Home Gaming Battlefield Hardline’s bad guys were almost too likeable

Battlefield Hardline’s bad guys were almost too likeable

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There can be no job in this world worse than “video game henchman”. Except maybe quality assurance testing on mobile games, but that’s a story for another day. Think about it. Your life is predetermined, your dialogue choices are minimal and you have the bullet resistance of wet tissue paper. And unlike that bastard who just shot you, the red goop all over your field of vision isn’t going to magically vanish. Battlefield: Hardline will have plenty of henchmen to mow through. But Visceral almost made some villains that you’ve have felt bad for mowing through.

“I wrote one about this guy getting back together with his ex-girlfriend,” writer Rob Auten explained to Polygon, detailing how bad guys would chatter about gameplay clues and their own personal lives in BF: Hardline.

Someone on the team pointed out that ‘hey idiot, this is someone you are about to shoot in the head, not deliver flowers to,’ so we decided, let’s not go down that route. We had to cut out the dialog and make it more informative. We had to make sure the bad guys felt like bad guys so the player isn’t as emotionally conflicted about the gameplay.

Which kind of ties into the cops and robbers gameplay of Hardline. You are after all, a cop. Excessive force should be a last resort, unless the suspect is African-American and not posing any danger whatsoever and just happens to have accidentally fallen into a lethal neck-restraint technique/hail of bullets. That does of course, make for a boring (Or horrifyingly accurate) game, as reading Miranda rights to suspects will get real real fast. “Part of the cops and robbers fantasy is moving among the bad guys and being in the same room,” said Auten.

So you have an opportunity to hear more from them. In some cases we made them too charming and people felt bad about shooting them or wanted to hang out with them instead of fighting them and that is no good. You don’t want anyone cooler than the player showing up. Players don’t want to feel like they are on the side of the squares, interrupting this cool party of fun guys.

Makes sense. The last thing you want to do is feel bad for these guys that you’re mowing down like they were sub-human obstacles/real estate agents.

Last Updated: March 12, 2015

20 Comments

  1. But. What about realism in games? If they added that, they could then train actual cops to feel something for their victi… I mean perps.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 12, 2015 at 12:12

      And the cops would only shoot people wearing hoodies

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    March 12, 2015 at 12:12

  3. Hammersteyn

    March 12, 2015 at 12:12

    Best. Movie. Ever!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      March 12, 2015 at 12:14

      I like the one more where they watch this movie in

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        March 12, 2015 at 12:15

        Also an excellent movie

        Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    March 12, 2015 at 12:14

    I dunno if it’s a bad thing if the bad guys are likeable. In Heat I was torn between rooting for Pacino or De Niro

    Reply

    • Sageville

      March 12, 2015 at 14:01

      Heat was awesome.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        March 12, 2015 at 14:05

        On my top ten list

        Reply

  5. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 12, 2015 at 12:28

    “I wrote one about this guy getting back together with his ex-girlfriend,” writer Rob Auten… “so I changed it to a feel-good killing about this guy trying to put his ex-girlfriend back together after using a chainsaw so players wouldn’t be bother by any kind of icky moral or emotional stuff.”

    Reply

  6. Kensei Seraph

    March 12, 2015 at 12:28

    While it would have been an interesting concept to make the bad guys highly likeable in order to generate a complex emotional reaction it is certainly not a good idea to do this in a game that has the player-base of Battlefield or COD.
    “Think of all the traumatised children.”

    Reply

  7. Kensei Seraph

    March 12, 2015 at 12:31

    “Players don’t want to feel like they are on the side of the squares, interrupting this cool party of fun guys.”
    Well at least they realise their target market is mostly kids.

    Reply

  8. HvR

    March 12, 2015 at 12:31

    Police Quest was probably most accurate police sim, get lost takes 2 hours to get to the scene of the crime, read naked drunk person his rights.

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      March 12, 2015 at 12:33

      You didn’t sodomise him with a night stick or just kill him? YOU’RE A DISGRACE TO THE FORCE, TURN IN YOUR GAME POLICE BADGE AND GUN!

      Reply

  9. Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

    March 12, 2015 at 12:46

    I have not met a game character that has not effortlessly been cooler than all the BF (and CoD) characters combined. Hell even Luigi is cooler and he is Mario’s retarded brother.

    Reply

  10. konfab

    March 12, 2015 at 13:56

    I disagree, having clear cut bad guys is a bit boring. Things are always more interesting when your baddies are not as bad as you think.

    A Song of Ice and Fire is the case in point.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      March 13, 2015 at 09:29

      sorta along the same lines, i like it when you dont really know who the baddie is, because the difference between good and bad is perspective and whatever.

      Reply

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