concerned with pleasing everybody. As he explained to us during the same round table discussion, Hardline "needs to be its own distinct game from Battlefield 4."
Visceral had to give players a reason to play this game over Battlefield 4; faster gameplay is just one of the steps that Visceral took to help create their own identity. Two other pillars that set Hardline apart from past Battlefield games are "Strategy" and "Story." While we've talked to Visceral in the past regarding strategy, keep it tuned to GameZone to learn more about Story in the coming days.
