Frontlines: Fuel of War

"The Future is Forsaken"

Frontlines: Fuel of War is a game that is worthy of high praise and the first of what should be a fantastic series of games. Frontlines takes a realistic look at what the near future holds for the world with the depletion of the world's oil supply, subsequent internal conflict within the Middle East and the taking of sides between Eastern and Western civilization to control the last remnants of oil reserves in the Caspian. The what if scenarios of our current geopolitical crises suddenly all go awry and two factions are born from the Western alliances of NATO, the EU, and a EU like trade agreement within the North American continent and the old Soviet bloc of China, Russia, North Korea, and even Venezuela brings South America along for the ride. Frontlines: Fuel of War takes a heavy dose of reality by following the narration of an embedded AP reporter who tags along with the “Stray Dogs” Strike Force through the thick and thin of World War 3. Online, you still have a dedicated community with leaderboards and maps to buy and with the game running on the Unreal engine it definitely could use a tune up in terms of game play. However, I have come to the conclusion that this is by far the best Armageddon”, WW3 game that neither Tom Clancy's EndWar, or Modern Warfare could do any justice too.

It's The End of the World As We Know It

Set in 2024, Frontlines follows a tremendously well planned story set on a timeline that plays out the worst case scenarios of recent modern day problems. In 2008 there was a huge black out that lasted for weeks and subsequent blackouts have made populations very anxious. In 2009 we have a pandemic of the H1N1 avian flu virus which is a prophecy almost accurately fulfilled this year by the swine flu virus. It is not big in the news now, but wait and see how bad this thing becomes later in the year. Following the 20teens the economy becomes depressed as the world's resources begin to run out. The Middle East is the first to begin as a Sunni/Shia war erupts between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Israel tries to play both sides against each other and ends up causing a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East as Venezuela begins influencing other nations in South America to reject U.S. intervention. Control over the Caspian oil fields becomes a subtle war in which Russia begins an invasion into Turkmenistan and China decides to take back Taiwan. Coalitions arise out of the mayhem and with a war on two fronts the Western Coalition puts everything against Russia.

This is the most realistic scenario you could put toward a World War 3 scenario, even though such a setup is a long shot. However, with the strain of scarce resources a war looks to be very predictable. Especially when little effort is made by both sides to secure a comparable resource for energy.

An embedded reporter narrates the single player campaign story as you play as a member of the strike force sent in to secure an oil field that is suddenly engaged by invaders. The characters in the “Stray Dogs” group are battle hardened heroes ready to dish out the payback but as the war continues into an invasion of Russia, the reporter is always there to dampen the victorious mood by telling the soldiers about the energy riots and food riots back home along with the troubles on other fronts. The closest thing you need to pay attention to is the rioting in the U.S. where the collapse in social order and the stretched thin military has opened it up to an invasion…the sequel is going to be awesome. Check out this year's E3.

I totally got immersed in the story and found it to be more provocative than an Al Gore rant on global warming.

Game Play

I am not a fan of the Unreal Engine, especially after playing through both Civil War History Channel games but Frontlines features plenty of things that offset the bugs in the system. There are not many things to complain about here because every first person shooter is starting to feel more and more like a Call of Duty game no matter how the controls are laid out. In this case the buttons to run and duck are switched around a bit, but I still felt that this game reminded me of Call of Duty more than anything else. The damage system is a copy of Call of Duty where taking a bullet means you might want to seek shelter and wait a bit for the pain to pass then you are back in action again. The weapons were totally awesome as they are somewhat futuristic with modified M8s and deployable drone weapons. The only bugger of the weapons was the incompetent sniper rifles which did nothing to lay an enemy low even after two rounds. One shot from a fifty caliber rifle is going to sit you down no matter where I hit you at. And being able to take enemies down from a distance with the assault weapons-especially the almighty one shot kills shotgun-makes the sniper rifle seem a bit obsolete for this game. The drone weapons are awesome additions to futuristic warfare with miniature tanks and helicopters that deal some heavy damage against infantry and tanks. Running is the greatest feature in Frontlines simply because your man never gets tired of running. If an objective is two miles away he will run three without needed to stop every two feet. Frontlines: Fuel of War has a lot up on Modern Warfare for this very small but efficient feature.

The missions are open ended as far as the objectives go. You may have multiple objectives to secure and you can pick whichever one you want to go after first just like in Medal of Honor Airborne. Unlike Airborne, the open ended game play is not as heavily advertised for this game even though the maps are very huge and sometimes require getting from objective to objective in a tank of Humvee. You can also fly around in a helicopter during one siege mission so the Stray Dogs have a lot of knowledge in the use of assault vehicles just as much as they do in assault weapons.

Your squadmates in the game make you do all the work and most of the time you work alone to take objectives so you can't rely on their help for much. This is a first person shooter anyway. Driving around in the vehicles is a little complicated as it easy to get stuck on something you should have otherwise plowed under in real life as well as getting turned around so you can go straight. The difficulty levels may be hard to distinguish between in terms of getting through the game. I couldn't tell much of a difference between playing on easy and hard because I still could take as much damage from the enemy without dying. So you may be cheating yourself by playing through the game on easy.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer would be the worst thing about Frontlines in my opinion. If it looks like a PC port then it is going to play like PC port and after unloading a whole fifty round clip into a guy who keeps hopping around like bunny and then takes me out with one shot I had to call it quits on that. If you are a former Counter-Strike fan who enjoys unrealistic multiplayer games then fine, but do not expect me to give this game credit when all you are doing is strafing my line of fire. I do have to give this game credit for still having a good online community and for being able to jump right into a game but between two game types, I was just not impressed with this as I was with the single player.

Graphics/Sound

Again, we are working off the Unreal Engine here which is not entirely grand but with this game the graphics are quite astonishing. Soldiers moving around in the distance look a little odd still, but on all other fronts the graphics are amazing. A lot went into the ruination of major cities and background details and also the ability to blow holes in walls and cause even more destruction gives this game some major pluses. Environmental destruction is a practical must and Frontlines has it. The only bug is the frame rate issues that Frontlines has. Unfortunately dealing out the damage slows this game down a bit, but at least it tries and mostly succeeds in creating massive battles in a first person perspective.

The sound is top notch. Music, effects, voice work- all amazing. The sound effects are fantastic and makes shooting the tank turret even more fun just to hear the distant boom the round makes when it explodes so far away. Instead of one nuke in Modern Warfare you have several nukes going off with horrifying effect.

Replay Value

So far as the achievements go you may be disappointed with having to get the multiplayer achievements. The other half of the achievements deal with completing missions and the game on harder difficulties which should not be problem at all. Still, you probably will have a very hard time getting all 1000. The multiplayer is not much to dwell on after you complete the campaign, although if you are a Counter-Strike fan you might love it. Frontlines' campaign lasts a fair amount of time although it is somewhat brief in offering few missions. The gadgets are what make this game and I could not help but go back and play around with the remote controlled tanks and helicopters.

Final Recommendation 8/10

Frontlines: Fuel of War packs a lot of punches and where it slacks off in multiplayer it makes up for in its story, concept, and game play. The biggest reason why you should eyeball this game is that it has a sequel coming that will probably be a big hit game in 2010. It definitely caught a lot of attention at E3 this year and Frontlines: Fuel of War has a lot to offer that could be improved, expanded, and really capitalized on. This is the best World War 3 game that goes well beyond expectations in exploring with reality what the world may look like in the next 30 years. Frontlines: Fuel of War takes the cake in showing us what could be. Let's just hope that this game is not an accurate foretelling of the future.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/09

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