It is both baffling and depressing that in 2015, as people sit around bemoaning how modern FPS games are all "corridor shooter Cowadooty clones", Battlefield Hardline was released to middling reception. It's a stealth-oriented police FPS that encourages the player to approach situations tactically and non-lethally, especially since on the recommended higher difficulties, you can only take a few shots before going down.
The game has good gunplay, great graphics, good acting, and decent enough replay value since you can try to get through the game killing as few people as possible and also solve side cases by collecting evidence and all that stuff. The facial animation is excellent. The game often allows multiple avenues of approach, especially since you can use the grapple hook to get up onto ledges to get into buildings from above and such.
Before Hardline's release, there was endless whining about how "tone deaf" the game was because of some political upheaval in America. But police violence against African Americans is irrelevant to Hardline. Hardline is the story of a Cuban-American cop who ends up surrounded by crooked cops and suffers the consequences. The game has some mild commentary on police violence and how police feel pressured to close ranks and all that jazz. But the story is about crooked police vs hardened criminals. (The fodder of TV shows and movies for decades now.) Also, the game lets you upgrade and use more advanced hardware, drawing accusations of glorifying militarised police, but you spend a lot of the campaign just using a pistol or a tazer or a submachine gun. The game is overall pretty restrained.
But yea... Hardline is a pretty remarkable game. I've played every PC FPS game released this year, and Hardline is the cream of the crop in terms of innovation and polish. It blends Battlefield 4 with Splinter Cell: Blacklist, then adds a pinch of LA Noire. (One of your fellow cops even bears a remarkable resemblance to your crooked partner in LA Noire, which I doubt was a coincidence.) It even has some Bad Company-esque touches. It has missions featuring sections where you just walk and search for evidence. It has a mission where you spend the first section on a relaxing drive as your passengers chat. (It's especially good that the game gives you plenty of opportunities to drive vehicles yourself.) Hardline is the furthest thing from a trigger-happy FPS game. Yet people dismiss it automatically based on prejudice and weird snobbery, and that is both baffling and kinda depressing. The biggest problem with Hardline is its price. The campaign should have been sold as a standalone $20-30 game considering its campaign length. EA should have gone for the same market as Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.
The game has good gunplay, great graphics, good acting, and decent enough replay value since you can try to get through the game killing as few people as possible and also solve side cases by collecting evidence and all that stuff. The facial animation is excellent. The game often allows multiple avenues of approach, especially since you can use the grapple hook to get up onto ledges to get into buildings from above and such.
Before Hardline's release, there was endless whining about how "tone deaf" the game was because of some political upheaval in America. But police violence against African Americans is irrelevant to Hardline. Hardline is the story of a Cuban-American cop who ends up surrounded by crooked cops and suffers the consequences. The game has some mild commentary on police violence and how police feel pressured to close ranks and all that jazz. But the story is about crooked police vs hardened criminals. (The fodder of TV shows and movies for decades now.) Also, the game lets you upgrade and use more advanced hardware, drawing accusations of glorifying militarised police, but you spend a lot of the campaign just using a pistol or a tazer or a submachine gun. The game is overall pretty restrained.
But yea... Hardline is a pretty remarkable game. I've played every PC FPS game released this year, and Hardline is the cream of the crop in terms of innovation and polish. It blends Battlefield 4 with Splinter Cell: Blacklist, then adds a pinch of LA Noire. (One of your fellow cops even bears a remarkable resemblance to your crooked partner in LA Noire, which I doubt was a coincidence.) It even has some Bad Company-esque touches. It has missions featuring sections where you just walk and search for evidence. It has a mission where you spend the first section on a relaxing drive as your passengers chat. (It's especially good that the game gives you plenty of opportunities to drive vehicles yourself.) Hardline is the furthest thing from a trigger-happy FPS game. Yet people dismiss it automatically based on prejudice and weird snobbery, and that is both baffling and kinda depressing. The biggest problem with Hardline is its price. The campaign should have been sold as a standalone $20-30 game considering its campaign length. EA should have gone for the same market as Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.
