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Over the past week, gamers have been hearing a lot about Battlefield Hardline - from the game's storytelling approach to its development history, but we've yet to see anything substantial and official from the forthcoming title. Rather, most of our glimpses of Hardline in action have come from a 6-month-old preview video that, while heavy on content, is hard to judge as anything more but a tease.

While that continues to be true, a new piece of footage has surfaced that might provide our closest look at Battlefield Hardline in a near-complete state. The footage in question comes from a beta participant who, while obviously breaking their non-disclosure agreement, has delivered a 10-minute video focused solely on the Battlefield Hardline experience.

Of course, there a few caveats to the footage; principally, that the first 4 minutes or so of the video is nothing more than loading screens. Secondly, the footage only features a single player running around in a completely empty multiplayer map (called High Tension) without so much as an opponent to be found.

With that out of the way, though, we can evaluate the Battlefield Hardline footage for what it is: a Battlefield spin-off set in an urban area. From the visual style to the vehicle variety, everything about Hardline screams Battlefield, almost as if this is a re-skin or mod for Battlefield 4. The Frostbite 3 engine still looks as gorgeous as it ever did, with plenty of destructible environments and lots of important detail, but again, this footage isn't going to blow gamers away like some might have initially hoped. In fact, it might leave some underwhelmed by the prospect of another "same-y" Battlefield experience, even if the dense urban environment affords new gameplay opportunities.

At the same time, Battlefield fans who might have been worried about Visceral Games taking over for DICE can rest easy knowing this should be a familiar end-product. Sure, there will be new multiplayer modes, like the capture and hold mode on display called Blood Money, but Visceral hasn't reinvented the wheel either.

We, of course, will reserve passing full judgment on Battlefield Hardline until, at the very least, E3 2014, where Electronic Arts is expected to officially reveal the game. But, for now, the questions surrounding Battlefield Hardline and whether it can win back some of the fans who were put off by Battlefield 4's faults are still very much in play.

[UPDATE: The footage was taken down, but here's a quick rundown of the video. The player spent considerable time trying out several of the game's new vehicles including a police helicopter, motorcycle, and cruiser. They also ran around the High Tension map, which resembles a downtown Los Angeles type environment complete with large skyscrapers. Some of the engine's destructible environments (vehicles, walls, cover, etc.) were on display, but nothing on the scale of a giant building collapsing.]

What do you think of this Battlefield Hardline beta footage? What do you like? What don't you like?

Battlefield Hardline will be out later this year for current and last-gen platforms.

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Source: All Games Beta

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