At least initially, EA's presentation of Battlefield: Hardline during their press conference was one of the cooler moments of E3. They had an elaborate (albeit scripted) multiplayer battle sequence where coordinated teams of cops and robbers tried to take each other out, and it seemed like it could be a new twist on a shooter that has been stuck in full military mode for a while now.
But after the presentation, EA made the unusual announcement that surprise, Battlefield: Hardline was ready to play already, and players were invited to take part in a beta ahead of the game's fall release.
It's there that the problem with Battlefield: Hardline was revealed, a pervading idea that Hardline feels like what's essentially DLC or a mod for Battlefield 4, yet EA is charging full price for the experience.
Back during the height of the Battlefield 4 meltdown, I speculated that after that, Battlefield 5 would be out of the question any time in the near future, and even if they could release a rushed version, I wasn't sure the series has the identity to survive in the constantly evolving shooter landscape. I posited that the best way forward for Battlefield would be to return to its beloved Bad Company series, releasing a new game in that storyline which would appease longtime fans and give them something they've been craving for years. And that's something EA has seemed open to.
But Hardline is not that, nor is it even pretending to be a leap all the way to a fully-fledged sequel to Battlefield 4. It's reusing many, many elements from Battlefield 4 (and 3), adding in new vehicles and character models to go with the cops and robbers theme. It may be fun as a new slew of modes for the series, but as a full-priced game? It's a hard sell. I've talked to a few folks who genuinely believed that Hardline was simply Battlefield 4 DLC, and were shocked to learn it was meant to be completely new installment in the series.
With DICE hard at work on Star Wars: Battlefront, it's clear they may not have the necessary resources to devote to the Battlefield franchise, which is why things are being turned over to Digital Illusions/Visceral here. It would explain the lack of polish (and the lack of a working game) when Battlefield 4 was released, and says why Hardline appears to be almost no different than either 3 or 4 in meaningful ways other than the general theme, with a few additions like new gadgets and an in-match cash shop.
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Still, I'm not sure the philosophy of "it's better to release something than nothing," is wise for EA here at this point given the series in question. The Battlefield brand was badly damaged by the BF4 fiasco of last year. Releasing a new game in the series that most fans view as overpriced DLC or a mod that they're being charged full price for is not really the proper strategy to win back their trust. And that's just assuming the launch goes smoothly, and rushed production this time doesn't result in any more catastrophic issues as with BF4.
Battlefield has fallen into the trap of thinking it needs to be a yearly release like Call of Duty, no matter what that means. While Activision now has three developers pumping out new COD games every three years, EA just can't match that, and it shows. While something like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare does look like a fairly substantial step forward for the series, BF4 and now BF: Hardline aren't really fooling anyone. This is not meant to spark some "COD is better than BF" fanboy war. Battlefield is a great series and does many things better than Call of Duty. But comparing the yearly releases of each series, Battlefield is now the one that increasingly feels like a rushed, tweaked clone of the last version while COD is making a bit more of an effort to branch out.
I really do think the best thing for Battlefield is for them to take a full year or two off, and come back with either a very revamped BF5, or a new Bad Company game. Hardline comes off like a very obvious stopgap, and I don't think it's going to be what fans want to see after the issues with Battlefield 4. We'll have to see come fall.
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