Imagine a slick American TV crime drama in which you get to control some of the action.

That's what you get with Battlefield Hardline.

This new game from EA transfers the Battlefield first-person shooter from its usual military warfare theme to a cops 'n' robbers setting, and presents it as a small-screen series.

The story about the war on drugs, mostly set in and around Miami, takes place across 10 fast-paced episodes, the lead character being tough rookie detective Nick Mendoza.

Each episode has believable TV cop show pacing and structure, including swooping camera pans, tense character dialogue, investigative work and various other nice little touches such as 'Previously on Headline...' montages.

Of course being a Battlefield game, there is a lot of explosive edge-of-the-seat action included in each instalment.

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This is where the game struggles a little to break away from its military shooter roots, featuring more high-grade weaponry and far less consequence from mass casualties than you might expect from civil law enforcement.

Due to these ingredients, the tone is more in line with the over-the-top lunacy of a Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon movie than the gritty urban realism of The Wire, though Hardline would still need to be shown on one of the edgier TV channels owing to the violence and language (use of the word clusterf*** early on warmed me up to the script almost straight away).

There are times when Hardline is brash and showy and about as subtle as a police cruiser crashing through your living room window. It’s unable to completely abandon the series' trademark big guns and carnage, but the game does make some concessions to its new police theme with a touch more depth and delicacy in places.

Sometimes you're forced into a shootout - and of course the gunfights are up to the standard you'd expect, complete with destructible scenery - but there are plenty of occasions when you can take a quieter more considered approach rather than go in loud all guns blazing.

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The stealth approach is good for players who want to be good cops and who care about taking suspects alive instead of shooting them in the head. If you’re careful enough to get close to enemies without being detected you can flash your badge at them, making them drop their weapons, put their hands up and surrender meekly to being handcuffed.

Using non-lethal methods takes a lot more time and patience but greater payoffs come from arresting crooks rather than blowing them away. Points mean prizes in Hardline, resulting in more weapons and gadgets to use.

These stealthy v shooty elements are the parts of the game where the player most gets to control the action. Missions are mostly still linear, in that you’re tightly limited on what you can do and your choice of approach doesn’t alter the story, but it’s still good the player is given opportunities to influence how some scenarios unfold.

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There are a few issues, however, that stop the gameplay from being fully immersive.

Although there are extra rewards from dutifully arresting enemies, it isn’t the most fun option. If I’ve got a big shotgun on me I want to have a blast, literally, by using it and showing crims the ultimate justice. It’s really, really tempting to start firing, especially when there’s next to zero comeback from building up an insane body count.

The second problem is it feels like an anticlimax if you are cautious and manage to get enemies to submit. For villains who are part of a violent drugs network they seem to have far too much respect for the law and give up far too easily. They are always desperate to avoid having any resisting arrest charges added to their rap sheets.

Even more ludicrous is how when they are on the ground and restrained they immediately fall asleep, with little ‘zzzz’ captions coming off them!

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When they do bother staying awake, most of the criminals encountered during the campaign are not exactly bright sparks. They are often oblivious to a police officer being nearby unless they are looking right at you.

The reward system is a little weird too. What’s the point of rewarding stealthier players with more guns when they’ve demonstrated they don’t need or want guns to get through a mission?

Hardline's single-player story is some way short of perfect then, but it is still mostly enjoyable.

Don't expect to be especially wowed by the somewhat shallow and clichéd tale of drug deals and police corruption and don't expect anything more than dumb simplistic fun from the gameplay. What you can expect though is to be kept well entertained for the duration of the entire 10 episodes.

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As well as for this achievement, developer Visceral Games deserves credit for making a game that looks good (albeit not the best on next-gen) and sounds good too.

It also merits praise for putting thought into presenting the campaign in the most engaging way - the TV show set-up isn't original, but works very well in this case. Additionally, the single-player game is instantly more likable and has more personality than other recent Battlefield offerings.

Is Hardline an amazing solo game? No. But is it a decent cops 'n' robbers caper that brings something new and interesting to the Battlefield franchise? On that count, it is guilty as charged.

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In terms of multiplayer, I can confirm the rumours are true and Hardline does indeed have it.

Obviously. It’s what Battlefield has made its name on and why many people will buy this latest edition even if they have reservations about the switch from military to police setting.

The problem I have is I can't stand online shooters, plus I'm completely pants at them. The last time I had any fun in a multiplayer game, or was any good at one, was way back in the battle mode of MarioKart 64. It was offline then of course but things were still better back in the day.

Anyway, what I’m saying is for detailed multiplayer analysis you’ll need to look elsewhere, but the general consensus seems to be that the online components are as good as they've ever been in Battlefield despite the series’ change of theme.

Particular praise has been given to the new Hotwire high-speed vehicular capture the flag-style mode.

If you don’t care about the story and want to get straight into playing with others, you should be in for a good time.

For the single-player story I give Battlefield a staying-on-the-right-side-of-the-law:

7 out of 10

Out now for PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC – PS4 version played