By Dimorphic
In a day and age where war games are dominated by either Ubisofts Tom Clancy franchises, Infinity Wards Call of Duty or EA’s Battlefield series, to make a dent in the market you need to offer something unique. Something more than a gimmick, something that will genuinely add to the enjoyment of the game. Kaos Studios Frontlines: Fuel of War tries to do just that by introducing a dedicated server system to its online based war first person shooter.
With the promise of dedicated servers and 32 person online multiplayer Kaos ticks the first box off. Dedicated servers are something most Xbox 360 owners wish Xbox Live had, and 32 people on dedicated servers should equal some epic battles. Sadly, this is not the case, with Frontlines plagued by bad gameplay, graphics and a lack of map and gametype options.
In the year 2024, Earths most precious natural resource, oil, has all but dried up. The world has split into two factions, the Western Coalition which is a combination of the United States and European Union and the Red Star Alliance which is formed from Russia and China. As the last of the oil fields begin to run dry, the factions mobilise their armies and move in on whats left. This is the setting for Frontlines and its a story that has credibility, this could conceivably happen a decade down the track and it adds to the realism.
The core gameplay mechanic in Frontlinesis called the frontlines system. Players battle on a map that at the beginning of each match is controlled 50/50 by each team. As the match goes on the objective is to capture specific control points on each map thereby advancing your frontline deeper into enemy territory and allowing capture of more control points. You have to advance your frontline before capturing the deeper control points, so you cannot stealth into enemy territory and take control points that way, much like a real war you advance your territory as a team.
There are several class types you can choose from in Frontlines, ranging from a run-of-the-mill assault soldier to a sniper, an anti-vehicle class or an engineer. Each class has a different weapon selection based on its strengths. The anti-vehicle class has a homing rocket launcher, where the heavy weapons class carry shotguns. Its all catered to how you like to play and the classes are a strength of the game. Each class as they get kills or capture points in a game can ‘level’ up, opening new secondary skills. An assault trooper can set up a gun placement, where an engineer can set up an EMP charge that can kill vehicles. Vehicles play a huge part in Frontlines, with the majority fun to use. Ranging from jeeps, to APCs, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets everyone is catered for here. Flying a jet or helicopter can be difficult to get the hang of at first but you soon catch on and flying these are probably the most fun you’ll get out of the game.
One other unique feature to Frontlines is the drone system. Certian classes in the game can as they ‘level’ up get access to drones, in the form of remote control car, helicopters or mobile chainguns and can tear around the maps causing havok. As fun as it is to fly a mini helicopter into a group of unaware enemies and blow them all to kingdom-come, it does get old pretty quickly and you’ll soon find yourself sticking to ground or air-based fighting.
The team aspect plays a huge role in this game, with victory difficult to achieve unless you work together. With team play so high on the agenda for this game then its stance on voice playback is very odd. You can form squads of players within a team, and the only way to hear voice is to be in a squad. The interface for Frontlines is very cumbersome and bringing up this menu in the midst of war to form a squad is far too difficult to do and rarely needs to be done. Taking into account that people can just decline your squad invite, it would have been a far better idea to just have an open channel to all team members rather than this squad system.
The game ships with eight mulitplayer maps ranging in size, scope and location. You’ll be fighting on a massive solar power field designed for 22+ players to small mountian villages with 14 players in mind, but while the maps sound interesting it dosen’t really translate that way in the game. The graphical design of the game is lackuster, the draw distance is poor and the textures leave a lot to be desired. The explosions however look very nice, as does the weaponry and vehicles. Sound is a strong suit, with gunfire in the distance rattling off realistically while the whir of the helicopter overhead makes you look to the sky while in your lounge room, the surround sound in this game is great.
The first person nature of the game also feels a little sluggish. Even on dedicated servers, the collision detection is quite bad and you’ll often have to aim right out in front of an enemy to score a hit. The game uses the Halo and Call of Duty regenerative health system but once your being hit your basically a goner.
While the game was made with online play in the forefront of the developers minds, there is a single player campaign. But with a backstory so incredibly detailed and surprisingly interesting, its a shame that the single player campaign wasn’t more fleshed out. Within the game you can only play as the Western Coalition (though online you can play as either faction) as you try to take control of the middle east as oil becomes increasingly scarce. World War III has broken out and its full on from here.
However the single player campaign is only seven missions long, and will take most players a mere six to eight hours to complete, even on the hardcore difficulty setting. And the objectives are pretty basic. The campaign also makes use of the frontlines gameplay mechanic, but wraps it into the objectives. In a certian mission you may have to plant a bomb to destroy a tank factory, or hold off an attack wave at a sand wall. These objectives all use the frontlines system but hide the generic capture and control with face objectives, which makes the game feel a little more fresh. But with such a rich backstory of this not-so-distant war the game really should have been fleshed out more, there is massive potential here that has gone untapped.
In fact, that is the tone for the entire game, untapped potential. The game feels rushed, the story is presented well but the rest of the game feels very unfinished, whether it be the dirty textures or poor gameplay, had this game had another six to twelve months of development time I could be singing a largley different tune. Frontlines has the right idea, but the execution of said ideas are not done well, should there be a sequal Kaos have a lot to work with, a rich story and a great setting, but more time needs to be put into the core gameplay to make the game fun.
Visuals – 7/10
Sound – 8.5/10
Gameplay – 6.5/10
Longevity – 7/10
Overall – 6/10
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