Battlefield: Hardline Has a Very Steep Mountain to Climb

“I’m done with Battlefield.”

That’s a quote from a good friend of mine, who had finally grown tired of the myriad of problems facing Battlefield 4 after launch. We’re talking about a gung-ho fan of the franchise, someone who invariably chose EA’s franchise over Activision’s Call of Duty.

As such, he tried to be patient. He waited weeks. He waited months. The online BF4 experience got better, but it was too little too late in his eyes. For the record, while I enjoy the Battlefield franchise, I wouldn’t call myself a fan. I’m simply reporting as an outsider and from what I can tell, my friend isn’t the only one to have uttered those words.

That’s why this year, EA has a little something to prove.

Gamers can be fickle, but many of the hardcore crowd have GREAT memories

I’ll be the first to say that gamers are awfully fickle. Not long after lambasting a certain game, developer, publisher, or source, they’ll have forgotten about the entire ordeal. Some fiascos do linger but for the most part, gamers – and consumers in general – are incredibly fickle. That being said, when we’re talking about avid followers of a particular genre – and a particular IP – these people are not fickle. In fact, they’re just the opposite.

If you read some of the forums that exploded during the BF4 ordeal, you’d know that, despite EA saying the issues “didn’t damage the franchise,” they did do damage. These people are pissed. They’re not getting over it any time soon, either. The frustration levels spiked simply because EA couldn’t find a way to stabilize the BF4 multiplayer experience, and many of the IP’s most dedicated fans flat-out quit.

That’s not good, no matter how you look at it.

Not sure if Visceral is the team to do it, but you never know

The Dead Space games were great, even though I thought the third entry fell short of expectations. It felt more like a third-person shooter than a survival/horror game, which is a big reason why most critics scored it significantly lower than the previous two iterations. However, maybe that’s a positive thing: I mean, Battlefield: Hardline will be a shooter, right? And if Visceral was already heading in that direction, anyway…

They’re a quality team and I’m sure they’ll get all sorts of internal assistance from EA. I’m also guessing that this new police-oriented structure could infuse new life into the franchise. Even so, Visceral needs to understand that they absolutely cannot make the same mistakes DICE has made in the past. They also can’t go into this thinking that everything is just hunky-dory among the Battlefield faithful. It really isn’t.

Don’t forget, you have to do battle with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Here’s the other part of the problem: You’re going toe-to-toe with another CoD, and this one has a ton of hype behind it already. Many are saying Advanced Warfare could be to this generation what Modern Warfare was to the previous generation. If that turns out to be even remotely accurate, Visceral and EA are going to have to step up in a big way.

EA has been saying for years that they just wanted to chip away at CoD’s lead. They wanted to snag more of the FPS market with every passing year, and they have done just that. They did it last year with BF4 but you know, it may not happen again because a lot of fans are awfully leery. The worst part is that it really doesn’t matter how good Hardline looks in previews; the problem involved servers and other technical elements, and there’s no guarantee how any of that will work later this year.

And with Advanced Warfare ready to roll…well, good luck, EA.