Frontlines: Fuel of War
Score: 84% ESRB: Teen Publisher: THQ Developer: Kaos Studios Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - MMO Genre: First Person Shooter
Graphics & Sound: I really don't mean to start off so skeptical, but there are tons of FPS's popping up on consoles. And, I for one, am not sure that in all the quantity there is a lot of quality. With that being said, it is good to see an FPS like Frontlines: Fuel of War that I thoroughly enjoyed. There are a few issues I had with the game, some of which are truly my own proclivities, but when it was all said and done, I hold to the fact that I enjoyed the game. As what is quickly becoming the standard for FPS development, we have yet another fine example of the Unreal III engine and how beautiful it is. This being said though, it is beginning to make many games look similar in how they look, feel and move. This is made abundantly clear in how the A.I. characters look and move more than in any other one area. The outdoor landscapes were clean and crisp, but familiarity with the engine makes it feel like you're inside the box still. There were nice particle effects that danced dirt and debris around you as shots pecked at the destructible landscape. Again, taking all of this into account, it looks good. The music was epic, rocking and bold like a good military soundtrack should be. The sound effects were crisp and thundering as tank rounds and air strikes rained down on your position. This is a military game and the information you receive is supposed to be a military briefing style, short and curt. They did do something new where your after-mission briefings and lead-ins were done by an embedded reporter who is spelling out the repercussions of your actions in the world.
Gameplay: Frontlines: Fuel of War comes with all of the standard trappings of a console FPS. Point your gun at the bad guy and shoot. If it were just that simple, I would not have enjoyed playing it as much as I did. You play the classic soldier X. It is your mission to follow orders, kill the bad guys, secure the objective and be a hero. But in between all of that is where the better parts of the game are. The world runs on oil. So what happens to the world's makeup when the oil runs out? You fight over it, of course. I am sure Gore didn't see that one coming in his movie. By 2014, there is a very small and highly contested area in Asia housing the last of the oil reserves. The world is split conveniently into two main factions, the Western Coalition and the Red Star Alliance. You stand on the cusp of WWIII as a shattered world fights to survive. You will have the options to play through the single player missions, join the slaughter online through LIVE or connect systems to go head to head with system link. No matter how you play, you will have an opportunity to wield several unique and interesting weapons onto the field of battle. Remote-controlled vehicles and aircraft bring an interesting dynamic to the battlefield. An effectively run remote unit can cause a ton of havoc for your enemies. Targeting eyepieces and other communications upgrades make maneuvering the battlefield and commanding your units very effective. There are plenty of classic vehicles to enjoy. Tanks are always my favorite, but I digress. With an extremely short single player experience, the weight of the game falls to its multiplayer experience. There are six different weapons load-outs. This alone leads to many different strategic options on the field of battle. Combine this with the four different roles you can rank up and play as and you have many options to achieve your victory or suffer your defeat.
Difficulty: Frontlines: Fuel of War is an extremely simple game. Point the gun at their head and pull the trigger. Well OK, maybe that part of it doesn't hold up so well when there are tons of them coming at you, but you get the general idea. There are no puzzles to solve, just move from point to point and capture the point or complete the objective. All of this obviously changes once you get over to the multiplayer side of things and you begin to strategize about how to best equip and qualify yourself for battle against other human players. The A.I. in the game does a really nice job of making itself a target for you. A human player, not so much. There are plenty of nooks and crannies to take care of so make your job easier on yourself and use the terrain to your advantage wherever you can.
Game Mechanics: Frontlines: Fuel of War has a few issues that unfortunately took me out of the real of suspension of disbelief. There was something about the aiming and accuracy that always felt extremely off. There were too many notable times that I was in a prone position with the cross-hairs of a state of the art sniper rifle pointed at an enemy target's head and I would wait, settle and fire only to not score a head shot or even a hit. I understand the want to add a little bit of the feeling that you are not superman, but when it comes to a settled resting shot, there can be little mistake. I was also not a fan of how every time you shot at, but did not kill a target, they somehow got a magical return fire shot that would always score a hit for them. To sum up my feeling on this is that it really felt very arcady and left too much to luck for a kill than skill. There are a bunch of drastic checks and balances that are at extreme ends of the scale. The game looks great, but it is an easy to recognize and not very unique look. The balance of the aiming seems off, but it has some really cool weaponry. I could go on to continue my point, but to keep from dragging it out, I will say that when I got done with those checks and balances in my head, I was left with the feeling that I enjoyed the game for the most part and would recommend it to others to enjoy as well.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
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