Through the campaign, Battlefield Hardline can be played a lot like a first-person stealth game thanks to detective Nick Mendoza's magic badge. In a medium where aliens are plentiful, scantily clad vixens clash with dragons, and plumbers do everything but plumb, one should be able to just accept Nick's magic badge can render the most hardened criminal, with multiple cohorts scattered around -- within earshot, at least -- a quivering pile of surrendering wimp. Get the drop on an enemy and a flash of Nick's badge is enough to make them drop their weapon, which makes them an easy target for a handcuffed takedown.
Incredibly, this is the aspect of Hardline that breaks any believability (even in the video game sense). It's not the complete white wash of the war on drugs and the spin-off "benefits" or the fact that Nick's crew somehow floods a few very specific floors near the top of a highrise to swim up an elevator shaft, it's the magic badge. But then Nick loses the badge and just points and shouts with no badge to flash and you realize that Nick had it in him the whole time, like that pivotal moment in the Wizard of Oz when the Good Witch of the North reveals that she had manipulated Dorothy into murdering the Wicked Witch of the West. It's plunges into fantasy and it's distracting enough that my mind started reeling off into "What if...?" possibilities.
I digress.
The story meanders into ridiculous territory at every turn and more than few times I was reminded of the craziness that makes the animated workplace/spy comedy Archer so compelling. Nick rides through a swamp hunting down bags of cocaine (fights a crocodile at one point), frees a computer hacker from a car trunk, discovers that all cops are corrupt, blows up a meth lab and burns down a marijuana grow-op, gets into a tank and blows up a bunch of stuff just because then escapes in a plane, swims up an elevator shaft, and finishes the game staring at a pile of gold, jewels, and cash... for some reason. It doesn't matter. It's craziness and each "episode" is just compact enough to never overstay it's welcome.
The stealth takedowns via a "Hey, you!" are the fastest way to climb up the Experience Points (XP) ladder, which is the player's ticket to bigger and better weapons. The XP ladder caps out at Level 15 so at that point, any incentive to make use of a non-lethal approach goes out the window. Then it's just stand-up and shoot. Never mind distracting guards with a flick of a shell casing. A round of buckshot or well-placed trip mine is just about all you need.
This is the first Battlefield game I can think of where the single player campaign isn't merely a training course for the multiplayer. By the time players turn to multiplayer... well, you should just forget the magic finger of Nick Mendoza.
While there are a lot of multiplayer modes built on the "cops and robbers" foundation of Hardline, but so far I've leaned on Conquest, Conquest Large, and Hotwire. Conquest mode been standard to Battlefield for a long time -- gain control of a capture point and hold it -- but Hotwire adds a wrinkle to Conquest by making the capture points entirely mobile. Players need to get into a specific vehicle and drive around to gain control then keep driving at top speed to maintain that control point. It puts the action in motion and keeps it moving, which makes for a great multiplayer experience.
The other modes -- Heist, Blood Money, Rescue, Crosshair and Team Deathmatch -- just don't have the same appeal. Team Deathmatch is marginally interesting only because the maps are smaller and there are no vehicles, but then it might as well be Call of Duty.
Heist feels like a Tower Defense game on some levels. The criminals are tasked with raiding a vault and making off with the money, while the police stand in their way. I really wish developer Visceral Games had implemented mobile defenses or the ability for select classes to lay down traps, not just simple trip mines, because that would have made things a little more interesting. The grappling hook and zip line options are sadly underutilized -- maybe not at all by the vast majority of players -- so one of the neatest additions to the Battlefield bag of tricks fails to make things more interesting. Why isn't there a King of the Hill mode with an actual hill, buildings, piles of compacted cars, etc. to navigate so players would have a good reason to use the grappling hook?
Another mode that focuses on moola is Blood Money, where both the criminals and cops raid stockpiles of cash and try to maintain their respective stockpiles. I've barely played this mode or Crosshair (get the VP to the extraction point) and Rescue (secure the hostages) -- which are definitely reminiscent of Counter-Strike circa 2000 -- but like a lot of players, I tend to stick with what I like and forget the rest.
For the most part, the multiplayer is surprisingly stable. So far there have been far more games completed than crashed unexpectedly. And actually, I think a few of those crashes were due to my video card. Things are running smoothly from my real-world experience and the servers are still pretty packed. It's makes for some good fun, especially because the "quick match" button actually works.
As another flavour added to Battlefield's Conquest mode, Hardline gets tops marks, especially Hotwire, which nearly eliminates camping and puts the game in constant motion. It's a mode that I know I will be playing a lot of even after the review period, because the other modes just don't feel interesting enough to explore. The single-player campaign is ridiculous but forgettable, with ancillary characters that are more interesting than the central protagonist, even with his wizard powers, but Hardline's still a fun romp for the most part.
- Aaron Simmer
Follow @EmpireArmchair
The Good:
- The Conquest variant, Hotwire, keeps multiplayer matches moving
- Side characters in the campaign are more engaging than Nick
- Being able to buy desired upgrades is better than having to grind through XP to unlock them
- Looks fantastic!
- Seems to be relatively stable online compared to the opening salvo of Battlefield 4
The Bad:
- Ridiculous campaign story just isn't ridiculous enough (see Hitman: Absolution for definitive ridiculousness)
- Additions of the grappling hook and zipline don't add enough (anything?) to the experience
- It's a little reductive, but at times it does feel like a very polished mod for Battlefield 4
