Battlefield Hardline

Battlefield Hardline featured image

Battlefield Hardline is a first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. Unlike previous games in the Battlefield series, Hardline focuses on crime, heist, and police elements rather than military warfare, making it similar to the Grand Theft Auto series instead of Medal of Honor or Call of Duty.

The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in March 2015.

Plot and location

The game's focus is "war on crime" instead of the historical or futuristic settings of other Battlefield games. Battlefield Hardline's main factions are police Special Response Units and various criminals.

Players have access to various heavy duty law enforcement weapons and vehicles, such as Renko his bearcat, and police equipment, such as tasers and handcuffs.

battlefield-hardline-GAMEPLAY

In the BF Hardline single player campaign, the player takes on the role of Nick Mendoza, a young detective who travels the United States to bring his former partners to justice after they became corrupt. Miami is embroiled in a drug war and Nick (voiced by Philip Anthony Rodriguez and motion recorded by Nicholas Gonzalez) has just been named a detective.He partners with veteran detective Khai Minh Dao (voiced by Kelly Hu). The pair of detectives inevitably becomes embroiled in a deep conspiracy of corruption within law enforcement and organized crime.

Gameplay

Similar to Battlefield 4, the levels in Battlefield Hardline are built in a sandbox-style environment, but are much larger and give players more freedom to complete their objectives. Players have the option of approaching the situation with a typical shootout or through stealth. While it may be easier to accomplish goals with gunplaye, players gain bonus points for taking a non-lethal approach.

Hardline introduced or brought back several features to the Battlefield franchise of games, including:

  • Levolution – Destroying environmental features on the map can influence the gameplay radically, depending on player actions.
  • Control Mapping - Console players can swap the aim and fire triggers.
  • Hacker Mode - Similar to the Commander Mode in other Battlefield games, Hacker Mode allows her one player on each team to provide useful resources to her team while directing her leader to the right ends.
  • Legendary Status – Players who own Battlefield Hardline Hardline: Robbery or Battlefield Premium and has attained Rank 150 in Heist can reset their entire unlock progress to gain a Legendary level. This allows you to progress further and earn exclusive Legendary rewards.
  • Battlelog - Players can track stats, join platoons, participate in missions, get the latest news, and more.
  • Spray Tag - Allows players to harmlessly spray emblems onto any surface, which is often used to mark a kill for bragging rights.
  • Non-Lethal Takedown - Players wielding a blunt weapon or hammer can perform non-lethal takedowns, allowing players to interrogate enemies and reveal their locations on the map. Hitting with the T62 CEW can also trigger a non-lethal takedown.
  • Reputation – BF Hardline introduced a new specialization system that replaces Battlefield 4's Upgrade Pass system.

Battlefield Hardline has a ranking system that progresses based on experience gained through the game. The game uses French playing cards as rank badges with a total of 150 ranks. The game also contains coins that are awarded for completing certain actions.

After earning certain coins a certain number of times, the player gets a bounty. Service Stars are awarded after earning enough experience for that item. Stars in different tiers have different rewards. Bronze Stars apply gameplay bonuses. Meanwhile, the Silver and Gold Stars reward cosmetics applied to the appearances of classes and weapons.

Visuals and other features

Many new game modes are featured for the first time in Battleifield Hardline, including Heist, Rescue, Hotwire, Blood Money, and Crosshair Mode. There are some similarities to multiplayer modes in other Battlefield games, but are themed towards urban crime vs. law enforcement instead of the usual military theme.

For instance, Rescue is a 3-minute long 5v5 mode with S.W.A.T. attempting to save hostages from criminals. Another example is Heist which has criminals break into a vault, with their goal being to get all the money to an extraction point, while the team playing the cops tries to stop them.

Battlefield Hardline also had expansions, with five story-themed expansions as of 2016: Criminal Activity, Robbery, Blackout, Getaway, and Betrayal. These expansions added new modes and game variants, gadgets, weapons, and other content.

Release Date

Mar 17, 2015

Metacritic Score

72

Rating

Achievements Count

502

Play Time

7.5 hours

Games in Series

17

ESRB

Mature 17+: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Use of Drugs

System Requirements

Minimum:

  • CPU: Athlon II/Phenom II 2.8 GHz, Intel Core i3/i5 2.4GHz
  • GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (896 MB)
  • RAM: 4 GB
  • HDD: 60 GB

Recommended:

  • CPU: INTEL QUAD-CORE CPU, AMD SIX-CORE CPU
  • GPU: 3 GB VRAM, AMD Radeon R9 290, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
  • RAM: 8 GB
  • HDD: 60 GB

Interesting Facts

  • The game features four classes that function in similar manners to the classes of Battlefield 4 but with notable differences.
  • Battlefield Hardline features two factions, Law Enforcement and Criminals.
  • Battlefield Hardline features nine maps set across the United States as well as seven game modes upon its release.
  • Battlefield Hardline was released with special editions. These are the Digital Deluxe Edition, Deluxe Edition, Gamestop Edition, and the Ultimate Edition. These special editions would come with different Battlepacks, while the Ultimate Edition also includes Battlefield Premium.
  • Battlefield Hardline is the last Battlefield series game to be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It’s also the last game Visceral Games developed before the 2017 closure of the company.
  • Fans and players who registered to at least the closed beta of Hardline received a special CAC, or Common Access Card, aka Military ID. This can be used as a Dog-Tag in Battlefield 4.
  • The game had numerous codenames such as “Havana” and “Omaha” during development. In the game files of Battlefield Hardline, the game is still called Havana.

Cheats support

Yes

Microtransactions

Yes

Number of maps

9

Third/First Person

First person

Platforms

PC PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 Xbox 360 Xbox One

Genres

ActionFirst-person shooterModern

Game Engine

Frostbite 3

Protagonist sex

Male

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