Frontlines: Fuel of War - Impressions
- December 11, 2007 15:00 PM PST
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The war for oil is on in this incredibly diverse Battlefield-inspired shooter. Awesome new screens and impressions inside.
Frontlines: Fuel of War is kind of like "what could happen" with the looming global energy crisis. It's 2024 and oil is scarce, tension is building, and thus two sides of a new conflict are born.
This is basically World War III. As you might expect, the U.S. and Europe take the Western side, and China and Russia make up the Red Star Alliance. It's a fight the remaining oil reserves, and that's where you come in.
There are all sorts of drivable vehicles in Frontlines.
If you've played Battlefield, you're going to feel very comfortable here. We got a chance to dive into the first few levels of Frontlines on this particular build. We open with a mission that dropped us into an oil refinery, but no so gracefully. Our chopper was shot down and the rough landing wasn't the end of this conflict.
Holding off enemies in one particular area is going to be common throughout the game. It's called "Frontlines," after all. Here, we had to defend the area at the chopper crash, but other things like securing buildings, holding ammo points and hacking computers will be spattered throughout the campaign.
You can choose your missions, but you'll have to play all of them to advance to the next level. The choice comes in the order of play. The story is pretty much linear, though how to progress through it is up to each player. This helps break up game making it less repetitive simply because each individual player decides what to do in what order.
Cool, near-futuristic vehicles are fully drivable in Frontlines, from hummers to tanks to the ever-popular whirlybird. Players can decide how the want to use them. It should be obvious that the long treks should demand some wheels, but getting the job done on foot is not out of the question. Vehicle controls worked very well and nothing was overcomplicated or frustrating, and that's a good sign. Games that have a large number of different vehicles, like Warhawk, tend to get overwhelming on the controls side, but so far, so good with Frontlines.
There are all sorts of drivable vehicles in Frontlines.
Destructively fun, high-tech gadgets are great assets for dealing damage from afar. Little R.C. buggies, a la GTA, are usable here to send out and detonate explosives. Other drones and devise will be equally effective.
A slew of weapons like rocket launchers, snipers, heavy assault guns and others should make the game's 32-player multiplayer mode diverse. Again, if you've played Battlefield, you know what's going on here. The main mode splits players into two sides, and each must gain access to map points. All points are located near enemy Frontlines keeping the game moving and pretty action-oriented.
There is plenty of firepower. This is a shooter, after all.
Our favorite anti-aircraft device
