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 "Battlefield Hardline" marks the first foray away from the military
campaigns that characterize the franchise into a Miami Vice-style
cops-and-robbers scenario.
You play narcotics detective Nick Mendoza, who discovers there is
corruption in his vice unit as new and dangerous drugs arrive in
Miami and flood the streets by the shipload.
So, cue rampaging through the streets, all guns blazing, taking down
the bad guys? No, the emphasis here is on stealth, and points to
unlock bonus features and items are earned by making arrests without
killing.
The incentive to avoid complete carnage on city streets is perhaps
an effort by Visceral Games and Electronic Arts to freshen up the
franchise and sidestep the moral opprobrium that has greeted the
likes of the Grand Theft Auto series (although it hasn't depressed
their sales).
This will inevitably frustrate many gamers. But the high-risk,
high-reward mechanics of sneaking around and taking thugs unawares
can be fun and does offer a nice change of pace from most
kill-everything-that-moves first-person shooters.
Some parts of the game lack polish though - such as crooks
immediately falling asleep after being handcuffed - while in the
single-player campaign the overarching storyline soon seems
supplanted by a series of clichéd 1980s cop movie sub-plots.
That's not to say that many action sequences are not enjoyable, but
like its predecessors in the 13-year-old Battlefield series - which
have sold tens of millions of copies in total - Hardline's main
appeal for most fans lies in the multi-player gaming.
Last month, Electronic Arts reported earnings and revenue that beat
estimates and attributed the good results partly to the launch of
Hardline, saying more than 30 million online sessions of it were
played in the first quarter.
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The maximum number of 64 players has been kept, and the closer
quarters of an urban environment, and the replacement of tanks and
fighter jets with trucks, motorbikes and ziplines adds a more
frantic dynamic to online clashes.
Between game modes such as Hotwire, Heist, Rescue and Crosshair, and
a wide variety of weapons, attachments and customization options -
even for the vehicles - there's a fair amount of new skills to
master to keep play interesting.
With Hardline, which runs on PC, PlayStations 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and
Xbox One, Battlefield gets closer to Call of Duty's style of
gameplay, while still setting itself apart with vehicles, wider
arenas and more simultaneous players.
(Renan Silva is a Reuters employee. The views expressed are his own)
(Editing by Pravin Char)
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