Those of us who didn't pre-order need the "green light" or "red light" on buying. Is the game solid?

My Amazon review (sorry about the length):

I have played about 5-6 hours of MP so far, but I did stay up all night and beat the campaign, and thus am writing a release-day review for those on the fence!

First off, this game is not just a rehash of BF4. All of the BF games have large amounts of similarities, as does this. But, I think it is the freshest take on BF since BC. Besides, I personally am glad it is different; If I want a military-based FPS, the BF4 community is still very active!

Reasons to play the campaign: There is a lot of effort spent by Visceral in creating an immersive campaign, and it is my favorite BF campaign, after BC2, obviously! (I realize that it being my "favorite" is not a good reason, but I think it conveys my enjoyment). Also, the campaign is more of a centerpiece than other BF games. And, I don't think I am the only one who feels that way; look at reviews by Polygon and other sources and you get more of the same feel.

Campaign: -The campaign took ~9.5 hours to beat (which is decently longer than it took me to beat BF4, as I recall) -The campaign is divided into 10 episodes. I mean this literally; at the beginning of most of the episodes they have a "previously" on segment that highlights what happened. I actually found it very engrossing and was enjoying myself thoroughly because of things like this. -It doesn't really highlight current relevant cultural questions regarding militarization of the police, in my opinion. I don't want to get into spoilers; but, the game absolutely does not take itself too seriously. Do NOT get me wrong, you ARE a cop running around with carbines blasting 100s of enemies. I just mean to say that while it may be odd if you were to look at it on paper without context, I recognize it as a platform for the audience to get to experience a slight twist on his or her typical Battlefield experience. That was wordy; I apologize. -The graphics are better than average. They are definitely better than MP graphics, which I cannot explain, but I honestly feel they are. The facial expressions you can view are very good and remind me of L.A. Noire. Basically, I personally thought the graphics were more than adequate enough to keep me immersed. -You can subdue enemies via handcuffs (arresting) if you are able to get within melee range without being detected. I did this probably less than 20 times, as it kind of felt out of place to me in this kind of game. -The load times seem longer than usual for most FPS games, for some reason.

MP: As I stated above, I have only played over 5 hours of MP (not counting beta), so I do not want to give the impression that I know much about the progression system or how the game will ultimately play when things cool down. For now, I can say: -NO CONNECTION ISSUES. I did not get disconnected ONCE last night/this morning. Very little lag. I think I had maybe 2 or 3 times where I thought I lagged; but, it was only for literally a second and then gone. MUCH better MP release than BF4, in this regard. -The mini-map has been improved in one simple but fundamental way: it illustrates when an enemy is on a different elevation than you! WOoo! I wish this was on BF4. The enemy triangles are smaller when they are higher/lower than yourself. Yes, you don't know if they are above or below you, but still this simple mechanic is great, in my opinion. -You can kill people with your zip-line arrow -Tracer darts cause a very small amount of damage, but still hurt. -The TTK (time to kill) is significantly less than in any other BF game that I have played (which is most of BF games). You can 2-shot someone with your pistol, I am quite sure. I haven't unlocked a large number of the guns, so I cannot attest to many of them. -The unlock system is based on cash, instead of a tiered progression system. It adds to the whole Cops 'n Robbers theme, in my opinion. -You can use the cash on classes other than the one you gained the cash with! So, if you are keen on being only the mechanic (engineer) but after a while you want to try as a sniper (professional), you can use your mechanic money to purchase professional items -This is the ONLY thing that I will put about the MP that I remember from the demo, so take with a grain of salt: The body armor is hardly worth the slot it takes up in your inventory. There are numerous tests online about it, and they all show that it takes a couple extra bullets worth of damage. Which, yes, may save your life. But, you may find it more useful to put another of the many useful items there in its place. -Hotwire is what I think will be the go-to new game mode. It is conquest, basically, but the flags are cars that you drive around. Simple enough, but a lot of fun, and really highlights the Cops 'n Robbers feel -I love the amount of cursing between teammates and opposing teams. In most BF games, e.g. BF4, you do not speak English, so I have no idea what they are saying. It is immersive, I guess, but frustrating because it is hilarious hearing your curse out a cop in a husky African-American voice. -There are limits to the number of players you can use for certain game modes. In BF4 you often had a choice, but for BFH you can only, for example, have 32 players on any Heist game. I think this is actually good because it will prevent the smaller maps from being too clustered. -You can't beat conquest with tanks/helis/jets/LAVs/etc. You just cannot. But, we knew that going into this game. So, I suggest you don't see BFH for what it DOESN'T have, but for what it does: fast, action-packed infantry gameplay.

I still love BF4. It has come a long way from the broken piece it was at first. That being said, I think BFH is largely a different beast and a game that you can own and play alongside BF4 without fear of them being too similar.

/r/BF_Hardline Thread