Battlefield: Hardline’s Last Level Reveals A Game That Never Was

Baden of WGB: "I wasn’t exactly very impressed with Battlefield: Hardline’s singleplayer campaign. The first half was interesting, focusing on relatively down-to-Earth cop-based action, but the second half completely went off the rails, attempting to emulate Call of Duty by somehow fitting in a tank, a bloody stupid elevator scene and a helicopter which inexplicably flies through a firework display so that it can conveniently snag your zipline wire. Talk about a jarring shift in tone."

[TheJacksonRGN]

I like the direction the campaign took in the second half. Though still being able to arrest people made no sense.

[WolfLeBlack]

Each to their own, of course. I've talked to a few people who quite liked the second half, and to be fair I get why. I also get what they were going for, I think, but it just adds to the feeling that Hardline has an identity crisis.

[ChronoJoe]

I didn't really feel that way playing the game, because earlier levels, such as the swamp segment of the game, had similar levels of freedom. There wasn't as clear an objective, but it was still similar in how you approached the objectives and what optional exploration you choose to do. This also featured in segments like the portion of the game where you had to reclaim your lost weapons.

I think this was mere variance, intend to benefit the games pacing. I did not feel it was a sudden shift, specifically towards the latter half of the game, and I did not get the sense that the game had an identity crisis in the sense you describe.

If anything, the only identity crisis vibe I got was whether it was a cop game, or a battlefield game. They didn't embrace and expand upon the cop systems and relied on the 'all out guns blazing' approach as a fallback to every mission. While some liked that, I thought it was a little odd that you could act like Judge Dredd. I understand that within the context of the story, it was apparently overlooked, but it just felt a little farfetched!

Plus, the only cop feature they had was the arrest system... but it could have been expanded on a lot more. Variance in how bad guys react to having a badge flashed at them would have been nice, as would the ability to hold a hostage or ask enemies to disarm themselves (kick their guns away etc), before arresting multiple targets.

[SouthClaw]

I think its a matter of two great ideas fighting each other. Hardline started off as a TV show but then halfway through decided to be an action movie.

Both great ideas and both done well but tbh I don't think they mixed well.

I would have personally rather they kept the show style and that way the DLC could have included tv show episodes.