Battlefield Hardline on PC: setting up the game and quickly leveling up. Battlefield Hardline on PC: setting up the game and quickly leveling up How an enforcer can be useful
Anyone who is at least somewhat interested in multiplayer shooters has probably played enough of Hardline still during the early access period for subscribers EA Access, but those few who decided to devote the next year to the career of a robber most likely managed to drag their friends into the game. And yet, for multi-user projects on the engine Frostbite 2.0 and above, as practice shows, it can be useful to wait out the first months of the developers’ active struggle with the shortcomings that emerged at launch. So, armed with common sense, freed from the touch of pre-release hype, and a digital version of the game, brought to mind with several patches, we boldly proceed to the review.
Freed by a powerful advertising campaign from the need to tell obvious things about the fact that the new brainchild Visceral Games is a spin-off of the series Battlefield, narrowing the focus of major military conflicts to the war between police and criminals, I will try to talk about why it is worth loving and why it is worth hating. And let the skeptics immediately exclaim that the game, from the cover of which exactly under the inscription Battlefield A cop with a pretentious pout of his lips is staring at you through aviator glasses, you should quickly throw it in the trash can, Hardline still capable of pleasantly surprising and delighting those who like to shoot - even those who have inhaled plenty of dust from a destroyed skyscraper from Battlefield 4.
Completely borrowing controls and mechanics from its older brother, Hardline got rid of ballast in the form of military equipment, leaving in the garage only a couple of types of helicopters, an armored van with a machine gun and several types of vehicles. Instead of wide fields full of cereal crops, where you had to calculate the physics of a flying projectile, in Hardline almost all battles take place at shorter distances and technology plays an exclusively supporting role in them. A much greater emphasis here is placed on shootings, which is something that many gamers, especially those who migrated to Battlefield from Call of Duty, have been waiting for a long time, purchasing add-ons like Close Quarters for Battlefield 3.
Inspired by the classic landscapes of modern Heist action films, the level designers not only tried to draw the levels in accordance with the style, but also worked hard on the structure of the levels. Whether it's a swampy Louisiana swamp, a pillared central bank, or an abandoned smuggling camp on the Mexican border, each of the nine maps offers an impressive variety of alternate routes and tactical points of interest. However, their small number will make you think in the server selection menu in just a couple of days - which of them has become less boring than the others?
Contrary to the habit of immediately rushing into Capture for 64 persons, in Hardline It’s much more pleasant to get acquainted with new modes. Of course, they cannot be called something truly innovative - we have repeatedly seen the ideas underlying them in shooters of various genres of the last ten years. For users tired of the traditional two Conquest/Rush, the three new modes will seem like a real treat.
Heist is a bank robbery that splits two teams into robbers and cops who get in their way. Don't expect a meticulous simulation of the entire process ala PayDay- All the raiders have to do is wait for the timer to go off while the automated devices drill into the armored doors of the vault, and then take two cases to randomly generated helicopter landing points. The bandits' victory is counted after the second diplomat is attached to the helicopter's hook, but there is a slight subtlety. As soon as the carrier of valuables drops the case, and the cops fight off attempts by enemies to pick it up again within a certain period of time, the loot will automatically return to the storage facility. Re-taking the loot will be much more difficult, given that the cops (if they don't click their mouths) will be able to properly barricade themselves inside. In part, this is the main drawback in the balance - on some maps it is quite possible to prevent robbers from even approaching the storage facility: it is enough to throw a couple of entrances with a flammable mixture and keep an eye on the remaining ones. When the number of respawn tokens for the bad guys drops to zero, the forces of law and order will win. After each case is lost by the bandits, the landing zone moves to another location.
IN Blood Money The parties will have to rush around the warehouse with thick stacks of banknotes, taking bags tightly stuffed with “greens” to their base. Moreover, while one team is trying to dominate the central vault with varying degrees of success, by conspiring with friends you can board a capacious helicopter and clean out the safe of the opposing team. And if to at this moment The community more or less learned to monitor the storage counters; at the start, one could very often feel a surge of anger due to the fact that the sentries assigned to defend the base missed the enemy group.
