Home Gaming Battlefield Hardline review round up

Battlefield Hardline review round up

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Battlefield Hardline is Dead Space developer Visceral’s first stab at the shooter – and they’ve given it a bit of an overhaul. Gone is the focus on the military and warfare, and in its place put cops and robbers who blow everything up as if it was war anyway. The game is now out in the US, which means reviews have started hitting the internet. As it’s a game that relies rather heavily on its server performance, many outlets are doing a “review in progress.” Here’s what critics think.

SixthAxis: 8/10

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It’s easy to dismiss Hardline out of hands as being too far removed from Battlefield’s typical setting to be worthy of the name, but even as Visceral ride on the brands coattails, they’ve had the confidence to adapt that core gameplay to suit a new setting. That’s not just true of the multiplayer, but also the single player story and its compelling tale of drugs and police corruption.

IGN: IN PROGRESS

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For this review, we played Hardline at an EA event and on our own in a pre-release environment. However, due to Battlefield’s heavy dependence on stable multiplayer servers, we’re reserving our final score and the right to make updates for up to 48 hours after launch to allow for testing of the final experience in the real world.

Gamespot: 7/10

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The simplicity of the campaign’s stealth gameplay and the enemies’ readiness to submit at the sound of “Freeze!” is comical, though the silliness was not likely Visceral’s intention. Even in Battlefield: Hardline, multiplayer competition remains the series’ heart and soul. It wasn’t that long ago that the ability to eject from a fighter plane and seamlessly continue the battle on foot was one of the most awe-inspiring things you can do in an online shooter. That’s why many gravitated to the Battlefield series in the first place, and Hardline isn’t short of similar transitional vehicular moments. You can spawn in a chopper, do your part as a gunner to take out valued targets on that ground, and then jump out with a parachute so you can capture a marked car. This isn’t Iwo Jima or an Arabian oil field–but it’s still pure Battlefield.

Eurogamer: Single Player Impression

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Single player has always been an awkward beast where Battlefield is concerned and Hardline’s campaign certainly isn’t the reason most people will be buying the game. That doesn’t make its perfunctory nature any less disappointing, though. There are glimpses here of ideas that could have really made for a unique spin on a tired genre, but those ideas are either underdeveloped, as in the Case Files, or else hamstrung by the game’s stodgy AI and linear nature.

What the campaign is good for is unlocking a hefty selection of Battlepacks – the blind bagged power-ups that send you into multiplayer action with additional perks, or supply new patches and camos for your weapons. That side of the game, based on a few days of early access play, already seems more promising.

Polygon: 7/10 (Provisional Review)

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In areas where Battlefield has always excelled and pushed forward, Hardline presents experiments, rather than refinements or fixes. The result is multiplayer that feels very familiar, very quickly. But its campaign, while feeling not completely sure about what it wants to be, is more interesting and certainly all-around better than the last few years’ worth of Battlefield games. The result is something that’s both less and more than its predecessors.

USgamer: 3.5/5

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The single-player mode starts out promisingly, but bogs down into a rather weak stealth game whose action feels hit-and-miss. Multiplayer is where the game works best, especially on its smaller maps, which can deliver truly thrilling and intense action.

Destructoid: 6/10

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While Hardline is tone deaf at times, mostly it is just deafening. Explosions and bombast are used not to distract from a troubling narrative as much as a stale one perfunctorily paced and reminiscent of network television emptiness.

Shacknews: 6/10

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Battlefield Hardline feels like a valiant attempt from Visceral and EA, but the gritty crime drama that they’re aiming for comes out as an underwhelming effort. Multiplayer offers some fun moments, but it doesn’t do enough with the concept to feel like a major leap in the world of first-person shooters. Meanwhile, the campaign feels bogged down under the weight of silly cliches and doesn’t offer enough of a tactical, strategic cop experience.

We’ll have our own review for you as soon as we can.

Last Updated: March 17, 2015

33 Comments

  1. Blood Emperor Trevor

    March 17, 2015 at 09:37

    To sum up, it’s… okay.

    Reply

    • Fnuik

      March 17, 2015 at 10:28

      And I’m okay with that

      Reply

  2. Pieter Kruger

    March 17, 2015 at 09:39

    Well this is difficult! I mean I know it’s basically a BF4 mod running on the same engine etc. but I did enjoy the beta and am a huge BF fan (still playing BF4). Think I’ll just wait to pick it up cheap somewhere or wait for it to come to EA Vault hopefully…..

    Reply

    • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

      March 17, 2015 at 09:50

      People keep calling this game a BF4 mod, but honestly you’re getting quite a fresh take on this formula. I’d rather support this than buy Modern Warfare 8.

      Reply

      • Pieter Kruger

        March 17, 2015 at 09:59

        No I agree the gameplay modes alone makes it fresh and “new”, it’s just not current gen on consoles sadly! Battlefield 5 proper should be though?

