Battlefield Hardline

In an interesting twist for the series, Battlefield Hardline does away with the focus on traditional military action and instead casts its sights on policing and law enforcement. Instead of gunning down enemy targets during international conflicts, you assume the role of a police detective in Florida, who investigates a new and deadly drug spilling on the streets of Miami. With a bigger focus on non-lethal takedowns, stealth, and interrogation, Battlefield Hardline offers a lot of new ideas to the series. However, the heart of the franchise lives on in its exceptionally fun multiplayer, which presents explosive battles between teams of hardcore competitors.

Main Game Features

• Story mode with 18 missions
• Exciting online multiplayer
• 5 new competitive modes

Story

Battlefield Hardline draws its inspiration from other first-person law enforcement games like SWAT 4, telling a somewhat realistic but stylized story of busting crime. In the game, you play as Detective Nick Mendoza, an officer working in Miami, Florida in 2012. After a drug bust goes wrong, Nick and his partner Carl must investigate rumors of a new drug called Hot Shot that has been appearing around town. Their mission leads them on a wild goose chase across the state of Florida, where they must interrogate, infiltrate, and eliminate all opposition or die trying. All in all, Battlefield Hardline has some good ideas in its story campaign, but it messes up the execution. While the game promises that your decisions make a difference, the story plays out mostly the same regardless of your choices. Furthermore, while you are rewarded for playing in a non-lethal style and capturing criminals instead of killing them, there's often no narrative value for doing so. Ultimately, while the missions might be fun to play, the story of Battlefield Hardline isn't the best buddy-cop narrative by a long shot.

Gameplay

Despite the switch in themes, Battlefield Hardline still plays as smoothly as its predecessors, offering tight gun controls, an interesting arsenal, and a variety of different playstyles. The campaign is non-linear, with a few branching paths that will have you discovering different objectives depending on how many collectibles you find and what choices you make. There's a fun element of stealth that hasn't been in other Battlefield games, forcing you to sneak past enemies or risk alerting the entire encampment. Instead of running and shooting everything in sight, you are encouraged to examine your environment with scanning technology, discovering useful information and extra ammo.

The online multiplayer is where Battlefield Hardline really shines, featuring a bunch of interesting modes that are entirely new to the series. Unlike other FPS games like Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the multiplayer modes included are often objective-based rather than deathmatches, so you'll have to work with your team to achieve victory. In Heist mode, you and your team must rob a bank or protect it from bandits, depending on what team you're on. In Crosshair mode, you have three minutes to defend or kill a VIP target on the map in order to win the round. Overall, the multiplayer in Battlefield Hardline is some of the best in the series, even if the theme is unusual.

Conclusion

If you enjoy first-person shooters that have unique multiplayer modes and intriguing campaigns, you should try Battlefield Hardline. It's a dark and gritty tale about trying to enforce the law in an area full of criminals, adding a lot of tension to the narrative.

Pros

• A unique concept for an FPS
• Lots of interesting online multiplayer modes
• Exciting mixture of shooting and stealth

Cons

• Predictable story
• Extremely easy AI opponents
• Some tedious gameplay mechanics