 Whatcha gonna do?
Officer Martinez is new to vice but already things are heating up. After a series of major drug busts, he uncovers evidence of corruption running deep within the Miami Police Department. But what he uncovers could have earth-shattering ramifications for his career and the entire police department.
1. Gameplay
Battlefield: Hardline is a pretty awesome idea. Cops vs robbers is the kind of conflict that fascinates us even since we were kids. There’s a reason shows like Cops, Law and Order, and CSI are so popular, the idea of dramas involving the pursuit and arrest of law breakers is powerful. Yet somehow Battlefield Hardline doesn’t manage to capture this dynamic. It has all of the right elements but can’t quite pull it off. 
They missed the part where we have to fill out hours of paperwork for this one arrest.
The reasons why are different for the single player than they are for the multiplayer. The multiplayer is the same fast-paced fun of Battlefield, but with more focus on infantry combat. This is fine, except the idea of being a cop or a criminal is purely cosmetic. One side has flashing lights and the other has muscle cars and that’s about it. Both sides have access to basically the same equipment. I can’t fault the developers for trying to keep things balanced, but in the process they significantly detracted from the overall point they were trying to make.
The single player is a slightly different animal although with similar problems. In the first half of the game you’re a cop, in the second half you’re a vigilante criminal, yet the mechanics for both sides remain exactly the same. In the beginning you flash your badge and arrest criminals, in the end you just point at them and arrest them. I have no clue what happens to the criminals after you arrest them, especially when you leave them in the middle of a shopping center that’s about to be hit by a hurricane, but I guess that’s their problem.
Criminals love to comply with your orders. Just flash your badge first!
But the more disappointing thing is that overall this game is still fun. The reason this makes it disappointing is because it could have been so much more. The single player could have been a very funny cop-show like campaign, something like Bad Boys 2. The multiplayer could have included more cop-like gadgets and weapons. Where are the bean-bag rounds? Where are the rubber bullets? If I get more points for taking someone down non-violently, even if it’s more difficult, I’ll go for it, but I have to have the right set of tools. And using a tazer is not what I mean.
The potential was definitely there, it just wasn’t fully delivered. It was worth playing, but there are better single player and multiplayer games currently on the market.
The single player is fairly par for the course for this type of shooter. It took me around eight hours to complete every mission. I missed a number of the investigation clues but aside from those there is little incentive to complete the campaign a second time. Certain missions were more enjoyable than others, and overall the campaign had at least a coherent story, but I don’t think the experience is enjoyable to warrant a second playthrough excluding any of the extra collectibles and achievements the player might have missed the first time around.
The multiplayer is really where the heart of this game is, and its value is going to depend on how much the player enjoys the experience. The multiplayer is designed for lots of replayability, but I don’t think the average player is going to get as many hours out of this game as Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. There are a decent number of new maps and some great new modes, but even these will grow stale quickly and I don’t think the community will stick around long enough to give this game any real longevity.
This game is very straightforward. The multiplayer includes the same type of progression system as Battlefield 4 but with the added benefit that the player can use money to buy weapon and equipment unlocks. This makes it slightly easier to get the best weapons, although the game still has a very difficult time making it obvious which weapons are good for different situations and playstyles.
Keep in mind though that the online community has had years to get experience with this game. New players are going to feel overwhelmed for at least the first few hours. As long as you play the objective, though, things should turn out okay.
2. Parental Notices
Violence is the biggest factor in this game by far, but it’s overall nothing surprising. Hits from all weapons will result in a small amount of blood that seems more noticeable than Battlefield 4, but that may be because of the more constant close quarters infantry combat. There is no gore in this game at all. 
I make it rain!
There is also a section of the campaign where one of the characters gets shot in the shoulder. The player has to put pressure against the wound while fighting off enemies. The wound bleeds profusely the whole time, but there is no other section with this much blood anywhere else in the game.
Quick, apply five pounds of pressure!
The images above are from the single player. Blood in multiplayer is slightly more difficult to see. This may be a result of a different level of visual quality, but is more likely due to the weapons being used and the overall faster-paced gameplay of the multiplayer.
A little blood never hurt anyone!
Aside from the numerous firearms the player will have access to, the player can also beat down enemies with a small number of melee weapons. This can happen in multiplayer, but it happens far more often in single-player. These hits may result in blood but it’s very difficult to tell because of the really close proximity.
Just call me Ness.
There are more cinematic melee takedowns the player can perform but these do not result in any gore at all.
Police brutality, thy name is Legend.
The player can use a few other types of weapons to kill or takedown enemies as well. Molotov cocktails make an appearance but they’re not available to the player in the single player and they’re not the only type of grenade available in the multiplayer. Enemies do not catch on fire from their use.
The roof is on fire!
The tazer is much more commonly used in the single player since it is the only ranged non-lethal takedown weapon. Enemies hit by the tazer will be visibly electrocuted, with small amounts of blood from the initial hit, before going down. The game makes it clear that enemies taken down in this manner are not killed no matter where the player hits them. Even if the player hits them in the head, the enemy does not die.
