Battlefield Hardline

Release Date: March 17, 2015

Developer: Visceral Games, EA Dice

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genres: First-Person Shooter

Platforms: PlayStation, XBox, PC

My Platform: XBox Series S

Difficulty Levels: Cadet, Officer, Veteran, Hardline(unlocks after finishing campaign)

My Level: Officer

Game Difficulty: 3/10

Game Rating: 5/10

Time To Beat: 6hrs

I Wasn't sure if I was going to wright a blog about this game. But, I played it, I finished it, so why not? I am going to start of by saying that this game was not what I expected, at all. I mean, if I think about a Battlefield campaign, I expect I have to go into the trenches in a faraway country. Fight my way through tons of enemies, with dirt on my face. This game was nothing like that. Lets get into it.

The Setup

You play as Nick Mendoza, played by Nicholas Gonzalez. A fresh detective in the Miami Police Department. He and his partner Carl Stoddard, played by Travis Willingham, are involved in a drug bust that goes very wrong. After the bust, Stoddard is put on special detail by Captain Dawes, played by Benito Martinez. And Nick gets a new partner, Khai Minh Dao, played by Kelly Hu. They have to follow a lead to a cocaine broker. Soon they will find criminals and police officers fighting for and against the law.

Gameplay Build

The game is setup as the following:

• Prologue
• Episode 1: Back To School
• Episode 2: Checking Out
• Episode 3: Gator Bait
• Episode 4: Case Closed
• Episode 5: Gauntlet
• Episode 6: Out Of Business
• Episode 7: Glass Houses
• Episode 8: Sovereign Land
• Episode 9: Independence Day
• Episode 10: Legacy

In every episode there is evidence for you to find and analyze. There is no need to collect everything to progress with the story. But the more you find, the more weapons and gadgets you unlock. And of course the more you learn about the story and the case you are working on. You also unlock weapons by picking them up in your game. As soon as you do, they become available in the gadget boxes. And those are scattered around each episode.

The episodes do not take very long. They average on 1hr, but it also depends on how you play. Are you going for all the evidence? Do you want to take everybody out? You going for stealth or guns blazing? It is all up to you.

The Story

The game starts of with Nick and Carl doing a drug bust. But that doesn't go as planned. Right after that Carl is put on special detail and Nick is partnered up with Khai. They have to follow a lead to a cocaine broker. Soon after that Nick learns nothing is what it seems. And he will have some tough choices to make. He starts off as a good cop, is he going to be able to stay on that path, while he is fighting the war on crime?

His colleagues want to know that as well. Pretty early in the game, they set Nick up to prove what kind of cop he really is. But what are their real motives? In this game, that is the big question.

It doesn't take long for Nick to go down a rabbit hole, where he can't seem to get out of. Is this good cop going to stay true to his morals or is he going to switch sides.

Nick and Khai end up going to the Everglades, where drug bales are being dropped. You have to investigate the area, where you find several drug operations. There you will also find a suspect, where he says he made a deal with Stoddard. At the point that he wants to elaborate on the subject, Stoddard enters the room, and kills the suspect. Khai and Carl take some of the drug money they found. And they give Nick his share. But he refuses to take it, and leaves. 

Nick and Khai are then send back to the crime scene by their Captain, to find evidence that incriminates Stoddard. They find a recording, which means a case closed. At least that is what you would think. When they show this recording to Captain Dawes, he takes it, and destroys it. At that point it is very clear that everybody, except for Nick, is corrupt. And as he refuses to go along with their scheme, he gets framed for laundering the drug money. And now he is wearing an orange jumpsuit.

Three years later, Nick is in a prisoners transport bus, when he sees one of his old colleagues driving next to him. It is time to escape. The bus gets blown up and Nick finds a way out. Soon he will learn that no one other than Khai is behind his prison escape. She wants to bring down Dawes. He has gone to far. Getting rich in the drugs world and he is planning to expand that business to other cities. 

Despite Nick being locked up all those years, because of Khai. He goes along with the plan. Dawes needs to go down.

Now everything is set to find him. While doing that Nick gets help out of unexpected corners. You will engage in some good fights, and spectacular escapes. When Nick finds out where Dawes is, he is going after him. In this part of the game you will come across multiple groups of enemies. You can choose to take them all out, but that is not necessary at all. I like going stealth, and this game made it even easier. Because if you sneak around those enemies, you can avoid almost every fight. And you will be with Dawes within a few minutes.

Then it is time for the big confrontation. Sadly you don't have control over the outcome. You will enter a cutscene and that is it. But none the less, the ending was pretty good. I mean, when Nick finds that vault...I was like gimme gimme gimme!

My Thoughts On The Game

Like I said in the beginning, this game was nothing like I expected. It is a decent game, I liked it, but it doesn't give me a Battlefield connection at all. So that title being connected to it, feels weird. But I do like a good narrative based game. The story is fast paced, lots of action and a good twist every now and then. Technically the game definitely has some flaws. For example, when you and Khai are in an area with enemies and you are going stealth, taking everyone out one by one. Sometimes when you sneak around an enemy, Khai will walk straight up to them, trying to get to you. Which means Khai is in plain sight, standing face to face. And the enemy AI doesn't react at all. Which is so bad, that it actually made me grin every time that happened.

Finding the evidence in this game is easy as pie. Your radar tells you everything you need to know. Which makes gathering it all, very easy. I played this game on 'officer' which is the same as normal. But if you are used to playing shooters, I recommend playing this game on veteran. I have not played the game on hardline(yet). Maybe I will give that a go, when there is not much else to play.

There is not a lot of character depth in this game. You do hear some bits and pieces during the story, but that was clearly not the focus. And the things you do learn, are not really adding something to the game. Take the moment where Nick tells Khai that his mom had died. I see why that is in the story, but it didn't really make an impact. It missed the mark for me. 

All in all, I did enjoy playing this, but I do not consider this a Battlefield story/game. If you are looking for a decent shooter, with a good story, it is worth giving it a go. Although the story is very short, so don't pay more than a few bucks for it. If you can't find it for free.

Time to wrap this up and move on to the next game!

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Have a good one, game on and I'll catch you on the flipside!