Frontlines: Fuel of War

"An Excellent Game That Suffers From Sloppy Programming"

Those of us who remember the long lines at the gas pump back in the 70's, when the Arabs slapped an embargo on oil exports, can easily see this game's scenario happening. Briefly, the world is running out of oil. Two major factions have divided up the world, the US and EU and a few others, against the Red Star, consisting of Russia and China. There's one big pocket of oil left, around the Caspian Sea, and both sides are willing to invade, kill, even nuke, to get it.

The story follows a squadron of soldiers known as the Stray Dogs. While it's played in FPS as one of these soldiers, the story is actually told by a reporter who's traveling with the Stray Dogs and documenting the war from their point of view. This dual-angle viewpoint puts you in the thick of the action, but also allows a step outside it between levels and battles to survey the situation and try to understand it. It's a fascinating approach, and it works very well.

The variety of weapons, vehicles and settings is excellent. You can pick up anything from a simple sniper or assault rifle to a full-size, permanent-mount rail gun. There are only certain weapons you can pick up; you can't get ammo off dead enemies, for example, but there are ammo refill boxes virtually everywhere, so if you run out of ammo in a fight it's your own fault for not looking around a bit. Another nice addition to the weaponry of game-dom is a handful of drones, remote-controlled weapons that can be sent into different situations to clear out the enemy while the soldier operates it from a position of safety. Once the drone is finished, you go in and mop up. And often, if the drone wasn't damaged or didn't get too far out of range, you can pick it up and reuse it later. Outstanding. Other reviewers have commented on the sniper rifle, which is the one major piece of crap in the weapons bag, so I'll just say, they're right. It bites, big time.

Vehicles are a mixed bag. There's a sort of armored car you can drive that has some mounted weapons, and one time you get to use a helicopter. My problem was, the stupid thing wouldn't respond to the controls, so my helicopter lasted maybe 15 seconds before it got shot out from under me. Most often when you use a vehicle you'll drive a tank. These are fine, except that the controls are more than a bit wonky. For starters, the tank never stops moving. You get in and it immediately starts drifting forward. Try to point it a particular direction and you may or may not get what you asked for. As often as not, I gave up on the tank and moved on foot because the tank had a mind of its own. Vehicles are so-so, and frequently unnecessary since your guy can sprint for hours without getting tired. Unless you're in battle with another tank you can accomplish almost everything on foot. And if you have a rocket launcher, you don't even need the tank to battle other tanks.

The game is a bit short, but it's great fun. Your enemies are heavily armored, but if you zoom your assault rifle and head-shoot them they go down like a sack of bricks. It usually takes three shots from a tank or rocket launcher to destroy a tank or helicopter, but in most cases there's cover to hide behind while you reload for the next shot. Overall, the game plays fair.

Overall is the key word there, because this brings me to the major problem of the game: I call it "lazy programming." There are several instances of this. One of the more annoying ones is what happens when your character dies and respawns (or "redeploys" as this game calls it). Save points are so vague they're pretty well useless, so there's no telling where you'll appear when you redeploy. You might reappear where you died, or you might reappear 200 yards away in an area you passed an hour ago. The odd thing is, you've fought your way to a certain point, picked up certain weapons and drones, taken out certain enemies and vehicles, and even though you redeploy at a place way back before all that happened, the enemies you've killed up to that point will still be dead, the vehicles will be destroyed, and your weapon will be the same as what you picked up between where you respawned and where you died. Huh? In the final battle, for example, I made my way to the place I was supposed to defend and set up a rail gun, among other things. I got overwhelmed with enemies and died. I redeployed clear back at a building a couple hundred yards from that spot, which was apparently the last save point I had passed. But when I got back to the battle area, the enemies were gone, the rail gun was there, and there was virtually nothing for me to do. That's just lazy; if you're going to have save points that double as respawn points, reset everything. This way smacks of cheating.

Another small example of lazy programming is what happens when you climb a ladder. Going up is fine, but there's practically no provision for climbing back down again. More often than not, when you go up a ladder and finish your objective, you can creep back to the ladder, mince over to the top of it, inch your way onto it, then fall. It's stupid. It's lazy. It's unacceptable. The good part is, your character can fall several stories and only take minimal damage. Also lazy. Come on, guys. You're screwing up a great game.

The worst example, though, is where your enemies come from. To put it bluntly, they appear out of nowhere. Now, I understand that programming an NPC to run around inside a building where he can't be seen is a waste of code, but COME ON. Don't insult our intelligence by making us watch them pop into the room like Harry Potter. At least a dozen times I watched while bad guys just magically poofed into existence out of thin air, not more than 10 feet from me. You clear out a room, everything is done, no more bad guys, and suddenly a guy materializes right in front of you, blasting away at you. What the !@#$?????????? Again, it's lazy. I counted close to 100 times this happened in the course of the game, and it's beyond annoying. It's absurd. The programmers who did it need to be sent to bed without supper. Come on, people, you can do better than this. Have them come out of a door somewhere, quit being so lazy. This game has terrific graphics, motion, sound and story; you screwed it up by getting sloppy with the bad guys. Fix it.

One other thing to remember: your team is useless. Actually, they're worse than useless, they get in the way and they talk too much. Expect to do all your missions on your own, because while you're actually doing something these guys are running around like mindless idiots, which I guess they are. You're under cover fighting a dozen enemies, and they're running up and down staircases chattering like monkeys. Whatever, just get out of the way so I can complete the objective. Your enemies, on the other hand, are tricky, clever, and almost always on the move, making them harder to hit. They make up for your team, at least a little.

Objectives are very believable, and while the enemy is tough, your character is equally tough. The controls are reasonably intuitive and easy to pick up, though there's an example of sloppy, lazy programming there as well. Clicking the right stick cycles you through standing, crouching, and going prone. In other words, you can't crouch and then stand up again, you have to go prone and then stand up. If you want to go prone, you have to crouch first. This leads to many an awkward situation, and there's no good reason for it except that chronic laziness that's exhibited throughout the game.

Having said all that, this game is well worth the price, especially if you buy it used. It's great fun, challenging, and a wonderful treat for the eyes. If you can get past the laziness quirks, and you like FPS war-type games, you'll enjoy this one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/09

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