Release Date: 17/03/2015
Played On: Win
Available On: PS3 / PS4 / Win / X360 / XBO
Time Played: 7h 36m
Progress: Completed campaign.
Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Taste is a wonderful thing that separates us all and shows off the kind of diversity that makes human existence so interesting and wonderful. Either that or I'm trying to justify the fact that my own taste often differs from many others' that I come into contact with. Whether it's books, movies, music, or video games, I seem to always find the thing that everyone hated, and enjoy the hell out of it.
The Battlefield series is arguably one of the biggest heavyweights in big-budget triple A game franchises. It's been around for a long time, always showcases the latest and greatest graphics and technology, but it's also one of the most rigidly generic games out there. I mean, Battlefield and Call of Duty always seem to be fighting over who can be the most grey and generic military shooter in the world, and It's often a close race.
Despite that, some of my favourite big budget military shooters have been Battlefield games. Especially when you look into the older titles that also featured more open worlds and complete freedom when it came to overcoming the campaign. At the same time, I've always enjoyed the Battlefield games for their multiplayer at LAN parties and the like, simply because they boast large maps and include a range of vehicles to roll around in.
Unfortunately for me though, the series has made a lot of bad decisions in recent years, which have ultimately made me lose interest in the franchise. In fact, I don't think I can confidently say that I really enjoyed a Battlefield game since Bad Company, way back in 2008. To this day I still consider that game to be the pinnacle of Battlefield single-player campaigns, and it's the last one that I put any serious time into its multiplayer.
Not that I haven't tried to rekindle the friendship, as I've played most of the Battlefield games that have been released since Bad Company to the present. I can't really speak for the quality of multiplayer in the franchise, as I'm always more interested in the campaign, which is supposedly the minority view these days. While just about everyone else is obsessing over the multiplayer and complaining that they even bother to include a campaign, I'm here loading up the game with the intention to never go online.
I've said it before about Battlefield games and Call of Duty, the thing that makes them stand out is the sheer scope of what a big team with a big budget are able to accomplish. I want to see those amazing set pieces and I want to feel all the detail that's gone into every element. I don't even mind so much if the campaign is a linear experience with a lot of hand-holding, I just want to be led to something awesome and impressive at just about every turn. After all, these games don't have a lot else going on for them, so they need to offer something to make the time worthwhile.
Plus, for the most part these games deliver. Even the awful entries in the series have featured some impressive technology and a few mind-blowing scenes of epic action. It's like going to see the hot action movie of the holiday season; you're not expecting substance, but you want to see some flashy effects and explosions in place of where any real meaning would be.
I remember when Battlefield Hardline came out, as it was something of a spinoff from the series at the time. Instead of an epic military campaign, we were sold the prospect of playing through a gritty cop drama, like a mix between Training Day and The Shield. It sounded like an interesting departure from the norm to me, but I never heard anything good about it at all.
In fact, all I heard about this game after launch, was focused on the many bugs and broken gameplay that made the entire experience just about unplayable. Sadly I think this is quite the common occurrence for games like this to be a total mess in their initial release window, simply because it's the ever-present conflict between big publishers and big developers. One hand wants to push the game out so that it can start making money, while the other wants to actually finish it off to ensure that it's fun to play. I'll leave it for you, dear reader, to determine which could be which.
The other thing I heard about Battlefield Hardline was how ridiculous the game felt to play. Many of the podcasts and game reporters I follow, said that Hardline's premise was entirely stupid and ultimately off-putting. They cited the fact that the game still felt like a Battlefield game, except you're no longer in a war zone with a bunch of soldiers and tanks. Instead your on suburban streets with cops and drug dealers, who for some reason have a full arsenal of weaponry and military vehicles like helicopters and armoured vans. Apparently this was pushing the boat out a little too far away from the dock of realism that it messed with so many commentators and they didn't have a good time as a result.
Hence why I left it for a long time before eventually giving Battlefield Hardline a proper go. As it happens, I used to be a subscriber to Origin Access, and Hardline is one of the featured games that you get as part of the subscription. Not so long ago I decided to let my subscription lapse, as I wasn't using it much at all, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a crack at a game that I would otherwise ignore. By now I wasn't sure what to expect from this somewhat forgotten problem child, but I ended up liking it a whole lot more than I ever expected.
Although, to be fair, my expectations were incredibly low, as I've learned the hard way to never assume that a Battlefield game is going to be worth my time. Additionally, all I'd ever heard about this game was how awful it was, so I went in expecting a complete shit show that might provide a few hours of super-light entertainment.