Bzzzt!
There are a number of pieces of art in this game that focus on the female body. The women in the pictures are never naked, but it’s meant to be sensual in a trashy kind of way. The idea is supposed to mirror Lethal Weapon or other equivalent movies.
In one of the levels, an antagonist mentions that a limo full of “part-time cosmetology students” is on its way to entertain a few gang leaders. Afterwards some of the NPCs ask where the hookers are. This is a very brief section and is not a noticeable section in the rest of the game.
Narcotics are a pivotal part of the story in this game. While the player will never see anyone use narcotics, cocaine is seen in sometimes ridiculous amounts. There is one cutscene that includes an entire palette containing what is almost certainly millions of dollars in packaged cocaine. This palette ends up getting hit by a train and the characters are covered in the powdery white substance. 
That's a lot of cocaine.
Many of the conflicts in this game involve drug smuggling gangs fighting each other for territory. Even if the player isn’t directly interacting with drugs, drug trafficking is constantly discussed by many of the different characters. It may not be as present or important as violence in this game, but it is a crucial element.
There is one level in the campaign where the player enters an underground marijuana grow house. Over the course of the mission an explosion occurs and the plants begin to catch on fire. The main character becomes temporarily high while trying to escape, but the effect just makes the screen swirl slightly. It wears off very quickly.
Narcotics are also present in the multiplayer although they are significantly muted compared to the single player. There are locations where drugs can be found throughout the level but no one will be stopping to use them during the gameplay. They’re simply present to forward the cops and criminals feel of the combat.
Gambling is not a factor in this game.
3. Other Factors
While there are no modding tools available for this game, players can create their own emblems to show off in multiplayer. Most gamers use this as an opportunity to create some personal and benign piece of flair, but plenty take the opportunity to create some interesting and sometimes sexual pieces of cartoon art. These aren’t really a major issue, but it was noticeable in my brief time online. For some reason this seemed far more prominent in Hardline than it was in my time with Battlefield 4.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Considering this is a game about cops and criminals, anti-law is a critical factor in the overall content. The plot of the single player and the thematic elements of the multiplayer all hinge on the idea of cops and criminals fighting it out in ridiculous street warfare. Cops have the ability to arrest criminals and criminals have the ability to take cops hostage. 
You'll never catch me, copper!
Most of the multiplayer game modes also strongly favor the cops and criminals theme. There are rescue and VIP missions where the cops must escort people from one location to another, the blood money mode where criminals try to steal cash while cops try to recover it as “evidence”, and the heist mode where criminals try to break into a few vaults or safes and escape with the cash.
There’s just no way that this game would feel the same without the cops and criminals overlay, too much of the mechanics and the game modes hinge of this idea. It wouldn’t be impossible to remake the modes with a different theme, but it wouldn’t fit as well.
The community for this game isn’t the most mature set of gamers I have met but I didn’t encounter any obviously toxic interactions. For the most part gamers seemed to enjoy the modes and never specifically called out an individual for any poor performance. There are simply some players that are better than others, and the community seems to accept this. Since the game seems to give out far more experience points for completing objectives, as long as a player is trying to be helpful they’ll continue to level up and get new weapons.
That isn’t to say that the community is full of angels. There are plenty of people who like to cause trouble but, like I said, there didn’t seem to be any overt bullying.
Extreme sports is a factor in this game but it isn’t really a major one. The player will drive fast cars throughout plenty of the single player and multiplayer levels, and one of the multiplayer game modes involves driving cars at high speeds in order to gain points. However, this is less The Fast and the Furious and more Bad Boys, where the cars are just a part of the action but not a critical element. 
I'll put an end to that, though.
There is one mission in the campaign where the player will try to zipline down a skyscraper during the middle of a Fourth of July celebration. Somehow a helicopter gets tied up in the zipline and the player ends up getting thrown around. It’s something that would have caused a person in real life to end up little more than a dark smear on the pavement, but the main character gets through it just fine.
Whiplash would have killed us both first, though.
There are other example of extreme situations like this, but the one I just mentioned is by far the most obvious.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Language Language is a prominent element in both the single player and multiplayer of this game. Four letter words aren’t present in every conversation, but four letter words are frequently used by almost every character. While overall this is less prominent in the multiplayer, the criminal characters are designed to be somewhat gritty, and this includes swearing like sailors at times.
The language in this game isn’t the worst I have ever heard from a game, but it was noticeable. The game could have gotten by without including it, but this seems like a purposeful design decision to try and mirror cop movies and the grittiness of the cop/criminal dynamic.
Torture
There are some elements in the environment that indicate that people were tortured. These are fairly difficult to find, but they are part of the “evidence” the player can look for to solve cases.
Prostitution
As was mentioned in the Sexuality section above, one of the antagonists talks about how “part-time cosmetology students” are coming to entertain the male guests. Other characters refer to them more bluntly as hookers. These women are never seen though.
2 Comments
|
Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
Not sure what a term means? Read the definitions!
Not sure what a review section is about? Find out more information!
|
RSS Feed