The wait is over as AusGamers' own Joab "Joaby" Gilroy takes the single-player portion of EA and Visceral's Battlefield: Hardline for a spin. And being a game that aspires to reach the heights of a rich crime drama along the lines of a True Detective or a Justified, Joaby is left to ponder where it fits on the scale of NCIS to NCIS: New Orleans.

From Joaby's review:

Seeking out people (Visceral Studios) with experience in the genre pays off for the campaign, creating a storyline which is believable enough while still allowing for the explosive set pieces that are now gaming's bread and butter. The Arrest mechanic does the inexplicable, providing players with a non-violent (or less violent, depending on your opinions regarding the restraint of non-sentient AI characters) option -- unheard of in a Triple-A first-person shooter. The gameplay, broken up into large level chunks and giving way to improvisational strategising, allows the player a lot of agency -- even if the cutscenes still insist on removing control from players.

As for the rest of us, we're off to reset our Hardline Review Clock 2000^TM for some time later this week. Because hey this is Battlefield, and Joaby's not allowed to watch anymore NCIS: Los Angeles (he has a thing for LL Cool J) until he's gotten some solid multiplayer time in and given us his full definitive take. So stay tuned.

Click Here to Read the Single-Player Review