IN Hotwire players are waiting for some kind of hybrid CTF with capturing points. It looks like this: a passenger car with a special mark appears on the map - you need to get behind the wheel and, having accelerated, maintain high speed, not allowing your opponents to destroy the car or take possession of it. According to the creators' idea, all participants in the action were to become participants in a grandiose chase. In practice, everything turned out to be that the majority of players on the field showed minimal interest in the “goal”. While one or two pursuers are chasing the moving “flag,” everyone else continues to exchange fire in the center of the map.
Despite the absence of full-scale combat operations involving fighters and heavy artillery, even ordinary firefights turn into a spectacular spectacle due to the already mentioned level design. And let it be local levolution does not reach the scale of a high-rise building falling in the middle of Shanghai, due to a combination of factors, the run-and-gun we are used to is able to please with the atmosphere.
Tired of taking cases from the cops in a two-story ghetto, we take a light machine gun and, as if in a Tarantino film, to wild laughter, we turn the plasterboard walls into a sieve, simultaneously sending a couple of thugs hiding on the upper floors to the next world. Winding between rusty trailers and the squalid shacks of Latinos who dilute cocaine with pharmaceutical drugs, we try to hide from a helicopter flying at low level. A sandstorm comes to our aid, significantly reducing visibility not only for the pilot, but also for the snipers who climbed the water tower. At the train station, under the cover of darkness, we go down into the basement, where growers grow killer varieties of grass, and find ourselves drawn into a shootout with cops lurking in the shadows - well, just a classic of the genre! Moreover, my personal cinematic experience did not end there; I experienced such things that it is even difficult to say whether it was a drama or a comedy. The counter of tokens is almost zero, with the last of my strength I manage to shoot the cops guarding the cargo, I pick up the case and, as fast as I can, run out into the street, dealing with a couple more policemen along the way. Left without cartridges, I take the pistol and see how opposite side In the open area, several opponents are running towards me - it’s time to dive between the containers, where, shuddering with a nervous squeal, I bump into two more policemen. By some miracle I kill them and realize that I don’t have that far to run to the point located near the carriages. A few jumps, my faith in victory strengthens, a few more meters... and then I notice that columns of flame are bursting out of a fuel tank located a meter away from me... it seems that I’m stuck... Another second and everything flies up into the air! It's a shame, but damn it, it was cooler than any cop-movie and all the latest Call of Duty parts combined.
IN Hardline new gadgets have appeared - a grappling hook that allows you to climb onto ledges, a cable with which you can jump to the next roof (especially useful when storming high-rise buildings on the map in the center Los Angeles) and gas masks, which will relieve the vases of health falling in a cloud of gas and pain in the eyes, which interferes with aiming and shooting. As in any self-respecting game about special forces, Hardline there is an assault shield that reliably protects from bullets not only its owner, but also all his partners who stand directly behind him.
No matter how much I avoid vulgar expressions, Hardline filled with adrenaline and drive. On the map with swamps, we are holding a tight defense in one of the gas stations - having shot several horns and no longer really understanding which side the enemy is coming from, I purely mechanically continue to fire at targets, select an under-barrel grenade launcher and almost at random fire shells in all directions - an explosion, and a van blown up by a shell rolls up to me by inertia, and the kill counter in turn writes on the screen six names of the poor fellows who burned in the armored car. Or a battle at the top of a skyscraper: with difficulty and heavy losses we make our way to the roof, in which guys with shields noticeably help us, we clear the helipad, and then one by one our people begin to die from sniper fire. In addition to all the troubles, a helicopter appears on the horizon, loaded with guys who plan to land on our site. Something needs to be done... I kill the shooters on the opposite roof, grab the crossbow and pull the cable over the abyss. Having rolled down to where the snipers had recently been, I pick up a surface-to-air rocket launcher, aim at the vehicle and pull the trigger - the guys didn’t even have time to get out of the car - the whole set of brave guys falls to the foot of the colossus of glass and concrete. Hardline It may have lost the Abrams built into its armor and the artillery trails stretching over the horizon, but it remained the same sandbox teeming with possibilities.
