Battlefield Hardline Reviews
Battlefield: Hardline can be ridiculous, with stealth and arrest mechanics that stretch the very limits of credulity. All the same, the single-player campaign works brilliantly as the video game version of a big, dumb action thriller. Cracking set-piece firefights are mixed with stealth, escape and exploration, and there's scope to play some sequences your way, not just follow the objective marker. Multiplayer, meanwhile, is fiercely enjoyable, and in Hotwired boasts one of Battlefield's finest hours. Look past Hardline's minor faults, and you'll find the best all-round Battlefield since the great Bad Company 2.
I think, oddly enough, that Battlefield: Hardline appeals to you the most if you aren't a traditional Battlefield fan. To be honest, I have long been over Battlefield's traditional military shooter roots, and since Hardline breaks from that formula, I enjoyed it far more than I have any other Battlefield title yet. If you are looking for something different and experimental, and you enjoy single-player more than multiplayer, then Battlefield: Hardline is a pretty good recommendation for you.
While Hardline isn't the Battlefield you may be used to it offers a unique approach that will surely please fans of the genre. The campaign is a big step up from previous entries and while the multiplayer anarchy has been trimmed down, the gameplay in its place is more tactical and intimate.
I'd love to see Rescue and Heist establish a community of players, because they're great modes done well.
if you go into this wanting a Battlefield game? I guarantee you're probably going to come away disappointed. A shooter, this is not, and if you try to play it as a shooter you're going to find a pretty short, boring campaign.
[T]here's a lot to like about Battlefield Hardline, while there's stuff there that won't thrill you. It feels like Visceral really discovered the game they wanted to make during development, so you see some brilliant ideas that make for great gameplay, but while also being stuck with what is expected of the Battlefield franchise
Battlefield Hardline transcends its mod-ish origins to offer a compelling spin on a venerable franchise.
In the end, Battlefield: Hardline is its own worst enemy. There are some great ideas here, but they aren't fully realized, and the game suffers for it. It's not a bad game, but it's also not an exceptional game. Battlefield: Hardline does an excellent job of being downright average. You probably don't want to pay full price for it, but it's one to keep on your radar when a good sale pops up.
At the very least, it's "more Battlefield", which is by no means a bad thing – yet – and at its highest points, it's a bit of silly, Vice-inspired fun. I do not think the world will care to remember Hardline very much in future, but for what it is, it's a good effort to be more than another disposable shooter, even if that's all it really is at its core.
Battlefield Hardline is a fresh experience in the series that manages to pull off its novel concept of cops vs. criminals. It still has technical issues and the story may not be for everyone, but its multiplayer mode is a blast and, so far, isn't suffering from the many technical problems that affected past titles.
Battlefield Hardline is a two-pronged success, with a killer cops-and-robbers story backed by a speedy take on competitive play.
Battlefield: Hardline tries very hard to be something fresh in a world of familiarity. It just doesn't quite have the chops to pull it off, at least from a campaign perspective. It's cool to have enemies with cones of vision, the option to arrest without killing everyone in sight, and to encourage a more methodical, tactful approach.
Multiplayer is, of course, the main reason that you buy into a Battlefield game, and it's generally enjoyable, even if it doesn't do anything to revolutionise the genre. However, both Activision and EA, and every other FPS developer that aspires to become the top dog franchise, needs to learn that if they are going to persist in putting single player narratives into their games, then they need to do a far better job. Telling a good story is not about throwing in more explosions. It's about understanding the context that the story is being created within, and then doing something with that context. That's art. That's what separates Battlefield: Hardline from a genuinely intelligent game like Spec Ops: The Line.
Battlefield Hardline has a decent campaign and great multiplayer action, but a lack of personality means it feels more like an expansion than full sequel.
Battlefield: Hardline may seem like simply an expansion to the fourth entry in the game, but after diving in I enjoy it a lot more than the previous effort. The campaign is a breath of fresh air, and the multiplayer adds enough to make it stand out.
It wouldn't be a Battlefield game without a host of multiplayer scenarios, and Hardline is definitely no slouch in that department.
Minor gripes like the netcode and kill trades aside, the game delivers an online experience that can be cathartic, tense, and ultimately an adrenaline rush – something that echoes the core tenets of a "Battlefield" game.
Visceral have create a perfectly good functioning Battlefield game in Hardline. It shoots as good as the best of them, the car-chases are fun, and the small tweaks made to the core formula are very welcome. But a little refinement does not mask that this is a very similar game to what we bought in 2013; despite the strong efforts to make a variety of new game modes, you can't shake the feeling of playing classic Battlefield. And quite honestly, Battlefield without tanks and jets is only half as fun. Curiously the single player campaign is the most interesting element, which is surely due to the studio's strength in solo-play design from their days on Dead Space. That's not enough to make it an essential purchase, though. Players new to the series may find the urban setting interesting and will certainly benefit from the refined mechanics. Series veterans, however, are best sticking to what they already have.
A hard campaign (if you play on the hardest mode) and breakneck multiplayer are a good time, if often infuriating.