The Battlefield series has always been a traditional war shooter at
heart. Starting with Battlefield 1942 way back in 2002 it's pretty much
gone full circle, with the "shooting guys" genre, going through historic
war to present and futurist war, and gone back to its roots in historic
war time albeit the first one this time in Battlefield One.
In the midst of all those games based around shooting people in different types of army there was Battlefield Hardline, a game in which you are the police and therefore on the morally "good" side for once rather than nobly fighting for your country and slaughtering everyone that isn't on your side in a vain attempt to make America great again or something.
You are Nick Mendoza; a cop in Miami that's just made detective and is tasked with cleaning up the streets by taking down a drug called Hot Shot. You're partnered with veteran detective Khai, a character that's perfectly set up to be developed in an interesting way or be the love interest but all of which is forgotten along the way and she's kinda just...there.
Starting with small time dealers and pushers, Nick and Khai drive through the streets of Miami arresting as many people they can. That's the new aspect in Hardline; you can shoot the bad man or you can arrest the bad man, ultimately adding an unnecessary button into the heated firefight. It does give you more points at the end of each mission and if you really want to have that feeling of moral justice without the guilt of taking a life then fair play, but the gun play is exactly the same as other Battlefield games so you could easily take your chances by taking out a guard with a shot, alerting the others, and bottle-necking any remaining enemies into a narrow corridor and piling them up.
With the main character being a straight edge do-gooder fighting for a righteous cause, it's safe to say that he achieves his goal and lives happily ever after right? Of course not!
After busting a drug warehouse Nick is promptly betrayed by his current partner, commanding officer and previous partner Stoddard, who may I say is one of the slimiest pricks to ever open his mouth. Tits go up, shit hits the fan and Nick finds himself doing time for not complying with his fellow detectives, stealing anything they could from the warehouse with a presidents face on it.
As spoilerish as that all may sound, it's a gritty cop drama in the guise of a video game so the double cross plot twist should have been apparent before you'd even purchased the game, and to Hardline's credit it keeps true to the story it wants to portray; Good cop turned rogue, wronged by the system they once believed in, seeks revenge because in their head it will make it all better almost like it never happened. The actors on the other hand didn't get the memo and don't seem to grasp the feelings of this gritty drama, delivering every line in a monotone drone except when they are shouting or angry at which point it sounds like they've stubbed their toe on the coffee table.
The facial recognition is to be commended to some degree I guess in the sense that they look like who they should look like, even if it does rub up on the line of the uncanny valley a tad, overall though some of the characters are engaging. Like Tyson for example, your drug dealer turned bank robbing pal, or Boomer, played by Eugene Byrd who you might recognise from a smattering of TV shows and movies including American Horror Story, 8 Mile and even the odd video game like Gears Of War 4. Both characters are funny and played well for the situations they find themselves in but I don't think it's a good thing when the main character is being out acted by someone who is only in half the game and starts it locked in the trunk of a car.
Throughout his adventure, Nick finds himself driving through the streets, swamps and deserts of Miami, all of which handle like absolute arse kinda like when you've had one too many and decide pushing your mate in a shopping trolley is a good idea. The many vehicles aren't the only thing that handles like arse though as running in this game is god awful. When you're running it's more like Nick is jumping from side to side rather than making any forward progress and jerks the camera around like it's on a bungee chord making it ridiculously hard to focus on anything.
All in all, I liked Battlefield Hardline, it's about ten hours long depending on difficulty chosen and does add an interesting bit of variety from the normal run and gun along a tightly predetermined script, instead running and, if you feel like it, arresting them before shooting them in the face albeit still pretty tightly "guiding" you the right way because if you go the wrong way you will fail the mission or die or both!
Towards the end Nick makes an almost off the cuff remark about how his mother died while he was in prison and when Khai offers her condolences Nick shuts down the conversation swiftly as if it isn't a talking point and ultimately that's what's Hardline feels like; it wasn't necessary, despite the moments of fun and challenge it provides, and kinda gets a bit lost in the Battlefield lore somewhat. Dice said "gritty cop game right here come and get it!" and when someone showed interest Dice promptly shrugged their shoulders and said "no idea what you're talking about"
If you're looking for another FPS to fill some time then pick up Hardline but don't except much innovation from a series that still prides itself on being a realistic shooter in 2017 completely obvious that everyone else has moved on with the times.
Keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
In the midst of all those games based around shooting people in different types of army there was Battlefield Hardline, a game in which you are the police and therefore on the morally "good" side for once rather than nobly fighting for your country and slaughtering everyone that isn't on your side in a vain attempt to make America great again or something.
You are Nick Mendoza; a cop in Miami that's just made detective and is tasked with cleaning up the streets by taking down a drug called Hot Shot. You're partnered with veteran detective Khai, a character that's perfectly set up to be developed in an interesting way or be the love interest but all of which is forgotten along the way and she's kinda just...there.
Starting with small time dealers and pushers, Nick and Khai drive through the streets of Miami arresting as many people they can. That's the new aspect in Hardline; you can shoot the bad man or you can arrest the bad man, ultimately adding an unnecessary button into the heated firefight. It does give you more points at the end of each mission and if you really want to have that feeling of moral justice without the guilt of taking a life then fair play, but the gun play is exactly the same as other Battlefield games so you could easily take your chances by taking out a guard with a shot, alerting the others, and bottle-necking any remaining enemies into a narrow corridor and piling them up.
With the main character being a straight edge do-gooder fighting for a righteous cause, it's safe to say that he achieves his goal and lives happily ever after right? Of course not!
After busting a drug warehouse Nick is promptly betrayed by his current partner, commanding officer and previous partner Stoddard, who may I say is one of the slimiest pricks to ever open his mouth. Tits go up, shit hits the fan and Nick finds himself doing time for not complying with his fellow detectives, stealing anything they could from the warehouse with a presidents face on it.
As spoilerish as that all may sound, it's a gritty cop drama in the guise of a video game so the double cross plot twist should have been apparent before you'd even purchased the game, and to Hardline's credit it keeps true to the story it wants to portray; Good cop turned rogue, wronged by the system they once believed in, seeks revenge because in their head it will make it all better almost like it never happened. The actors on the other hand didn't get the memo and don't seem to grasp the feelings of this gritty drama, delivering every line in a monotone drone except when they are shouting or angry at which point it sounds like they've stubbed their toe on the coffee table.
The facial recognition is to be commended to some degree I guess in the sense that they look like who they should look like, even if it does rub up on the line of the uncanny valley a tad, overall though some of the characters are engaging. Like Tyson for example, your drug dealer turned bank robbing pal, or Boomer, played by Eugene Byrd who you might recognise from a smattering of TV shows and movies including American Horror Story, 8 Mile and even the odd video game like Gears Of War 4. Both characters are funny and played well for the situations they find themselves in but I don't think it's a good thing when the main character is being out acted by someone who is only in half the game and starts it locked in the trunk of a car.
Throughout his adventure, Nick finds himself driving through the streets, swamps and deserts of Miami, all of which handle like absolute arse kinda like when you've had one too many and decide pushing your mate in a shopping trolley is a good idea. The many vehicles aren't the only thing that handles like arse though as running in this game is god awful. When you're running it's more like Nick is jumping from side to side rather than making any forward progress and jerks the camera around like it's on a bungee chord making it ridiculously hard to focus on anything.
All in all, I liked Battlefield Hardline, it's about ten hours long depending on difficulty chosen and does add an interesting bit of variety from the normal run and gun along a tightly predetermined script, instead running and, if you feel like it, arresting them before shooting them in the face albeit still pretty tightly "guiding" you the right way because if you go the wrong way you will fail the mission or die or both!
Towards the end Nick makes an almost off the cuff remark about how his mother died while he was in prison and when Khai offers her condolences Nick shuts down the conversation swiftly as if it isn't a talking point and ultimately that's what's Hardline feels like; it wasn't necessary, despite the moments of fun and challenge it provides, and kinda gets a bit lost in the Battlefield lore somewhat. Dice said "gritty cop game right here come and get it!" and when someone showed interest Dice promptly shrugged their shoulders and said "no idea what you're talking about"
If you're looking for another FPS to fill some time then pick up Hardline but don't except much innovation from a series that still prides itself on being a realistic shooter in 2017 completely obvious that everyone else has moved on with the times.
Keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
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