History VideoGame / BattlefieldHardline

* DropTheHammer: The Breaching Hammer and Sledge Hammer are the heaviest melee weapons, causing a OneHitKill every time, but are slow to swing. They can also [[DynamicEntry send doors flying off their hinges.]]

* PunchPackingPistol: Pistols are actually considered primary weapons in this game with assault rifles, shotguns, and other long guns classified as secondary weapons. Thanks to ArbitraryGunPower, pistols will do more damage shot per shot than rifles.

* RevolversAreJustBetter: Averted. The .357 magnum and .44 magnum revolvers don't do much more damage compared to other pistols, and they suffer from reduced ammo capacity and the inability to equip a silencer. In fact, balance-wise there's no real reason to use them besides you just finding them fun to shoot.

* ActorAllusion:
** Creator/KellyHu's character mentions that [[Series/MartialLaw she's from LA]].
** Benito Martinez is once again a [[Series/TheShield police Captain running a squad of shady cops]].

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Yes, Dawes and Stoddard are dead. But as Dawes [[PosthumousNarration admits]], there's too many reputations on the line, too much at stake, too many power players for a group of four people to actually accomplish anything useful in taking it down entirely. The corruption runs so deep that it's nigh impossible for Preferred Outcomes to be stopped as it is. Either Nick takes over the organisation (thus becoming a villain just like Dawes) or else he hides, and gets a new identity - but still will never be able to clear his name of the corruption charges. Given how it ends on a {{cliffhanger}} of what Nick is going to do, also doubles as NoEnding.]]

* NoEnding: [[spoiler: Dawes is dead but whether Nick or Khai take over his empire after his death is left in the air.]]

* AssShove: Heavily implied with [[spoiler:Tap's handcuff key]].

* BrandX: A few of the detectives have shark-themed knockoffs of the Miami Dolphins' helmet on their desks.

* CarChaseShootOut: The 6th episode, "Out of Business" ends with a car chase that has you and your partner switch seats midway through so you can hang outside the car to shoot the pursuing gang vehicles.

* CarHoodSliding: Nick performs a hood slide to get into the driver's seat of his police car to pursue a suspect in the opening cutscene.
* CopShow: The single player campaign plays like one, complete with Creator/{{Netflix}}-style mission result screens.
* CutsceneBoss:
** Towards the end of the game, [[spoiler:Stoddard]] gets taken out almost exactly like a ''Call of Duty'' BigBad. He's about to kill you while you're incapacitated, only to be momentarily distracted by your teammate, giving you an opening to shoot him.
** [[spoiler: Dawes]] too, except the player has no input on this one.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Yes, Dawes and Stoddard are dead. But as Dawes [[PosthumousNarration admits]], there's too many reputations on the line, too much at stake, too many power players for a group of four people to actually accomplish anything useful in taking it down entirely. The corruption runs so deep that it's nigh impossible for Preferred Outcomes to be stopped as it is. Either Nick takes over the organisation (thus becoming a villain just like Dawes) or else he hides, and gets a new identity - but still will never be able to clear his name of the corruption charges. Given how it ends on a {{cliffhanger}} of what Nick is going to do, also doubles as NoEnding.]]

** [[spoiler: Stoddard gets in on the action in Episode 9, blasting his way into your safehouse.]]

* GenghisGambit: The drug war that serves as the main plot of the first half of the game is revealed to be one of these; [[spoiler: Dawes manipulated all the criminal gangs into killing each other, so the gang under his direct control could swoop in and corner the market.]]

* HalfwayPlotSwitch: In the first half of the game, you're a by-the-book cop attempting to learn the cause behind the outbreak of a massive drug war between all the city's criminal gangs. [[spoiler: In the second half of the game, you're an escaped convict working with a gang of similar miscreants, running heists to get revenge against the dirty cop who framed you.]]

* InkSuitActor: The campaign characters bear fairly closely resemble their voice actors.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:As badass as Nick, Khai, Boomer, and Tyson are, there is pretty much no way they are going to take down Preferred Outcomes by force. As is admitted by [[BigBad Dawes]] in a PosthumousNarration, there are too many reputations at stake, too many power players all over the police and other industries and across the country in the very least, for just four people to mount any reasonable offensive in taking it down, especially when one of them is a wanted felon as a supposed DirtyCop and is a cop killer.]]

