14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield Hardline was revealed to the world in summer of last year, and right after the announcement, developer Visceral and publisher EA kicked off a beta stage for the new first-person shooter. After gathering all the feedback from fans, the two companies decided to push back its release and ensure that it could polish the experience.
Now, ahead of the shooter's new estimated debut date in March, a second beta stage is taking place across the PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms all around the world.
Chock-full of modes, weapons, mechanics, and maps, the test stage serves as a free trial for those who are on the fence about buying Hardline.
Does it manage to deliver a great impression or should the cops vs. robbers shooter take more time to improve itself? Let's have a quick look on PC.
The game is much more polished
Battlefield Hardline certainly takes a lot of liberties when it comes to the core Battlefield recipe, shifting the focus on the conflict between cops and criminals, instead of warring armies, while focusing more on urban warfare.
While the initial beta was certainly decent, the new one definitely surpasses it in terms of the flow of gameplay as well as the map design.
There are currently three modes available, in the form of the classic Conquest, but also the all-new Heist and Hotwire ones. Heist tasks criminals with robbing a bank while cops have to defend it or stop the thieves from getting away. Meanwhile, Hotwire is even more outlandish, acting as a sort of Conquest but with cars instead of domination points.
While Conquest, of course, feels great on the Dust Bowl map on which it's available, Hotwire certainly has its merits as you need to steal cars and drive them around the Dust Bowl or Downtown maps at high speed to ensure that you're dwindling the enemy team's supply of tickets.
Heist is also interesting but it takes some time to coordinate with others and to decipher the Downtown map, on which it's available.
The weapons feel better than in the original beta while the vehicles handle even better. The bikes, however, seem a bit "floaty," so your mileage may vary when it comes to employing them to get around the map.
Overall, Battlefield Hardline is looking quite good, judging from the new beta, but don't forget that you can also try it out for free this week across all platforms. You can also enjoy a gameplay video showing Hotwire and Heist matches below.
