Battlefield Hardline’s 1st expansion has Tommy guns, 4 merciless maps, and crazy action (interview)

Above: Gas station explosion in Battlefield Hardline: Criminal Activity.

Image Credit: EA

GamesBeat: What are those guys going to appreciate in some of these other things, like the new weapons or gadgets?

Mumbach: The focus as far as weapons in this pack is the Enforcer. We had a little issue with the shotguns that we fixed. We wanted to give more shotguns, and the battle rifle. The battle rifle is the long-range Enforcer weapon. A lot of these guys are using the battle rifle. The classic Enforcer will run with the shotgun, but you can sort of change the dynamic of the class by using the battle rifle.

GamesBeat: It feels like there’s more of an infantry focus in these maps.

Mumbach: Pretty much, yeah. Backwoods has a lot of vehicles. You’ll see a lot more vehicle maps in future packs. With the turnaround time, it made more sense for us to make more high-quality infantry maps rather than try to rush some big maps for this first pack. While we were working on the first pack, another portion of the team started on the second pack. It’s going to have a way longer burn, so we can afford to make some bigger maps and try some cool experimental stuff.

The M1A1, that was mainly — immediately, when we announced the game, the community was like, “We want a tommy gun. We want a tommy gun.” That’s all we heard. That’s why it’s free. It’s not actually premium. Everybody gets that gun. The day Premium comes out, if you have Hardline you will get that gun in the title update.

GamesBeat: Why is that, do you think? I played with it. It’s a fun gun, bouncing all over the place, but….

Mumbach: It’s not the easiest gun to use. That’s by design. The deal with that gun is you can use it on any class, which is unique for Battlefield. Maybe Battlefield 4 has done that? But we definitely don’t do that anywhere else. A given type of weapon is for a given class. But we’re letting anyone run out there with the tommy gun. Now, because of that, we can’t make it overpowered. Otherwise you’re going to have a game where it’s just 64 tommy guns. It has its strengths, but it’s not an overpowered gun. It’s more about the glory of killing people with the tommy gun. Sorry, the M1A1. I’m not supposed to say tommy gun. Someone owns the phrase “tommy gun,” I guess?

GamesBeat: It looks like a lot of fun. Should keep people busy for a few more months.

Mumbach: Yeah, it should spike up the players again. Every time you drop a pack it’ll bring more interest to the game. For us, regardless of all that, as a development team making our first competitive shooter, having the ability to continue working on it after it’s released is really valuable — not only for this game, but for whatever we end up doing in the future. Whatever we do next, we’ll apply everything we’ve learned from doing this.

Above: The blue disco lights of The Eclipse nightclub in the Code Blue map for Battlefield Hardline: Criminal Activity.

Image Credit: EA