Hard To Swallow – Battlefield Hardline Review

<p>Oh EA&comma; you just can’t help yourself by making fun of <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> with your renowned <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> series&period; Yet&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ve excelled the gameplay beyond that of <em>Call of Duty&comma;<&sol;em> only to mimic it&comma; and never very well&period; The latest installment&comma; <em>Battlefield Hardline&comma; <&sol;em>breaks away from the military shooter formula&comma; and creates a concept of war between law enforcement and brutish criminals in the Miami drug scene&period; Or&comma; it could end up a bizarre story of dirty cops becoming James Bond style villains&comma; lacking any intensity or action&comma; and forces repetitive stealth gameplay and hardly has any redeeming features&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m warning you now&colon; this review won’t end well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021203&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Heists-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79222 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021203&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Heists-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Battlefield Hardline Heists BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The main problem with <em>Hardline&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s that EA had a promising idea&colon; To remove a series that’s been heavy handed with military warfare themes and take it to a more grounded&comma; heavy-handed scenario&period; To make a game that takes elements of an engaging crime thriller mixed in with the <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> charm to bring a new experience like no other&period; Yet EA decided that this alone wouldn’t do and looked at <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> and <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;achtung-wolfenstein-the-new-order-review&sol;">Wolfenstein<&sol;a><&sol;em> to steal a few ideas that sadly end up being a complete and utter mess&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Where to begin&quest; How about it&&num;8217&semi;s broken narrative for starters&period; <em>Hardline<&sol;em> starts off just fine and if the game just carried on in the same manner as the prologue&comma; things would’ve been so much better&period; We see good cop&comma; Nick Mendoza&comma; trying to tackle a drug smuggling ring and soon things go from bad to just plain stupid&period; We learn from the beginning that Nick&&num;8217&semi;s framed by a group of dirty cops and sentenced for the long haul in prison&period; However&comma; as the game progresses things suddenly turn from Miami Vice to James Bond&comma; with the narrative taking a radical change in pacing that seems a little extreme for a police show inspired game&period; This includes an antagonist who starts off as a humble good cop&comma; only to turn into a super-master criminal who has the world at his fingertips towards the end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 771px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;static1&period;gamespot&period;com&sol;uploads&sol;original&sol;1536&sol;15366587&sol;2741508-tyson&lowbar;handsup&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"771" height&equals;"393" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Now I can explain why I shot up the place&period; Ever played Battlefield Hardline&quest;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I don’t understand if this is to outdo any of the <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> plot lines by going to such an extreme with a simple concept&comma; but <em>Hardline<&sol;em> gradually lacks any logic in its story telling by taking such a radical change in pacing from a grounded crime thriller&comma; to mind numbing spy drama&period; However&comma; the character models are lovingly designed with the game world and destructive physics looking wonderful&period; Shame that there was no depth in any of the characters and world&comma; as both lack any substance and end up being rather bland&period; Characters are here to provide tiresome dialogue with a collection of jokes that hardly bring a smile&comma; while most of the game takes place in the emptiest parts of Miami&comma; where the police never show up – even when there&&num;8217&semi;s a tank battle raging on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game could&&num;8217&semi;ve stuck with a simple concept of cops vs robbers that could have allowed us to take on several roles in law enforcement&period; How the older <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em> games put players in many different roles to observe the war and its horrors&comma; <em>Hardline<&sol;em> could have involved a detective&comma; SWAT officer&comma; and even just a simple cop on the beat to bring us a fresh experience of warfare&period; This could have been the video game equivalent of Heat&comma; but ends up being the poor man’s <em>24<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;79231" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-79231" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021124&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-LA-Car-Chase-BagoGames1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-79231 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021124&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-LA-Car-Chase-BagoGames1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Battlefield Hardline LA Car Chase BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-79231" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">If only all of Battlefield Hardline was this intense&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As for <em>Battlefield Harline<&sol;em>’s appeal towards dynamic gameplay – It lacks it&period; A new twist here&comma; however&comma; is that now you