A recent developer diary, which can be viewed below, detailed the importance of the single player experience, in Battlefield Hardline. The Creative Director for the story, Ian Milham, has been talking about the inspirations behind the narrative, which we will be able to experience in a couple of weeks.

There’s an arc in each particular episode, but there is an overall arc. That’s the structure that we followed exactly in this game, as you would on any series or television show.

Ian Milham in an interview on EA’s website , gives some details on the campaign, as he praises the creative team that helped create the tone and purpose of Hardline’s single-player content:

“For big action moments, no one does urban American cool like Michael Mann (Heat, Miami Vice, Collateral), so his style was a definite influence,”

On the story and atmosphere side, we knew from the start we didn’t want a complicated world-takeover plot that needs long cutscenes to tell. Instead we wanted something clever and character focused.

Milham explained

“But for the tone of dialogue and story style, we were trying to capture the same wit and natural tone of Elmore Leonard’s books, as well as the films and shows that have come from them. Shows like Justified and films like Out of Sight.”

The campaign in Battlefield Hardline will feel totally fresh, yet glimpses of the humor that fans love will make a return

Besides a more open playing field with many approaches, a huge difference is that the AI is completely re-done to allow for situations when they don’t know you’re there. This is a game where you might want to sneak by, or arrest and interrogate someone instead of going in guns blazing (although that’s fine, too). These choices offer a lot of tactical depth and variety.

We wanted to ground the world in a believability without being slaves to it. So to get a good foundation, we did some intense research. A few of us did participate in the Urban Shield SWAT competition as enemies and hostages, where we were up all night screaming and yelling with international police forces.

Battlefield Hardline is stated for a March 17th release on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows in North America, then on March 19 in Europe. We will bring you any more information on Battlefield Hardline prior to its release as soon as it becomes available.