What causes much more criticism is the graphical component of the game. Unlike beautiful screenshots, which the studio boasted last year, in reality Hardline inferior to Battlefield 4, which was released a year earlier. Uploading textures that cannot boast of high quality, meager effects in places and not the most accurate models are clearly an indicator that the studio used someone else’s technology without learning how to work with it. If you do not want to be completely disappointed in the game, do not launch the single-player mode under any circumstances - in addition to the terrible technological backwardness and gray scale, which the best creations of the game industry on a post-apocalyptic theme would envy, you will find naive attempts to turn a stupid shooter into an abstruse detective story with an “intriguing” storyline and “exploring,” which involves collecting evidence illuminated by the visor. The implementation of the plan turned out to be really bad.
And yet, in everything related to online play, Hardline turned out to be a surprisingly successful project. Let everyone who hoped to see in it a well-made PayDay with good graphics, and those who missed watching Counter-Strike with all its M16s and HE grenades, had to be disappointed in the lack of deep tactics and smart features that diversify the gameplay, those who like to shoot will enjoy the game. It is worth making a note, however, to play Hardline highly recommended in the company of friends. As with any business, you should go on a robbery with trusted people - in this case, you have a chance not only to increase your efficiency, but also to have much more fun.
In fact, the developers Hardline tried their best - a new game Visceral This is not just a thoughtless skin mod that replaced the models of fighters in vests with thugs in balaclavas. By the way, the artists did a very, very good job on the style - in addition to the models, the characters’ replicas were completely redone, and the car radios sound well-chosen music, starting with modern compositions and ending with rap classics, familiar to fans of the French drama “Hate,” which tells about guys from the ghetto , which further emphasize the atmosphere.
Keeping the basic mechanics Battlefield, the authors went over the concept of a shooter. But even with all its advantages, Hardline can be simply boring. Whether this is due to the lack of sensible innovations in gameplay or locations, which, due to their compactness, get boring quite quickly, but I admit that I am ready to spend much more time in the network mode of the same Battlefield 4. And still anticipating possible problems Battlefront, Rainbow Six Siege and, especially, the new Call of Duty, Hardline is capable of becoming a good replacement for the “four” that has been living for two years now. sit in Hardline It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to spend days on end, but you definitely want to go into it again, after some time. Visceral Games You can at least thank them for the fact that they managed to create a game without obvious balance problems - today something like that is worth its weight in gold.
Preparing for launch:
Installing ZClient and ZLOrigin:
First of all, disable your antivirus and firewall, if any. they can falsely trigger the emulator's libraries or block its access to the Internet.
2. Register for
3. Download ZLOrigin and unpack the archive to a location convenient for you and start the installation.
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If you have Origin from EA (license), do not install ZLOrigin in its folder under any circumstances, these programs should be located in different places. The path to the ZLOrigin folder should not contain Cyrillic. Wait for it to complete and exit the installer without running ZLOrigin.
4. Create in a folder ZLOrigin folder ZClient. Download ZClient.exe
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5. Create in a folder ZLOrigin folder Easy Launcher. Download Easy Launcher and put it in this folder.
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Installing Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 games:
1. Launch ZClient with administrator rights. Enter registration data (mail and password) from the site
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We are waiting for the client update, data and successful authorization.
2. Launch ZLOrigin.exe. If ZClient successfully logged in, ZLOrigin will automatically connect to the network.
3. Go to the tab "My games", select from the presented games or and click "Install". If in the settings ZLOrigin You have changed the game installation path to your own - remember, it should not contain Cyrillic. Wait for the games and all their DLC to be installed.
Installation of Battlefield Hardline:
1. Download the game client and put it in the folder ZLOrigin
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2. Download ZInstaller and drop it into the folder with the downloaded game.