are given the choice of two distinct gameplay styles&colon; Similar to <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;achtung-wolfenstein-the-new-order-review&sol;">Wolfenstein&colon; The New Order<&sol;a><&sol;em>&comma; players can use either stealth or brute force in order to progress through a level&comma; being either the good or bad cop&period; Using Stealth effectivity and making arrests on criminals will gain rewards and higher XP which unlocks new weapons&period; Playing as the good cop focuses your efforts on arresting NPCs by telling people to freeze&comma; and then handcuffing them&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an interesting idea&comma; but what&&num;8217&semi;s strange is that you can do this 90&percnt; of NPCs in the game&period; Even the most harden mercenaries wearing protective body armor fall down at your petty command&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just as well that Nick carries around a billion handcuffs&period; It’s an interesting idea&comma; but doesn’t work that well&comma; and breaks immersion<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Hardline<&sol;em> also feels as though it forces more use on stealth rather than taking on enemies in the classic <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> way&period; Deciding to use firepower is usually met with overpowering enemies who always throw the most perfectly aimed grenades&comma; and know exactly where your position is at all times&comma; even if you&&num;8217&semi;ve not been seen&period; This is not further helped by the oh so clever &&num;8220&semi;last known position&&num;8221&semi; concept&comma; which does not work&comma; and was much better designed in games such as <em>Splinter Cell Conviction<&sol;em>&period; We are also treated to a rather punishing checkpoint system&comma; and with the long&comma; over drawn stealth segments&comma; it quickly becomes an annoying issue&period; It’s unbalanced&comma; and most of the game just ends up being very dull&period; The very few interesting moments don’t last long&comma; nor are they creative or original&&num;8211&semi;They just rip off <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em>&comma; or seem completely over the top&comma; yet boring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;79218" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-79218" style&equals;"width&colon; 800px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021216&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Taser-Gameplay-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-79218 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021216&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Taser-Gameplay-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Battlefield Hardline Taser Gameplay BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-79218" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Firing my taser&excl;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The mechanics that involve more of the police aspects of the game aren&&num;8217&semi;t truly dynamic&period; You just arrest people&period; Even when you’re not a police officer&comma; but a man on the run&comma; you still feel compelled to arrest people&comma; and you still carry handcuffs&period; We could&&num;8217&semi;ve had a simple&comma; yet intense experience with fire fights&comma; bank robberies&comma; and CSI style game play&period; Instead&comma; we’re offered a dull&comma; repetitive&comma; and unbalanced cop simulator which bears no resemblance to the style or structure of previous <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> games&period; It’s as though this game&&num;8217&semi;s just an expansion of <em>Battlefield 4<&sol;em>&comma; trying to be a <em>24<&sol;em>-style game&comma; and not a good one at that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What can I say about multiplayer&quest; For the most part&comma; it’s extremely disappointing and broken&period; <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> once held high acclaim for their multiplayer&comma; delivering dynamic game types&comma; intense gameplay and spectacular visuals&comma; this has now become a thing of the past&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Level-lution” from <em>BF4<&sol;em> was a grand step up from its predecessors and even bettered <em>Call of Duty<&sol;em>&period; But now&comma; the game does a poor job at delivering a set of broken game modes and dull multiplayer experiences that take inspiration from other games – such as <em>Payday – <&sol;em>and fail&period; It lacks the content and immersion factor of <em>BF4<&sol;em> to keep hardens fans playing it&period; I will say that the Blood Money and Heist modes are fun&comma; yet they seem let down by the lack of content&comma; and frequent graphical issues and bugs&period; You’re just better off playing<em> BF4<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021111&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Under-Arrest-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-79236 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;03&sol;05021111&sol;Battlefield-Hardline-Under-Arrest-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Battlefield Hardline Under Arrest BagoGames" width&equals;"800" height&equals;"465" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s sad to say that this is a huge failure for the <em>Battlefield <&sol;em>series&period; The concept had great potential&comma; but EA pushed the developers to create a game that had to mimick <em>Call of Duty&comma;<&sol;em> and it does a poor job at doing so&period; Lame stealth gameplay&comma; with a poor story&comma; and forgettable multiplayer makes for one of the worst <em>Battlefield<&sol;em> games to date&period; I admire Visceral Games for <em>Dead Space<&sol;em> and trying to bring on a new look for <em>Battlefield&comma;<&sol;em> but with EA at the wheel&comma; it just makes for a big mess&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;