Jumping from the front lines of military action to the streets has left this shooter feeling just a little undercooked. Battlefield Hardline’s single-player campaign tackles the war on drugs; Nick Mendoza, the last honest detective in Miami, is dragged through a world of dirty cops, survivalist gun nuts and conspiracies reaching from the east to west coasts. It’s all done like an 80s action movie, dripping with cliche and lacking much character above freshman-level banter. The solid multiplayer goes full “cops and robbers”, with multiple gameplay modes all based on a police team trying to stop a rival team playing criminals.
Though the graphics are gorgeous and everything’s presented very stylishly, the gameplay feels stuck between two worlds. There’s an emphasis on stealth, non-lethal arrests and trying to avoid direct combat, plus other sequences of forced action that feel like they’re from a different game.
Battlefield Hardline could have been a great stealth game or a great FPS. It tries to be both and, sadly, fails.
