Yesterday, Dead Space developer Visceral Games announced that they will be working with DICE on the next Battlefield game, subtitled Hardline. Unlike previous games in the series, which always took place in the context of conventional warfare, this new Battlefield title is changing up the formula dramatically by featuring the war between the police and criminals. Not long after that announcement, a video detailing Hardline‘s gameplay was leaked online.
The video, which has the watermarked message reading “Confidential property of Electronic Arts Inc. Do not distribute,” appears to have been intended for internal briefings or investors, and not the gaming public. The game is constantly referred to by its codename, Omaha, rather than the official title.
At seven minutes in length, the video goes into detail on the game’s various multiplayer modes, which DICE is working on:
Multiplayer modes in Omaha are built with tactical coordination in mind. Whether you’re organizing a hostage rescue as SWAT, or staging an elaborate bank heist, [unintelligible] team backup, and criminals need a crew. There has never been a greater need for the teamwork that tactical gameplay that Battlefield fans expect.
The game modes featured include:
Heist, in which the criminal team has to break into a vault and secure the loot while players on the police team have to stop them.
Rescue, in which players on the SWAT team have to rescue hostages.
Hotwire, in which the cops chase criminals across large, open landscapes while trading bullets and high explosives.
Blood Money, in which both teams have to compete to secure a pile of money and safely return it to their base. Sounds a lot like Capture the Flag.
Meanwhile, the single player mode will be developed by Visceral, whose track record with the Dead Space series makes them well-suited. Hardline will feature a carefully woven narrative revolving around the player character, a Miami detective named Nick Mendoza, who is on a quest to serve justice to several corrupt cops who stole drug money.
A star studded cast from TV shows like Justified, House of Cards and The Americans will be voicing the characters.
The single player campaign will also have more open level design compared to previous Battlefield games, which were very linear. Players will be presented with multiple ways to accomplish the task at hand, allowing for multiple playthroughs to try out different tactics and approaches. The player will also be equipped with a high-tech police scanner that can uncover clues about the environment and information about potential suspects.
Despite being set in a cops versus robbers setting, Hardline promises to have all the hallmarks of previous games of the series, such as sophisticated environment destruction, vehicles armed to the teeth, and loads of mayhem, all taking place in more familiar environments such as Los Angeles.
More information about the game will be revealed at E3 on June 9, but the game is expected to be released later this year.