        Reply

        • K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)

          March 17, 2015 at 11:01

          Yes exactly, BF5 should be a whole new flashy upgrade.

          Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      March 17, 2015 at 09:51

      also tempted, game looks like it could be exciting, but i know I’ll regret it, like i did bf4.
      premium feels like its necessary, but Im not willing to drop another R500+ for a seasons pass.

      Reply

      • Marcus

        March 17, 2015 at 10:23

        I love BF4, I played the beta for HL and loved it. The single player seems like something new, not holding my breath tho.

        Reply

        • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

          March 17, 2015 at 10:46

          “HL” is reserved for Half-Life.

          Thanks

          Reply

          • Mark Treloar

            March 17, 2015 at 11:54

            HL is reserved for Half-Life, the rate of radioactive decay.

            Thanks

          • Marcus

            March 17, 2015 at 13:59

            Oh relax girls. In context of the review, HL works for Hardline. Yes, BFHL would have been a better suit.

            So! I’m truly sorry for making such a dumb-ass mistake and hope the gods take action. Feel better?

          • Hammersteyn

            March 17, 2015 at 14:33

            It’s not like there’s a sequel to Half-life on the way anyways…

    • FSR

      March 17, 2015 at 10:26

      So sick of this “it’s a bf4 mod” mentality. It’s as much a BF4 mod as every itteration of CoD is a “mod” for every predesessor. Stop perpetuating the idiocy. NFS The Run was made in Frostbite, but it wasn’t a “mod for BF3”. The logic doesn’t hold up.

      Reply

      • Fnuik

        March 17, 2015 at 10:30

        I also don’t get why people say it’s a mod. The differences between BFH and BF4 are much bigger than the differences between BF4 and BF3 and nobody called BF4 a mod.

        Reply

        • B3ware_za

          March 20, 2015 at 09:26

          I’d just like them to remove the Battlefield part from Hardline. As a big fan of Battlefield games since BF2, this is quite a kick to the balls.

          Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 17, 2015 at 11:29

      I’d get it on EA Vault, if EA vault was worth getting. In a year or so they should have plenty of games. Especially if DA and ME lands in the vault

      Reply

  3. win

    March 17, 2015 at 09:42

  4. Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

    March 17, 2015 at 09:50

    But how is the fish AI?

    Reply

  5. Viking Of Science

    March 17, 2015 at 09:56

    Maybe it should have not had a story, but rather a sequence of missions. like SWAT 4. in fact, i can summarize every review with one sentence. “mechanically, it’s just so god damn shallow when compared to SWAT 4”

    Reply

  6. Aries

    March 17, 2015 at 10:13

    Forcing people to play the single player for battlepacks to take to multiplayer, lol, most of my friends haven’t touched the BF4 SP but have nearly a 1000hrs or more into the game, wont be buying this anytime soon and didnt like the beta as well, felt to much like BF3

    Reply

    • FSR

      March 17, 2015 at 10:27

      you also got rewards for the SP in BF4, a couple of guns could only be unlocked playing SP. Justsayin.

      Reply

      • Aries

        March 17, 2015 at 10:31

        I know, but only two were really worth while, though very few people use them in any case

        Reply

    • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

      March 17, 2015 at 10:47

      Too

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief

        March 17, 2015 at 10:50

        XD

        Reply

    • Danie Nell

      March 17, 2015 at 12:44

      But BF3 was so much better than BF4 except for the spectator mode :/

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        March 17, 2015 at 12:59

        So they did something right?

        Reply

      • Aries

        March 17, 2015 at 14:31

        Don’t think so, the character movement in 3 is crap compared to 4, it not as fluent

        Reply

  7. Kensei Seraph

    March 17, 2015 at 11:16

    About what I expected.

    Reply

  8. Hammersteyn

    March 17, 2015 at 11:28

    Put those limes back, they aren’t ripe yet.

    Reply

  9. konfab

    March 17, 2015 at 13:25

    Interesting, but I will wait for the LazyGamer review before I buy.

    Reply

  10. 40 Insane Frogs

    March 17, 2015 at 14:48

    It’s official, this is the first Battlefield game that I’m going to skip. Better luck next year EA!

    Reply

  11. Hammersteyn

    March 17, 2015 at 14:48

    I’m reaching desperate measures on this one. Either there’s leprechaun n the background or there’s a green Irish beer advert on the left

    Reply

  12. Peter Pan

    March 18, 2015 at 09:02

    The longevity of the game is in its MP anyway. The majority of BF4 players will move across to Hardline eventually.

    I wish they would bring back a WW2-based FPS though. With the current graphics engine, I would live to see the set pieces of WW2 reimagined (D-Day Landings anybody – that was intense in the old CoD)!

    Reply

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