14 DAY TRIAL // Battlefield Hardline released last week and finally brought forth its novel take on the core Battlefield recipe. As I mentioned in my review, the game does some things well and other things less so, but when looking at the broader picture, the game deserves a lot of praise for the innovation it brings to the long-running first-person shooter series.
The Battlefield series saw life way back in 2002, when Swedish studio DICE partnered with Electronic Arts to bring forth Battlefield 1942, a World War 2 shooter that introduced not just great mechanics but also plenty of vehicles like aircraft, seacraft, as well as tanks and APCs.
This novel take on the World War 2 experience, plus the embrace of mods and other such things, made the series shine and prompted DICE to continue making more Battlefield titles.
Even then, the series didn't shy away from innovation, as with Battlefield 2 DICE took things to the modern era, with Battlefield 2142 it went into the far-flung future, and with Bad Company it tried to deliver a more entertaining story mode.
Hardline does even more innovation
However, Hardline takes the innovation cake in the series, especially since DICE's two last titles, Battlefield 3 and 4, had the same focus and, more or less, felt the same.
With Hardline, new developer Visceral Games brings a brand-new focus that swaps out the multiple armies with the cops vs. criminals focus. Instead of seeing soldiers with different uniforms, you get the police and their special forces and all sorts of criminals, from thugs, to bank robbers and more.
Sure, there have been other games recently that had a cops and robbers theme, such as Overkill's Payday, but Hardline is still a Battlefield game and brings with it the emblematic features of the series, from all sorts of vehicles, to massive maps, wide-scale battles, and other such things.
The story mode, while not matching the Bad Company 1 plot that still reigns supreme in my opinion, is inspired by cop dramas on TV and, for better or worse, delivers an entertaining experience, and provides a good diversion, or at least a learning experience, for those that don't want to jump into multiplayer right away.
The multiplayer benefits the most from the innovation
Speaking of the online experience, this is where Hardline brings the most innovation. Sure, emblematic modes are still present, in the form of Conquest and Team Deathmatch, but the game brings many fresh game types that really benefit from the cops vs. criminals theme.
By far the runaway hit of Hardline's online mode is Hotwire, which turns the classic Domination mode into a more dynamic experience. Instead of rushing towards a location and hoping to defend it from enemy attacks, teams must get to specially marked vehicles, and then drive them at high speeds around the map, in order to dwindle the supply of tickets of the enemy.
This innovation may not seem like much, but when you throw in the already big amounts of fun Battlefield players in vehicles had and turn it into an objective, the result is a blast. Get a good driver, throw in an Engineer and a few Operators to defend the vehicle from enemies, not to mention someone in a helicopter providing support from the sky, and Hotwire can be a surreal experience.
The other modes, from Blood Money, to Heist, Crosshair, or Rescue are also quite fun and manage to keep things quite fresh, while attracting those who favor more cooperative experiences or some who want something close to Counter-Strike's Hostage and VIP missions.
Battlefield Hardline isn't a perfect game and, as always, some issues popped up at launch, but at least as an effort, it should be praised, as the Battlefield series was in need of some fresh air if it wants to keep fighting against Activision's Call of Duty.
