Game review: Battlefield Hardline

A screengrab from the game Battlefield Hardline, a next-gen shooter.

Shaky cameras, gnarly character actors, gritty storylines and grisly crime scenes. You could mistake Battlefield Hardline's opening scenes for a reboot of the late, great cop show NYPD Blue.

That's not the only TV reference the 13th Battlefield title makes: it's split into an episodic format of 10 chapters, employs producers from hardboiled police shows, offers highlights packages and previews, and includes great performances from its stable of True Detective and The Shield actors. At times during the game's mostly gripping story mode, it can feel like you're bingeing on a really good Netflix show.

That this cops vs crooks game comes with a Battlefield title - one of the genre's most popular first-person shooter franchises - is Hardline's first surprise, because there's barely a pair of camouflage pants in sight. The second is that playing from the perspective of the good guys can be as much fun as being the bad guys. Yes, with odds stacked against them, Dead Space developers Visceral Games has delivered something that feels inspired.

Hardline also comes close to making up for Battlefield 4's buggy release. It casts players as Nick Mendoza (Law & Order's Nicholas Gonzalez), who is tasked with fighting Miami's war on drugs alongside his partner Khai Minh Dao (Arrow's Kelly Hu). The settings for their exploits are wonderful: gloomy gang-run suburbs, abandoned warehouses, and broken-down buildings swarming with bad guys. And the missions never get boring, with an adventurous mix of exploring, evidence-gathering, investigating, and inventive shoot-outs.

Sure, there are cop cliches on offer, but by the time you've held off gangsters swarming a derelict building while stemming bloodflow from a bullet hole in your partner's shoulder, you'll be committed to seeing Hardline's story through to its blood-splattered end.

Innovation is also employed for Hardline's multiplayer modes, many of which make the most of the game's police theme. Blood Money asks teams to steal money from each other's armoured trucks, while Rescue tasks you with saving hostages being held ransom. And Heist, in which you stop criminals from stealing bags of cash from vaults, employs the simplest tactics but delivers the most fun.

Then there's Team Deathmatch, which delivers Hardline's biggest nod to its military past by asking participants to kill their opponents before they kill you. For once, it's refreshing to see that option tacked on, rather than being the game's main focus. If this is what being a good guy feels like, I'm all for it.

Game: Battlefield Hardline
Rating: R16
Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC

- TimeOut