Goondu review: Battlefield Hardline

As someone who has played all the main Battlefield titles since Battlefield 1942 in 2002, I have grown to like what the series always delivers.

Yet, I ended up missing the Battlefield shooters of yesterday, when I fired up the latest Battlefield Hardline instalment this year.

The news cops-and-robbers story turns the good old Battlefield premise on its head, at least where plot and scenario are concerned.

The single player campaign, consisting of several TV-like episodes, are set in a drug-filled Miami with corrupt cops and tough street thugs. The multi-player part comes with a number of new and familiar modes as well.

Perhaps what I miss most are the much-loved Battlefield maps and storyline of a turbulent world at war. Somehow, the mean streets filled with urban crime remind me too much of Grand Theft Auto, which is hard to top.

That’s not to say Battlefield Hardline doesn’t play well, to be fair. The single-player campaign is very polished. Instead of waiting for a screen to load, for example, you get a video snippet of what’s coming up next. Rather like a cop show on TV.

You play Nick Mendoza, a cop as straight as they come. In a game world filled with turncoats and corrupt cops, you are the only truly good guy without a blemish. He is, unfortunately, a little one-dimensional as well.

Perhaps it’s too much for an America reeling from police violence to have gamers play a bad cop for now. Unlike the old Battlefield single-player campaigns, you don’t simply go around gunning every bad guy you see. In Battlefield Hardline, you can flash your badge and get the criminals to surrender.

And strangely, they often do, even if you appear outnumbered and outgunned by them. Fire at them, however, and they return fire as ferociously as any Battlefield AI (artificial intelligence) opponents. Which begs the question – why would such hardcore thugs surrender?

You are encouraged, of course, to go the stealthy way, where possible. Indeed, you pick up points faster if you don’t go around killing everyone. Is there a moral in this gameplay?

For some missions, like one set in a hurricane-swept shopping mall, you can actually clear an entire compound of baddies by sneaking from the back and knocking them out. It’s a little unrealistic, and not quite like the loud shooter that Battlefield usually is.

While still engaging, some of the set-piece fights lack the dynamism of a similar sneak-or-shoot game – Far Cry 4. Though Battlefield Hardline also features things like alarms that trigger enemy reinforcements, you don’t get interesting factors like burning grass or wild animals to mix things up during a shootout.

The scale, perhaps limited by the storyline, seems smaller than previous Battlefield arenas. Instead of running through jungles or urban cities in huge set pieces with many other team mates, Battlefield Hardline is a clear departure from the past. I can’t say I felt the same intensity I did in the Iran invasion in Battlefield 3 or the Singapore mission on Battlefield 4.

The five multiplayer modes also ask players to rethink what they know of Battlefield as well. In terms of gameplay, they vary from the usual death match or capture-the-flag modes enough to be fun.

In Hotwire mode, for example, you basically capture a car and speed across town as fast as you can without being bazooka’d to end up in a fireball.

Again, there is the massive scale of mayhem that seems missing from past Battlefield games. Sure, you can zip-line around from the top and separately cause buildings to collapse, but a lot of the objectives here seem more suited to Counterstrike-style precision and teamwork. For better or worse, it may be harder, maybe less fun, to be a random crazy running and gunning around.

Fortunately, the graphics and audio are still top notch, like previous Battlefield games. As before, the crack of gunfire never fails to get you woken up, like the sound of the real thing. The Frostbite 3 graphics engine, retained here by developer Visceral Games, still brings out the details and eye candy, at least on the PC version that I tried out.

One particular mission, set during a hurricane in Miami, is notable for the destruction of a shopping mall, as well as showing off the natural elements really well.

In the end, you’d have to be a really stubborn Battlefield diehard to not commend Battlefield Hardline for attempting an innovative take on a much-loved franchise.

If it didn’t have Battlefield in its title, it might even let fans of the series better adjust to the changes.