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Let's launch ZInstaller.bat, select the game language ( for Russian we print 15) and start the installation. We are waiting for the end.
3. Unpack BFH-ZLO to the game folder.
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4. Launch ZClient And ZLOrigin, if everything is done correctly - after checking the files ZLOrigin the game will be ready to launch.
Starting the game:
1. Launch ZClient.exe and wait for successful authorization.
2. Launch ZLOrigin.exe.
3. Launch Easy Launcher.exe.
In Game:
Connection:
After launch Easy Launcher.exe. choose the game you want- , or .
Select the server you need from the list and click on the button "Connect".
After the latest patch, it has an in-game interface, so it can be launched using a much simpler scheme. Let's launch ZClient.exe, select from the drop-down list at the bottom of the program Battlefield 4 x64 \ Battlefield 4 x32 and click "Launch".
ZLOrigin is not needed in this case. We get into the game, select a campaign or network game, and connect to the servers.
If ZClient cannot connect to the master server, check the functionality of the Monolith on
The next part of the series is already rolling out to us. Although you can’t call it a full-fledged continuation of Battlefield Hardline, it’s more like a spin-off. Some people didn’t like the game, because the maps in it are much smaller than in the fourth part, some liked the theme of the struggle between criminals and guardians of the law, while others did not notice any difference at all: the same running around, the same explosions , same graphics. Or is it not?
Before we get into the multiplayer mode, we should talk a little about the single player campaign in Battlefield Hardline. We all know that the Battlefield series' single-player campaign is mediocre, to put it mildly. Most often, this is just outright hack work, for which the buyer player gives real money. So, in the campaign we have to play as a policeman named Mendoza. He is a very honest and brave guy who is really trying to bring law and order to the streets of the city. He will have to face both criminals and corrupt police officers who have already forgotten about such concepts as conscience and honor.
The campaign in Hardline, to our great surprise, is still better than in the serialized parts of the series. Perhaps this happened because Electronic Arts decided to outsource the development of the game to Visceral Games, who have a pretty good understanding of how to make single-player games. In addition, many famous actors were invited, who played the main characters of the game quite well. However, we should not forget the fact that no matter how good the actors are, they cannot pull off the entire single game without, in fact, a good and high-quality script.
Shooter Battlefield Hardline
For some reason they added stealth to the game, which is not needed at all in the game. Don't forget that Hardline is a shooter, and its main feature is , and not some kind of stealth, which is also implemented very crookedly. The opponents are expectedly deaf and blind, so going through even small parts of locations in stealth mode is extremely boring and monotonous. Mowing down bandits with guns is much more fun, although it gets very boring towards the end of the game.
In addition, the annoying thing about the game is that for some reason you can’t change the dialogue language from Russian to English. You yourself know how poorly our translators generally voice characters from video games. Poorly chosen intonations of the characters, as well as terrible overacting with or without reason, turn all the dialogues into some kind of confusion and farce.
In general, the single-player campaign came out, as always, as a rather crude product that still needs work. Traditional bugs with textures and character models have not gone away either. All this is very unnerving and annoying, so I want to go through the single-player part of the game as quickly as possible and plunge headlong into the online component of this creation.
Since the single-player game leaves much to be desired, one has to rely on online play. But an experienced person will immediately understand that something is completely wrong here. And not in a good way. The maps are all small, there is little equipment, and as a result the battles have become much more boring. After maps like “Golmud Road” or “Storm on the Paracels”, which we all remember from BF4, maps in Hardline are not taken seriously. It seems that you were fooled and instead of an exciting war, you were given a school showdown in the backyard. The most you will see from equipment in the game is a small helicopter that can be shot down with a regular machine gun! Precisely with a machine gun, and not with a rocket launcher or anti-aircraft gun. Perhaps the developers thought that due to the reduction in the number of vehicles and weapons the game would become more interesting, but in reality everything turned out to be completely different. The battles in the new part are more like ordinary shootouts, which very much lack the degree of madness and drive that was in the fourth part. Here you will never see a jet laden with explosives ramming a tank. You will never see a huge ship roaring aground on a small island. It feels like the developers deliberately cut down the game so that they could later add as much DLC as possible. Nobody really plays the new modes, which were talked about so much in trailers and all sorts of videos. Everyone continues to mostly play the usual capture of points, so the variety of modes also does not save the game.
