Battlefield singleplayer campaigns tend to revolve around fighting through a linear path set in wide open spaces. Often, you can arrive at the destination through different means but the overall design remains linear. Visceral Games spoke to Rock, Paper, Shotgun and explained that they are trying to make their upcoming game, Battlefield Hardline, a less linear experience.
There’s absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with linear gameplay, though it is often stigmatized. However, developers like to mix up their gameplay design to keep things fresh. Linear gameplay is a staple of most FPS and action games, with games like Crysis and Far Cry providing a more open world approach. Creative director Ian Milham had this to say during E3:
“When we were thinking about how to do this game, I think anybody who knows us at Visceral knows that singleplayer is near and dear to our heart. We’ve done a pretty OK job of it before, and we have some pretty cool ideas for this one.
“On the singleplayer side the stuff that’s important to us is maybe not do as much of a single-path linear rollercoaster that’s been done before. We want more tactical choice, more player choice. Things to do besides just shoot everybody. That’s not really a cop thing as much.”
Visceral Games is well known for singleplayer campaigns, since they are responsible for the Dead Space series. Battlefield Hardline’s leaked trailer revealed that the story would focus on a cop named Nick Mendoza and will take you through many of his jobs. The game will promote multiple play styles, so you can go through the same level in various different ways. This way, Visceral Games can create a very unique Battlefield experience separate to that of Battlefield 3 and 4. Battlefield Hardline currently has a beta on PC and PS4, with the official game launching on October 24th for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