I know I've spent probably over half of this post talking about expectations for this game, but for me that's kind of the point of what I have to say about Hardline in general. It might be one of the nicest things I can say about a Battlefield game: that it surpassed my expectations and was actually an enjoyable experience that I'm glad I played. After all, this is a series that deserves no ounce of loyalty or positive reputation, as it not only comes from one of the most ethically questionable publishers in the industry, but innovation and creativity are not words that I feel anyone would associate with a Battlefield game.
Why then, did I enjoy this game more than some of the other Battlefield turds I've played? Honestly I think that it's purely because the campaign was interesting and different enough to keep me going from start to finish. I knew going in that it wouldn't be the longest game mode in the world, so the risk was rather low. Not only was it part of a subscription that I had already stopped paying for, but all it had to do was be competent, and I would have been happy.
I'm pleased to be able to say that even though Battlefield Hardline isn't going to reinforce my faith in the series, it was a lot of fun and actually a breath of fresh air to play. Sure the story is generic and you could see the main beats coming from a mile away, but it allowed for some interesting locations and gameplay systems. In fact, I wonder how different the development process for this game was, as there are actually a number of different systems in play that I haven't seen in other Battlefield games.
The story is essentially TV-cop-drama-101. You play the new guy on some hardcore anti-drug squad (or something like that), so you're taken out and shown the ropes by the sassy badass lady cop who's seen some shit on the streets. Pretty quickly you get caught up in a double cross and even get framed by your fellow men and women in blue, only to eventually find redemption and clear your name, albeit by killing just about everyone in the city. This isn't a story that will win any prizes, or provide any surprises, but it's functional enough to give you a reason for going places and doing the things that you end up doing.
Happily though, the lacklustre story opens the door for some interesting gameplay systems and mechanics to be utilised along the way. One of your first missions (and perhaps my favourite) tasks you with infiltrating a tenement building in a seedy part of town. There are bad guys inside who are up to no good, and there are bad guys outside keeping an eye on everything. You start the mission on the rooftop of an adjacent building and are set to work.
Realism takes a holiday at this point, but the fun starts to creep its way in. After scanning the area with magic binoculars and tagging the locations of as many gangsters as possible, it's time for sneaking up on and arresting everyone in sight. Maybe that sounds odd for a Battlefield game, but the special "cop" gameplay systems were perhaps my favourite in the whole game. Basically if you got close to enough to a criminal without being noticed, you can pop up and flash your badge. The bad guys will usually raise their hands and you can run up to them, cuff them, and take them out of the equation.
It's made even more interesting when there are groups of bad dudes standing beside each other, as you have to keep pointing your gun at them to stop them going for their own weapons and fighting back. Before too long you're playing wack-a-mole by pointing at bad different enemies, one after the other, until you or your AI partner have the opportunity to make the arrest.
Of course, there's always the option to go in guns blazing and just kill everyone, but the game tries to incentivise taking down the crims alive and without unnecessary bloodshed. One of my favourite weapons in the game was the taser, which unsurprisingly is a non-lethal takedown, but has limited range. Eventually I found that it got easier to just zap everyone you encounter instead of trying to arrest them, simply because a tazed enemy is no longer conscious enough to reach for their weapon.
Later on in Hardline, we're given a few more abilities like a grappling hook and zip-line launcher, which make getting around a lot easier. Plus, each mission has optional objectives that usually involve only killing a limited number of enemies, or capturing a "wanted" criminal in a specific way. Suffice to say that these extra little flourishes that tie into this being a cop-drama made the entire game a whole lot more interesting to me.
However, this is still a Battlefield game, so the same shortcomings are present in every corner. As I said earlier, the story is absolute garbage, although I always enjoy a celebrity cameo and I got a kick of seeing Benito Martinez (from The Shield) in action as the police chief. The moment-to-moment gameplay tried to keep things fresh by having you sneak through ghettos one moment, then boating through a bayou the next, but it's still fairly rinse-and-repeat. You show up to a place, find a way in, then kill everyone before leaving. The objectives kind of sound different each time, but they all boil down to the same thing.
Then again, I mean it when I say that these are not the kind of games that I want a lot of depth from anyway. I never go into a Michael Bay movie thinking that I'm about to be blown away by a piece of art that's going to make me question my humanity. We all know that Michael Bay is going to blow stuff up around an impervious hero and an attractive woman, with literally nothing else to offer. Battlefield Hardline is the same, except thankfully the few differences that are on show in this game are interesting enough to keep me playing to the end.
Thus, if you're like me and find that your tastes may differ a little from the norm, as you don't usually get into the banal military shooters that the Battlefield series has become, maybe give this one a whirl. I'm not sure I would have wanted to pay full price for it, but on a dying subscription, or with a super deep discount, you could probably do a lot worse for a few hours of gameplay.