Well, I am going out on a limb here and I am saying that what was once Police Warfare is now the just announced Battlefield Hardline. But what is Police Warfare you might ask?
Police Warfare is a multiplayer first-person shooter made by developers who used to work on the likes of Assassin's Creed 2, Killzone 2 and Grand Theft Auto 4. Elastic likens Police Warfare to Battlefield 1943, "in that it's a small but extremely high quality shooter built for digital download".
But as any indie developer out there who likes to think big, funding a game of this proportions is a massive undertaking. That's why they started a Kickstarter campaign. After raising just $25,025 of its $325,000 goal, Elastic Games cancelled funding with a short note: "Thank you so much for the incredible response to the game. We're shutting down the Kickstarter account but this is by no means the end of Police Warfare. News will be coming."
Some time ago Eurogamer interviewed lead designer James Wearing, and asked him how confident he was of eventually reaching the Kickstarter target.
"From the fan feedback it's clear that people want the game," he responded. "I think right now it's about proving to people that we have the capabilities to do it. Conceptually people really like the idea so right now we're just plugging away and trying to do everything we can do to let people know that we're a legit group of people with good credits. We really just want to make a great game for people."
He added that should the Kickstarter drive fail (which has now happened) it's not necessarily game over for the project. "We do have additional financing besides the Kickstarter so everything isn't riding on it.
"We'll see how it goes and re-evaluate if necessary but our plan is to keep plugging forward. We've got a good group of people and have done a lot of work so it wouldn't make sense to throw everything away at this point."
A blog post by Visceral Games’ Steve Papoutsis confirms an autumn release and the cops vs. robbers theme. ‘It’s a brand new series in the Battlefield franchise, set against the backdrop of a genre we all love – the war on crime and the battle between cops and criminals’, said he.
‘We’ve been reading all of your comments and we’re excited to be going into more detail soon on the ways we’re adding new twists and turns to the foundation of Battlefield multiplayer and more about how we’re bringing our strengths at Visceral to single player’, he added.
No real details then, but overnight a few more snippets have been discovered by fans sniffing around EA’s website, with images of in-game equipment that includes blowtorches, grappling hooks, gas grenades, and gas masks.
Helicopters, police cruisers, sports cars, vans, and motorcycles are also in the game. We’d assume Battlefield’s normal tanks and jet fighters aren’t, although we’re sure there’ll be a police APC or two.
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That's why we at Duuro think that maybe, just maybe, Battlefield Hardline is in fact Police Warfare. There are too many similarities between the two games. The setting, the premise, what is clearly visible on the concept arts from both games, the look of the weapons and the reload animations which are incredibly similar to those of Battlefield games. Also the way this Kickstarter projected just ended, inexplicably just out of the blue points toward EA buying the studio or hiring the guys behind it. Check the pitch video for Police Warfare then read the information that EA released and check the leaked assets from Battleblog, Battlefield Hardline is definitely Police Warfare. Let us know what you think!
Update:
The trailer for Battlefield Hardline just leaked and you can see it down here. Excited? Well, you should be!
