Review by:   Dale Wilks

Game:        Hardline
Publisher:   VIE (UK)
Format:      CD-ROM
Available:   Out now

Requires:
 
O/S:         DOS 5+ or Win95
Processor:   486DX2/66+
RAM:         8Mb+
HD Space:    14 Mb
Graphics:    VGA
CD-Rom:      X2
Soundcard:   All major cards supported

Tested on:

O/S:         Windows 95
Processor:   Pentium 120
RAM:         32Mb
Graphics:    SVGA Matrox Millenium (2Mb)
CD-ROM:      Quad speed
Soundcard:   Soundblaster AWE 32 + Yamaha DB50XG
Controls:    Mouse

Hardline

When the 16 bit machines were in their heyday, there was a steady stream of games that found their way across the channel from those lovable French bods. Lovable, but well...a bit bonkers, usually with names like Chami Letheur, or something. Remember Captain Blood? Purple Saturn Day? All strikingly imaginative games, but quite, quite mad, often with liberal smatterings of green and purple, and daft (but usually rather funny) caricatures and animation. One of the more prolific teams at the time was Cryo, and now they're back! Back! BACK!

No strangeness evident here though, chums. Cryo have left the land of Bonkersville, and have set up home in the sleepy streets of Interactive Movie Town, where nobody does much; they just sit and watch everything happen. That, and everyone looks strange when they talk because their mouths are never in sync with what they're saying.

I didn't know what to expect from Hardline, having never heard of it before now. I expect that Gadget had never heard of it either, as the game was described to me as '3D Action'. (Of course I knew - I was just trying to induce some enthusiasm! - Ed.) I thought I'd have a look at the VIE homepage in order to find out a bit more about the game, but Hardline wasn't mentioned on the front page with the other headline games; oh no, it was listed when you clicked on the 'more CD games' button. Hmmm.

So what of the game, then? Well the story goes a little something like this; it's the future, and the authoritative forces have lost control, the streets are rife with criminals and violence, blah blah. Actually, all this takes place in 1998, so with only two years left, I wouldn't make any long-term plans if I were you! If all this wasn't bad enough, an alien race (I take it all back - maybe there is an element of strangeness here after all!) known as the Sect have taken control of the more violent thugs, creating a gang called the Sectoids. All is lost, it would seem, but no! There just happens to be a lone soldier, a gun-for-hire, and you're him! He's called Ted! (puh-lease) He's got psionic abilities!

So then, you receive a call for help, and like the good citizen that you are, take off in your helicopter-based home, only to arrive at a deserted site. After a bit of exploration, you find a sprawled corpse, still in the possession of a large gun (which never runs out of ammo!) - picking up said weapon, you continue to explore, wasting the plethora of Sectoids which constantly attack you. The Sectoids appear in all kinds of shapes and sizes, including robots and several Terminator wannabees, complete with dark glasses. Fortunately, your weapons can also be upgraded on the way, to help you despatch the Sectoids, and once you have the rocket launcher and the Uzi life becomes a lot easier. As the game progresses, you begin to uncover the Sects plot to destroy mankind, and need to use your psionic ability to its full. There are also objects to pick up and use, but it doesn't take Einstein to work out, for example, that you'll have to use the gas mask that you're holding in order to traverse a vapour-filled corridor.

Like any FMV based game, Hardline comes on several CDs, fortunately disk juggling has been kept to a minimum, allowing for a more or less hassle free watching experience. Oh, and a bit of games playing too. That's the problem y'see, and just to show you what I mean, I'll give you a commentary of a game of Hardline. OK, here we go then; right, watch intro. Watch credits. Watch more intro. Click mouse (ooh! ooh!) on doorway. Watch FMV. Click on another doorway. Watch FMV. Mouse pointer changes to a gunsight. Engage in Operation Wolf-style gunfight. Watch lengthy FMV. More Operation Wolf. Click on doorway. More FMV. Starting to see a pattern develop here? That's right - it's a *very* shallow excuse for a load of blokes poncing around in black leather jackets and crap looking guns.

The FMV itself isn't _too_ bad - the acting ranges from reasonably convincing to just plain bad, but some of the sets are well done, and they integrate fairly seamlessly with the still scenes where the player has to do something. Nice line in explosions too. However, as OK as the acting may be, this is no excuse for what boils down to be a thinly disguised shoot 'em up. FMV can be included in a game quite successfully (look at Zork Nemesis, Command & Conquer or Wing Commander IV, to name but a few), but all of these games had the advantage of good acting, a good plot or good gameplay, and frankly Hardline has none of these. If I want to see a film I will pay 4 quid and go to the cinema or hire a video, rather than pay 40 quid for a rather grainy film which needs 4 CDs.

There were a couple of things that annoyed me, too. First of all, I tried the game in all of the screen modes available to see what they were like, but the high-resolution modes were worse than the standard low res one! Horrible horizontal lines across the screen - yuk. The other thing was that, although the game nicely pops up a menu when you insert the CD in the drive asking you whether you wish to install the game or just play it, it doesn't create a shortcut for you. It might be a small thing, but an inexperienced user doesn't want to go to all the trouble of looking up how to create a shortcut. Most Windows 95 games offer to do this for you, or they create an option on the Start menu.

All in all, I got bored of Hardline very quickly, as it soon became tiresome having to sit through several FMV sequences in order to get to the shoot 'em up section where I had died. Health powerups are very sparsely scattered throughout, meaning that often a particular section must be played several times in order to leave with most of your energy remaining. A definite case of 'lots of (iffy) video, not much in the way of gameplay.'

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Rating: 5/10 (Not Bad - Not Good!)
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