Frontlines: Fuel of War (Xbox 360)

The battlefield comes alive, especially online, in this slightly futuristic shooter.
3/18/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

If, as they say, imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then the makers of the Battlefield series should be sincerely flattered by Frontlines: Fuel of War. Developed by Kaos Studios, and published by THQ, Frontlines is a Battlefield-esque first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 that boasts massive firefights, an abundance of weapons and vehicles, and a spawn point-based progression system. As is the norm in videogames (and almost no other form of entertainment), being Battlefield-esque doesn't mean Frontlines is "Battlefield Jr.," but rather that it offers up the same kind of visceral thrills.

The game is set in 2024, when oil and other natural resources have run out and the United States and Europe are duking it out with allied lovebirds Russia and China. You've been drafted to fight in what your kid will someday refer to as "the third world war," which is why your pockets are full of weapons that are slightly more effective than the ones in such modern-day shooters as Call of Duty 4. Unlike COD4, Frontlines also boasts a number of vehicles you can commandeer -- including tanks, helicopters and Humvees -- as well as some remote-controlled weapons that may look like radio-controlled cars, tanks and helicopters, but they can actually pack a wallop. Park the explosive-packed remote-controlled car under a tank, for example, and someone's gonna have to buy a new tank.

While all of these can help you take out the bad guys, this game's action is more involved than you just running around killing anything that moves. As in Battlefield, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and the Domination modes of many online games, both the single- and multiplayer modes of Frontlines have you taking over points on the map, which then become spawn points. As a result, the single-player mode -- at least on the surface -- feels a lot like multiplayer, only with you fighting bots instead of some jerk from Parsippany who questions your sexuality every time he shoots you.

Of course, with both modes being so similar, they also inevitably have the same issues. For starters, someone needs to fix the steering on the vehicles, because they handle like cows on Quaaludes. The game also has rather counterintuitive button layouts. Depending on which setup you choose, Default or Legacy, you'll either use the right trigger to shoot and the left bumper to reload, or the left trigger to shoot and the right bumper to reload. Even stranger, in both setups you use the opposite trigger to toss grenades and you push in the right thumbstick to use your sight or scope. This would make a lot more sense if this game had smaller battlefields, in which case you would be tossing grenades more than you use your gun's sight.

Below the surface, though, there are important differences between this game's two modes. In multiplayer, you capture an objective by standing near it long enough to assert your dominance. Once your team takes over all of the points shown on the map, the front line of the battle moves to reflect that you've taken over the area, and more capture points appear. In a way, it's kind of like football, with the front line of the battle being like the line of scrimmage. In single-player, you also take over points on the map, but you do so not only by standing around, but also by killing any nearby enemies, by holding down the X button long enough to plant an explosive on something that needs to explode, and by holding X long enough to hack a computer or security system.