It’s worth saying a few words about such an important component of the Battlefield game series as graphics. And all is not well with her either. It is immediately clear that the graphics in Hardline are still worse than in the same fourth part. It is very strange that two years after the release of the fourth part, the next game in the series looks worse than its predecessor. The engine has nothing to do with it, it’s all in the crooked hands of the comrades from the development team.
It seems that Visceral Games for some reason tried more to improve single player game, rather than diversify the multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, Battlefield Hardline is only a “stub” from the fourth part.
Hardline is a Battlefield that is not about war, as many are accustomed to. However, thanks to the new online modes, it managed to interest players. There are, however, a few things that hold back Hardline's success - most notably, some strange design decisions. Because of them, newcomers may have a misunderstanding of the tactics necessary to gain experience, in-game currency and win victories. In this guide from the site Ctrl Alt Elite We are talking about a strategy for quickly leveling up your fighter and useful game settings, thanks to which you can get even more pleasure from the police spin-off.
The PC version of the game allows you to fine-tune the graphics and controls.
It is, however, not without problems. If you are experiencing frame drops or other general graphics issues, the first thing to do is try updating/reinstalling DirectX directly from the game folder, as shown below.
Why do players have a hard time in the very early stages of leveling up? How to fix it?
First of all, you should understand that standard weapons and familiar modes are not the best assistants in quickly “pumping up”. The problem here is the unequal distribution of the amount of money earned in different network modes, as well as the strange choice of weapons tied to fighter classes.
To get around these shortcomings, players will have to leave their comfort zone and use a special “start” strategy. This strategy focuses on participating in low-risk online modes that will earn you enough money to purchase better gear. By following this advice, you will quickly master the learning curve and begin to dominate all online modes.
The item unlocking system in Battlefield Hardline is based on in-game money, which is difficult to earn in some modes.
Our strategy comes down to determining how many battles you will have to be in to level up your fighter. The standard weapons here are inferior to the guns from the exclusive digital edition and to the equipment of those players who gained access to the game before you.
To make a decent living in online modes like Team Deathmatch, Blood Money, Heist, and Capture, you need to win gunfights. Your most effective "starting strategy" will be to play the newbie-friendly Hijack mode, where you can explore the maps and avoid risky encounters. All you have to do is lean out of the window of the marked car and defend it using a grenade launcher and a torch. Here you can play with one hand and (with the right amp) easily make up to $2,000 per minute. It's a good idea to equip the trunk with an RPG and the car with a fire extinguishing system.
This is how many points you can earn in one round of “Theft”
Some classes perform noticeably better in certain online modes, especially when combined with suitable experience boosters
The Mechanic is best suited for earning money in the Hijack, regardless of the faction. In close combat, he will leave little chance for enemies if he carries K10 or MPX.
Amplifiers suitable for a mechanic: for objectives, for a technician or for elimination.
The operator will be good in firefights if using the M16 or HK416. He can become a good driver who is not easy to run over - after all, he has a survival kit. He can also resurrect others.
Amplifiers suitable for the operator: for goals, for elimination, for team coherence.
The stormtrooper is excellent at escorting and invading - for this he has bags of ammunition, grenades and a shield. The shotgun is a brutal argument in close combat, and battle rifles are truly powerful.
Amplifiers suitable for a stormtrooper: for team coherence, for goals.
The Professional is best at controlling territory and key objectives in Conquest. You can protect your rear with laser mines; the G18C or TEC-9 will help repel a close attack.
Amplifiers suitable for a professional: for a fast shooter and for an assistant.
