Reviews

Battlefield Hardline Xbox One Review

Posted on: 2015-03-23

Battlefield Hardline is game that doesn?t take itself too seriously and it knows when to lighten up in this world of gritty games for adults. Its campaign is worth playing compared to Battlefield 3 and 4

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Battlefield Hardline Xbox One Review.

Battlefield Hardline got a lot of bad impressions from gamers and press last year because it was seen as a glorified expansion pack for Battlefield 4, but Visceral have released a great and fun game that doesn’t take itself seriously with its single player campaign and it’s multiplayer which quashes the comments that say it is an expansion to Battlefield 4.

This time in Battlefield you are not a mute soldier in a modern military setting, but instead it takes on a cops and crooks theme. You play as Nick Mendoza in the campaign a cop who wants justice in the city of Miami, but soon learns that most of his department are corrupt and are pulling the strings in this drug war. Yeah the campaign story line is very generic, but it’s performed well and it doesn’t take itself because the characters aren’t gritty by any means they crack jokes in the same vein as CSI or NCIS, they have great personality and they all have great chemistry and the game knows when to lighten up.

The gameplay in the campaign is a completely different tone compared to the multiplayer because it is very low key and makes you take a stealthy approach because as cop well in the case of this game your gun should be your last option. You can sneak around and take down criminals by holding them up and arresting them, which is funny because they could be armed with the latest assault rifles and covered in armour and they instantly surrender for you to arrest them it is unintentionally hilarious.

The game does keep score throughout the campaign and you only get points if you arrest suspects or take them down non-lethally, but if you decide to go in all guns blazing then you won’t get any points at all, which did make think that maybe they should have had neutralising shots by shooting them in the leg or shoulder. The campaign to me about 7-8 hours on the hard difficulty to complete and after that you get a harder mode called “Hardline” so it should keep you busy along with the evidence that you find with your scanner and the arrest warrants on certain suspects in each level.

Now to the meat of Battlefield Hardline the multiplayer and I must say that this game is very fast compared to its pre-assessors because movement speed has been doubled, but maybe that’s because it runs at 60 frames per second and has sports cars instead of tanks and Jeeps. The game modes however don’t really let you play Battlefield with camping tactics, you have to keep moving in this game or you will die a lot. The gameplay is more the less the same in any other multiplayer game where you level up and unlock new gadgets, attachments and guns, but you can’t access them straight away because you have to earn money to buy them, which reminds me of Counter-Strike. The way you earn money is by completing challenges, supporting your team or completing the game mode’s specified objective.

Here’s a list of game modes you’ll be partaking in:

Heists:

As the criminals you’ll have to break into a vault and secure two packages and take them to separate drop points which are generally on roof tops. As the police you have to stop them and recover the packages and put them back in the vaults to then defend them. The criminals only have a certain amount time to carry out this task before the police are victorious.

Hotwire:

This is a different take on the Conquest mode, but instead of capturing flags in a solitary position, you have to steal cars and maintain speed in order to accumulate points. This game mode is really fun and fast because you have to be aggressive and offensive because you have to keep moving and take out the opposition’s cars and stop them from stealing new ones which gives you some satisfaction when you have locked down all the cars on the map until you are blown up by a C4 trap. 

Blood Money:

Think of this as capture the flag but with piles of money instead of flags, but you don’t just steal money from each other’s vaults you have to build up money in the vaults from the money pile that is in the middle of the map in order for the vaults too have any monetary value. It’s always tense this mode with its constant shift in momentum with the score because one minute you could be winning and then the next you could have no money in vault where the other team have cleared you out and then the game is over.

Rescue and Crosshair:

These modes are small 5 v 5 matches where you have to coordinate your team in order to be successful because one little slip up you’re done for the round because you have only one live. Rescue you have to free the hostages and get them to the extraction point while the criminals are trying to stop you even it means gunning down the hostages. Crosshair you have to escort a VIP to the extraction zone, which the VIP is only equipped with a golden Desert Eagle with limited ammo.

You also have the traditional Conquest mode which has been present since Battlefield 1942 for over ten years if you want the massive 66 player battles if that is more your thing, but I don’t think it suits the theme in this game.

The only negative points that I have with this game is that in the single player I find that it takes far too many bullets to take people down, but I can see why they did this they wanted you to use your gun as your last resort which is a great idea, however when they throw you into unavoidable shootouts it gets frustrating. There were a few glitches that didn’t happen too often such as my partner in the campaign stopping and not moving to the next location to trigger the scripted event or animations failing when you kill enemies and they stood there still. The graphics are hit or miss because sometimes they can look really good and in other places they can look washed out, blurry and baron.  

Battlefield Hardline is game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and it knows when to lighten up in this world of gritty games for adults. Its campaign is worth playing compared to Battlefield 3 and 4, with its funny dialogue between characters and its unintentional comedy value with hold up function, coupled with its fast paced multiplayer action with the new hotwire mode I would say you should give this a play whether you own a Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 or PC.

4/5

Reviewed by Sam Coles for 365Bristol - the leading events and entertainment website for Bristol.

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