Battlefield Hardline designer wishes gamers played its DLC as Visceral “mastered the craft” of making maps

Released in 2015, Battlefield Hardline was a bold new take on DICE’s multiplayer series, adapting the modern military shooter to a cops and robbers theme. While Battlefield Hardline 2 will never happen, multiplayer design lead Thaddeus Sasser wishes gamers gave the game’s DLC maps a chance.

Speaking on a recent episode of the VideoGamer Podcast, Sasser explained that many gamers had already left Hardline behind by the time its DLC released. However, the developer believes the game’s DLC truly showcased the peak of the game’s design.

Battlefield Hardline DLC was fantastic

In a recent interview, Sasser explains that the DLC was largely unplayed due to low-player counts and map packs splitting the player base. However, after months of continuing work on Hardline, now-defunct developer Visceral Games had learned to make some truly fantastic content.

“I think what we did at that time for that game was pretty, excuse my French, freaking amazing,” Sasser said. “I think that, if you ever got a chance to play any of the DLCs, which almost nobody did because the game population didn’t support most of the DLC, as usual. But, I think, if you ever got a chance to play any of the DLCs, especially the later ones, you’d be like: ‘Holy cow, these guys have mastered the craft of making levels for this game’.”

“I’d like to take that team that worked on something like that and go make the sequel”

BATTLEFIELD HARDLINE MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER THADDEUS SASSER

Sasser explained that, by the end, Visceral Games had fully clicked with the game concept of Battlefield Hardline, but many players never got to experience that. Even today, with servers still running, most Hardline players are still scrapping on launch day maps, and there’s not that many players left.

“They understood the game concept, they understood the vision, they understood the gameplay perfectly,” Sasser said. “And when they built their new maps, their new maps were absolutely phenomenal. It’s so nice to be able to see that level of professionalism, that polish, to be able to show off that expertise once they’ve mastered something.”

Space to grow

While a sequel for Hardline will likely never exist, Sasser explained that he would’ve loved to see what the exact same team could do if they were given the chance. Unfortunately, EA put the nail in Visceral’s coffin, and Hardline has been maligned by the publisher since it failed to hit sales expectations.

“I think, one of my dreams as a game director is, I’d like to take that team that worked on something like that and go make the sequel,” Sasser said. “Take all that knowledge, which normally you’d lose because everyone has scattered to the wind, take all that knowledge and go make the same thing but make it ten times as good. And that’s really hard because sometimes designers go: ‘Hey, I just made the thing, I wanna do something completely different.’”

While Sasser no longer works on the Battlefield series, the veteran game designer is now working on NetEase’s upcoming free-to-play shooter. For more tidbits from our interview with the game developer, read his thoughts on how datamined leaks are only ever bad for players.