What's in Battlefield Hardline with standard weapons? Everything is bad?
No, why not everything:
Now that we understand what types of situations fighter classes are suited for, let's take a look at what is best to equip them with.
Start as a Mechanic, buy a burner, K10 and an RPG for the trunk of the car. If you go as a Mechanic for Blood Money or Heist, take the armored insert.
This way you will get the most effective and money class for close combat.
Invest the money earned by the Operator into a survival syringe, a defibrillator/revival syringe and an AKM for the robber. As for accessories, a short handle will go well with a heavy barrel and muzzle brake.
This class is pretty much nothing as long as you have the RO933 in your hands - aim to get your hands on the M16A3 as soon as possible!
The easiest way to upgrade a Stormtrooper is in Heist or Blood Money. Invest in a ballistic shield or respirator + gas grenades. The best combat rifle is the SA-58. It would also be a good idea to use a shotgun as a policeman.
The shield will protect you in case of an ambush, and gas grenades will provide an advantage over a helpless enemy!
A professional can immediately settle on a Scout Elite rifle and learn how to operate a straight action. If you want to unlock the .300 Knockout cannon, use cameras in densely populated areas of the map.
Laser mines are a necessary purchase. We also recommend practicing aggressive sniper play!
How to use cameras correctly and get the coveted .300 Knockout?
This video explains everything clearly!
The best weapons for different situations, in descending order of effectiveness:
- Generally best weapon at the most popular ranges: HK416, M16A3, SA-58, K10, MPX, .300 Knockout
- Worthy weapons: AKM, P90, ACW-R, G36C, ARM, 870P, SCAR-H, HK-51, MAC-10, Scout Elite, R700
- Niche weapons: T62 CEW, M249, MG36, UMP-45, PTR-91, G18C, G17, Bald Eagle, .357 RS, CZ-75
- Effective at close and medium range: shotguns, K10, MPX, P90, SA-58, HK416 and ACW-R
- Effective at medium to long range: .300 Knockout, SCAR-H, M16A3, AKM & Scout Elite
- If the weapon is not mentioned in the second list, then its bearer will have to rely on the factor of surprise and his accuracy.
Control settings are a personal matter.
But you can, for example, copy your settings from Battlefield 4.
To make reaching the buttons a little easier, you can reassign switching the position in the technique to space, voice communication to Ctrl, and crouching to Alt. Switching to the main weapon, attacking with a knife and throwing a grenade can be determined by the mouse buttons. To get an informative minimap, go to advanced settings gameplay and set the minimap scale to 175% and the default zoom to 100 meters. Turning off hints and tutorials will help you avoid situations where they block your view. To improve frame rate, you can turn off anti-aliasing and background lighting shading. To speed up rendering even more, copy these lines to the user.cfg file in the Origin Games\BFH folder. Variable value GameTime.MaxVariableFps should match your monitor's maximum refresh rate. You can add a frame counter by entering the command PerfOverlay.DrawFPS 1 into the console.
What else can be improved in Battlefield Hardline settings?
And finally, a few tips related to other online modes and single player.
- Hijacking: leave laser mines and explosives on the roads, use a survival syringe
- Blood Money: Shoot down the enemy's vault with your getaway car at the ready. A very successful tactic.
- Heist: Don't forget that someone from your team must cover the bag pickup points. It is advisable that they have mufflers
- Capture: Use tracking darts, an armor-piercing kit and weapons hidden throughout the map to shoot down helicopters
- Team Deathmatch: Respawns aren't great in this mode, so join a squad and just hold any fortified area
- Salvation: If you can interrogate the enemy, you will see the entire enemy team on the map. Only one needs to be saved Tracking: For a VIP, it is best to move with someone at least in pairs - preferably with an Operator
- Battlepacks: don't buy them for money, better use the strategy suggested in this guide
- Single player: Headshots make a difference. The Taser is great for executing arrest warrants. Don't forget about shell casings: separate groups of enemies and detain them in pairs.
