Battlefield Hardline

Visceral Games and EA have now taken the franchise on a risky car ride among crime ridden streets with sirens wailing and of course bullets flying. Battlefield Hardline strides away from full metal jacket warfare and goes urban, cops and robbers style whilst maintaining that Battlefield aesthetic and that award winning multiplayer gameplay. Think back to the release of Battlefield 4. It was one of the most notorious releases in recent times. It was broken, laden with server issues, gameplay glitches and random crashes, EA got some major bad rep. In Hardline though all is forgiven.

The story is an episodic ride as Nick Mendoza as you bring down crime bosses and uncover a twisted plot surrounding a drug bust gone wrong. Its not the greatest. The acting is great but the story is like watching a low budget TV series. It failed to keep my interest between the action packed set pieces. Like when your partner Khai Minh Dao played by Kelly Hu, gets shot and as you rush to help, you have to press on the wound to keep her alive as you fend off a squad of goons.....then it nose dives to a halt. Most of the story is stealth based which works well and a successful stalk can open up opportunities to arrest suspects. Its an interesting and daring direction for Visceral to take the Battlefield franchise but it works, extremely well. I can dare to say its one of the best Battlefield games in the series. Tanks and APC’s are replaced by Police cars and civilian vehicles like cars and trucks, its more than just a palette swap, it changes the whole feel of the game.

Battlefield isnt known for its story, the well known large scale multiplayer warfare is where the meat and potatoes really are and its just as exciting as ever. New game modes such as Hotwire when you need to keep control of designated vehicles and keep them high speed to maintain control and Heist which sees your team trying to rob a bank whilst the enemy team try to stop you. Blood Money, Crosshair and Rescue are also new additions but i had my favorites. The multiplayer gameplay is as tight as ever before. All glitches and crashes have been ironed out and the load out system has been overhauled. The four styles of play can only be customised so much this times around and powerful weapons such as rocket launchers and HMG’s can only be found within the game. Im hooked. Being part of a squad feels like being in a tightly knit So Solid Crew which earns you extra experience points if you help out your fellow members.

A notable new addition to your arsenal is the Sabotage kit. This thing is awesome to use. Stick it on a door or a vehicle and wait for an unsuspecting enemy to try to use it and BOOM! Satisfaction guaranteed. Yet another reason Battlefield Hardline is one of the best multiplayer games available.

Pros

Story has some exciting set pieces.

Arresting people is fun.

Multiplayer is still fantastic with all BF4 issues gone!

New MP game modes feel fresh.

Cops and robbers premise actually works!

Cons

Story is boring.

Lack of variety in weaponry in MP.

Summary

Hardline is by far one of the best multiplayer games available. Its large scale warfare which Battlefield is known for feels just as great as ever with all of Battlefield 4’s sins cleansed. Its single player story is short and uninteresting but it has a reasonable amount of parts in there to keep you playing. Visceral’s cops and robbers direction works, who’d have thought?!