* NostalgiaLevel: In Episode 8 [[spoiler: Mendoza briefly commandeers a tank, calling back to the series' long roots in armored warfare.]]
* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Hardline is the ''13th'' full Battlefield game and the 21st installment including expansion packs.
* OnlyInMiami: The singleplayer storyline is centered in Miami, though it does extend beyond it.
* OnlySixFaces: There are only a handful of different face models for the single player campaign's game's enemies, which becomes apparent if you use the up-close-and-personal takedown move a lot instead of just shooting everyone from a distance.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: An evil PMC becomes the mooks in the latter stages of the campaign. Their name, "Preferred Outcomes" is a reference to the one of most (in)famous PMC, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes Executive Outcomes]]
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits[=/=]EnemyMine: Nick's crew in the second half of the game consists of himself ([[spoiler: an escaped convict]]), a dirty cop, a drug dealer, and a white-collar criminal hacker. They all make it clear early on that the only reason they're working together is to get revenge on BigBad [[spoiler: Dawes]] and (for at least one of them) advance their own criminal interests, rather than any higher ideals of justice.
* RecklessGunUsage: In episode one, Mendoza uses the butt of his handgun to knock on a door, pointing the barrel right in his partner's face.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Early on, Mendoza has one where Stoddard [[DirtyCop gives him money for a job well done for Stoddard, not for Mendoza]]. Mendoza [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules drops the money behind him]], which proves to Khai, Stoddard, and Dawes that Mendoza is in fact a ByTheBookCop. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it's an inverted example to the norm: they wanted him to take the money and prove he was corrupt to let him into their schemes, not use him to root them out.]]

* ShoutOut: As of the Feb 5th second beta, quite a few have been seen.
** A movie poster showing 'The Dead Rise' is styled similarly to VideoGame/TheWalkingDead.
** *Upon spotting enemy player wielding T62 CEW*
-->'''Player''': [[MemeticMutation Don't taze me bro!!]]"
** When the Syndicate Hacker gives a squad the 'Fast Deployment' upgrade, he may tell them that, "[[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda ...it's too dangerous to go alone.]]"
** One of the achievements you can get(from profiling ten criminals in single-player) is called [[VideoGame/WatchDogs "Watched Dawg"]]
** There are lots of ''{{Franchise/Dead Space}}'' references in the game, because they were both developed by Visceral:
*** Two enemies can be seen playing ''{{VideoGame/Dead Space}} 1'', even discussing some plot elements (Nicole's name comes up, though spoilers are avoided) and lampshading how good the Line Gun is. The game will actually pause when they see the player.
*** A multiplayer map has a Marker statue, another one has an Ishimura shop

** One of the primary villains is named [[ComicBook/SinCity Roark]].

* WeatherOfWar: Two of the multiplayer maps feature weather effects that will begin mid-match. "Riptide" will be hit by a hurricane, and "Dust Bowl" will be overtaken by a sandstorm.

''Hardline'' is a radical departure from the military theme associated with the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' franchise, instead placing you in the shoes of Detective Nick Mendoza, a rookie detective with the Miami Police Department, as he battles against criminal gangs [[spoiler:and [[DirtyCop corrupt cops]].]]

* FirstPersonShooter
* GangBangers: These guys are a subfaction of the Criminals in the multiplayer, and are usually seen on maps set in rural or low-income areas. Because ''Hardline'' is set in 2015, their attire is slimmer than usual for this archetype.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:As badass as Nick, Khai, Boomer, and Tyson are, there is pretty much no way they are going to take down Preferred Outcomes by force. As is admitted by [[BigBad Dawes]] in a PosthumousNarration, there are too many reputations at stake, too many power players all over the police and other industries and across the country in the very least, for just four people to mount any reasonable offensive in taking it down, especially when one of them is a wanted felon as a supposed DirtyCop and is a cop killer.]]

Now it has a [[Characters/BattlefieldHardline character sheet]], which NeedsWikiMagicLove.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Yes, Dawes and Stoddard are dead. But as Dawes [[PosthumousNarration admits]], there's too many reputations on the line, too much at stake, too many power players for a group of four people to actually accomplish anything useful in taking it down entirely. The corruption runs so deep that it's nigh impossible for Preferred Outcomes to be stopped as it is. Given how it ends on a {{cliffhanger}} of what Nick is going to do, also doubles as NoEnding.]]

* JokeWeapon: "Backwoods" has a usable [[NailEm nailgun]] as a pickup weapon.

** Of course you can pilot a helicopter!
** Nick somehow knows how to pilot a tank. [[CrewOfOne All by himself]]. Without even any advanced warning that he would need to do so.

The major difference from the rest of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' franchise is that instead of soldiers, the game places you in the shoes of police officers battling gangs.

The major difference from the rest of the ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}}'' franchise is that the setting is now a Cops and Robbers setting as opposed to a military one.