Battlefield Hardline Reviews
If you prefer the sort of fast-paced gameplay that Visceral seems to be going for, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare did a much better job of delivering on that vision.
Battlefield takes on the police state scenario embedded into modern politics and does nothing with it short of making itself appear restless.
As far as Battlefield Hardline is concerned, the 1980s may as well have never ended.
While not as bad as many had feared it would be, Battlefield Hardline simply feels unnecessary and unless you'r a diehard fan of the series, there's not much reason to pick it up.
I have no doubt Hardline represents the best efforts of two talented studios, Visceral and DICE, to cough up a satisfying cops-and-robbers Battlefield. Despite best efforts, the pairing doesn't work.
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.
There isn't anything particularly bad about Battlefield Hardline, it's solid enough, but one cannot help but lean towards those initial detractors who were very vocal in the run up to launch. Despite a clearly big effort and no doubt a ton of money, we are still without a decent Battlefield campaign and what we are left with is a Battlefield off shoot with no long term life in it.So there we have it, a Battlefield game with weak single player and solid if underwhelming multiplayer - absolutely no one saw this coming.
And Hardline could be better. There are shades of it here, now and then. Games in general can be better. But they never will be until we raise our expectations. When even the best of us feels limited to writing "narrative rosaries strung with beads of pure chaos," how do the least of us stand a chance?
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.
Hardline doesn't sufficiently evolve interesting mechanics in the terrible single-player and is only saved by an at times enjoyable multiplayer component.
Hardline does show occasional flashes of brilliance, though, so there's definitely something worth pursuing here. With a stronger emphasis on open area stages and multiplayer modes that utilize the police arsenal, Visceral could craft something much stronger in the future. Further investigation is required.
While Hardline is tone deaf at times, mostly it is just deafening. Explosions and bombast are used not to distract from a troubling narrative as much as a stale one perfunctorily paced and reminiscent of network television emptiness.
Battlefield Hardline did not crash during our tests and appears to function precisely as expected at this time.
Devoid of any real personality, Battlefield: Hardline's single-player campaign is cheesier than an 80's pick-up line. It is however saved by a superb multiplayer that is both solid and entertaining.
In a genre that has become saturated with Call of Duty-knockoffs, putting players on to the thin blue line is an excellent change. Battlefield: Hardline shift from the war zones to the streets helps bring a sense of originality to the series.
As a whole, 'Battlefield Hardline' manages to reinvent 'Battlefield' as a goofy cop drama, and as a successful one, though its ambitions and advancements are few. It does, however, succeed in freshness, a much-needed course correct away from its grim wartime roots into something far more likely to warrant repeat binge viewing ahead of the next season--er, game, even beyond its ever-lively multiplayer.
Against all the odds, it's the single player campaign that's proved to be Battlefield: Hardline's biggest selling point. Trying to play through as a 'good cop' by arresting baddies instead of filling them with lead is very rewarding. But the gunplay is as fun as ever if you want to play that way too. The multiplayer feels scaled down due to the smaller maps and the heist and assassination missions generally favour the defenders too much. Hotwire's car chases are essential though and will hopefully become a series regular.
While we weren't particularly impressed with Battlefield Hardline's multiplayer offering, we did like the intense ride that the campaign took us on. The story might be fairly throwaway, but the environments, set pieces, and the gameplay scenarios you'll often find yourself in are memorable and make up for the clichés and nonsensical plot details.
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.