Frontlines: Fuel of War

"Blood for Oil!"

Frontlines: Fuel of War is a battlefield-esqe war game made by Kaos Studios that intends to answer the question; what would happen if we ran out of Oil. I also need to state that at the time I played this game, it was only a rental and I did not have a high-speed Internet connection at the time so this will just be a single player review.

Story: 7

As I said in the intro, Frontlines answers the question, what would happen if we ran out of Oil, and the answer to that question is World War III.

The basic plot is that the year is 2024, and the world is in the middle of an Energy Crisis. You are playing in the Western Coalition, which is the alliance of the good ol' U.S. of A., and the Europeans that are on our side [France, England, etc]. The enemy is the Red Star Alliance, which consists of the Russians, and the Chinese. Around this time the last dew remaining drops of Oil are getting sucked up, and all of these countries are going to suck up what is left, and doing so causes World War III.

I'll start off with what I liked, the story is a good depiction of what it would be like if we were in a full scale war over Oil, and I liked how they actually put in a time line of all of the events leading up to this game. Thats some nice dedication from a Studio that I doubt many people have heard of.

But, there are also some bad things. As some people might of seen me posting on the message boards recently, I don't think this could happen right away. Mainly because that over here we have so many regulations that are keeping us from sucking up the Oil we have now, so unless WWIII happened over OUR Oil I am really doubting the story. You can also add the fact that we will probably have plenty of alternative fuels for everything, and substitutes for Oil by the time this game happens.

As for things in the game, although the story could of been done very well I never felt any real emotion for the characters. Games like Call of Duty 4 give you a certain kinsmanship for the characters, but in here I did not think the Soldiers were very well developed at all and I did not really care if they lived or died.

So basically, I thought there was a good premise, but it was not very well developed in some parts.

Gameplay: 8

The main thing that was hyped about this game was the "Frontline" battle mechanic which is designed to keep you right in the action at all times and I thought this was very well done. Basically, to advance you have to capture areas by moving into them, and staying near s spot long enough to take control of it, and this is a cool feature even though it is nothing more than a expansion of the Domination game from Unreal Tournament. And I will say that when I played through the Campaign, it just seemed like a different way of doing checkpoints but it does its job, and this could be an interesting feature in some upcoming games if they use it.

Another thing I liked was the crapload of Vehicles, Drones, and Classes you were given in the Campaign.

You were able to pick up drones that were used to Spy, use as a Kamikaze bomb, or just fire a big weapon at stuff. The vehicles were also entertaining to use, but the wonky physics made it tough to drive them around at times. The classes also worked well, but you will probably just use the Heavy Assault one like I did throughout the Campaign. I also have to say that the Sniper Rifle in this game was one of the worst I have ever used in a FPS. When I pointed the sights directly at someones freaking head and fired at them, they would not die! The Sniper Rifle in Frontlines was even worse than the one in the original Perfect Dark.

The Campaign itself is good, but it is nothing great. The Levels are massive and will take some time to complete as you get further into the game, but there is nothing spectacular in them. The AI is able to fight, but they aren't incredibly smart and you will basically just be running around the levels capturing Control Points and blowing crap up.

Challenge: 7

When I played through the Campaign I did it on Normal to earn the Achievements for doing the levels, and all I can tell was that the AI, is able to fight but they are not the brightest bunch I have seen, and the biggest challenge of the Levels was how long they were. But, the limited respawn number that the game gave you kept the whole experience from being simplified like BioShock was. Any BioShock player will tell you that you can beat the entire game on Hard using only the Wrench and some Plazmids if you are patient enough, and Frontlines kept itself from getting the same fate by limiting the number of times you can revive yourself in a Level. Smart move.

Controls: 7

What I found was that the Controls for your character were basic stuff and they were very easy to use, but Vehicles would be a pain sometimes, especially on sloped terrain. Other than that everything works fine with the Controls.

Graphics: 8

Frontlines is a very good looking game.

I can not say this enough, if there is one thing that they got right in this game, it was making stunning desolate Warzones where it looks like everything has been obliterated by missile fire. You just have to admire how great the areas you were in looked, especially the ones where everything has been blown apart and the atmosphere of the hell of war was captured very well.

I also thought that the Vehicles, and the Weapons were exceptionally well designed, and the Weapons really looked like what our guns would probably look like in the next few years.

Although, there are a couple problems. First, the destructible environments had bad physics in some places, and I would often see debris floating in the air or getting stuck in the walls, and compared to everything else the Soldiers looked generic.

Other than that, there isn't anything too bad.

Sound: 7

The sound effects in this game were done very well, and quite often the Weapons sounded even better than they looked, and the Music was also very good most of the time. But the voices did not work very well for me. As I said before, I did not really feel anything for the characters, and it seemed like they were just reading off lines. Also, the attempts at humor that whoever wrote this game tried to put in were not very good.

Atmosphere: 7

As I said above, the Apocalyptic Warzone feeling was captured very well, the story is also very relevant to the times we are in, especially because we are already in dire need for Oil even though we have a ton of it that we won't even touch under our soil, and it does make you think even though I don't think it is too likely that this would happen if we start working on getting alternative energies... back on topic, the other problems with the atmosphere are the lack of emotion in the voice acting. Other than those problems Frontlines: FoW does a good job at immersing you.

Replayability: 7

If you are only in it for the Campaign you probably won't play more than once, but from what I have heard the Multiplayer is very good although I was unable to play it when I had this game.

Pros:
Well-designed environments, great looking weapons, great sound effects and music, good story, interesting concept.

Cons:
Ripoff of Battlefield, lackluster Campaign, poor voiceover work, horrible Sniper Rifle and other weapon balancing issues, screwy vehicle physics.

Should you get it:
I would suggest this as a rental before you buy it, besides we already have CoD 4, Halo 3, and the upcoming GoW 2 for Multiplayer.

Overall:

Frontlines: Fuel of War is a good game, but it does nothing special that would make it a "great" game. Although, it does have some interesting features that should be considered by many of the other Devs out there when they try to increase the already overpopulated War-Sim Genre.

7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08

Game Release: Frontlines: Fuel of War (US, 02/25/08)