Battlefield Hardline is a first-person shooter video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in March 2015 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Unlike the previous games in the Battlefield series, Hardline focuses on crime, heist and policing elements instead of military warfare.
Upon release, the game received a mixed critical reception, with critics praising the game's multiplayer mode, accessibility and voice acting, while criticizing the game's plot, stealth and narrative. It is the final Battlefield game to be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. It was also the last game to be developed by Visceral Games before the company shut down in 2017.
Gameplay
The focus of the game is the "war on crime", breaking away from the military setting that characterized the series. As such, the main factions in Hardline are the police Special Response Units and criminals. Players have access to various military-grade weapons and vehicles, such as the Lenco BearCat, as well as having police equipment such as tasers and handcuffs.
Hardline also uses the "Levolution" mechanic from Battlefield 4. For example, in the map "Downtown" players can send a construction crane crashing into the building, ripping down debris from the central buildings in downtown, which falls down on the streets of Los Angeles. This time, every map features multiple Levolution events, both small and large.
Many new game modes are featured in Hardline, including "Heist", "Rescue", "Hotwire", "Blood Money", and "Crosshair" Mode.
- Heist: The criminals must break into a cash filled vault (or as featured in some maps, blow open the doors of an armoured truck) then move the cash filled packages to an extraction point; the police must stop them. If the Criminals manage to escape by bringing all the money to the extraction point, they win.
- Blood Money: Both factions must retrieve money from an open crate in the center of the map, then move it back to their respective side's armored truck. Players can also steal money from the opposing team's truck. The team that first deposits $5 million worth of money into their truck or the team with the most money under a time limit wins.
- Hotwire: Drivable cars take the role of traditional Conquest "flags". Like Conquest, capturing cars (done by driving above a certain "cruising" speed) will bleed the enemy team's reinforcement tickets. The team who reduces the other's to zero or who has the most tickets remaining after the time limit wins.
- Rescue: In a 3 minute long 5 vs 5 competitive mode, S.W.A.T. officers must try to rescue hostages held by criminal forces. The cops win by either rescuing the hostage(s) or by killing all the criminals. Criminals win by killing all the cops, or defending the hostages until the negotiations are over. Each player has only one life in this mode, that means no respawns.
- Crosshair: The second competitive game mode in Battlefield Hardline. Crosshair is also 3 minutes long, 5 vs 5 with only one life. In Crosshair the criminals are trying to kill a player controlled VIP on the cops side who is a former gang member turned states witness. The criminals win by killing the VIP and the cops win by getting the VIP to the extraction point.
Visceral Games ratified that the single-player campaign will not be linear and promised to deliver a better one than the predecessors. The campaign features episodic crime dramas where choices will change situational outcomes and gameplay experiences. As a cop, players can use multiple police gadgets and personal equipments. The police badge can be used in ordering criminals to lay down their weapons, the scanner is used to stake out a situation, identify high-value targets, log evidences, tag alarms, and mark other threats. To slip past unnoticed, players can use bullet cases to distract enemies.
Plot
In 2012, Miami Police Detectives Nick Mendoza and Carl Stoddard (Travis Willingham) make a drug bust that goes violent. After arresting a fleeing suspect, Captain Julian Dawes (Benito Martinez) has Nick partner up with Khai Minh Dao (Kelly Hu) to follow a lead to cocaine broker Tyson Latchford (Adam J. Harrington). Forcing his associate to wear a wire, they find a new drug called Hot Shot being sold in the streets of Miami and rescue Tyson from a group of armed men. In the process Khai is severely wounded, putting her out of action for several weeks. After returning (against her doctor's orders), Dawes orders the two to bring in Leo Ray (Graham Shiels) from the Elmore Hotel but are forced to fight their way through armed men connected to drug dealer Remy Neltz (T.J. Storm), who is distributing the Hot Shot drug. While capturing Leo, Khai beats him up for seemingly insulting her.
Leo's information leads the two detectives to the Everglades, where drug bales are being dropped. Investigating the area, they discover several of Neltz's drug operations and Leo's mutilated corpse, who was presumably killed for cooperating with the Miami Police. They eventually find Neltz only to escape back to Miami. Before leaving, he mentions that he took a deal from Stoddard. The officers corner him in a Miami warehouse only for Stoddard to kill Neltz as he was about to elaborate more on their deal. Nick leaves in disgust after Stoddard and Khai take some cash before more officers arrive. Later, as a hurricane makes landfall, Dawes sends Nick and Khai back to the crime scene for any evidence incriminating Stoddard. Finding Neltz's recording implicating Stoddard, Nick finds his former partner in a meeting with other dealers but is forced to work with him to rescue Khai from more armed men. The three later meet Dawes, who destroys the evidence implicating Stoddard and revealing that himself and Khai are corrupt. The three betray Nick due to his refusal to go along with their scheme, framing him for laundering Neltz's drug money.
