Frontlines: Fuel of War
In a desperate, near future setting where controlling the planet’s depleting fossil resources determines the ultimate fate of civilization. A global war for oil is being waged between two superpowers, the Western Coalition (US/EU) and the Red Star Alliance (Russia/China), and players will be instrumental in determining how the war is waged — and won.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars The Diet Coke of FPSs
There’s not a lot to say about Frontlines. Imagine Call of Duty 4 with standard graphics and a little bit more retarded AI. Everything about this game feels just like a streamlined FPS. If you’re itching for some more modern warfare but only want to spend [...], Frontlines is a great choice.
Pros:
+The few new features Frontlines offer generally work pretty well. The game gives you a handful of robotic vehicles, including micro-helicopters, which can be lifesavers in some situations.
+The cut scenes can be skipped. The story tries to take itself as a serious commentary on the oil crisis but who cares? Let’s just skip straight to the shooting.
+ It’s just fun. It plays like the store brand of Call of Duty but there’s no denying the simple joy of driving your military R/C car behind enemy lines and under a tank to blow it up.
+Diversity. Though it doesn’t help the story to do so, the game constantly moves around, from the slums of Moscow to a desert oil field to a backwoods forest.
Cons:
-The whole “frontline” aspect is a cheap ploy to cover a pretty standard level design. The game boils down to go here, blow up this, secure this, move on.
-AI. Your enemies can score headshots from behind cover 300 yards away. Your fellow soldiers are idiots. I spent five minutes trapped in a room because one of my guys just stood in the doorway, firing blindly across the map.
-The sniper rifle sucks. I like to lean on sniper rifles in RPSs, but it doesn’t work here. Frontline’s sniper is horribly inaccurate and only a direct headshot will kill an enemy in one round.
Bottom line: You’ve probably played this game before but that doesn’t keep it from still being a blast. Just close your eyes and imagine its a new level pack for COD4.
5 Stars Don’t you love finding $20 games that can return so much FUN!!!
I really enjoyed this game even though it has it’s quirks and it’s shorter than many. While it doesn’t have the addictive nature of EDF 2017 which I played for over a year and finished at 100% (twice) and still enjoy going back to with it’s cheesy graphics and Starship Troopers dialogue, this game has very inventive weapons IMO and in fact you may need to fart around spending time just getting used to all the Drone weapons which are quite cool once you get the hang of it.
It’s never so hard that you want to give up and rarely do they leave you stuck in an area where you cannot replenish your ammo but you must keep your eyes out for where they leave advanced weapons as you don’t want to suddenly be battling a Tank or a Sniper and no advanced weapons to use.
The more you make yourself prone the more accurate the hits on the enemy but beware many of them are wearing body armor including helmets with added protection and damn it can take a helluva lot of shots to take them down at times.
One quirk I noticed that’s troubling is the dang Sniper Rifles and I was an expert marksman that went through Guerilla warfare training for Vietnam and in this game you give the enemy a head shot with a high powered Sniper Rifle and how the hell they survive doesn’t make sense - Head Shots from an automatic at distance with armor protected helmet yes perhaps, but not a high powered sniper rifle. Don’t expect the sniper rifles to work anything like those in Halo 3 where headshots are 100% kills.
There’s one level where your dropped alone in the hills to use the sniper and damn if most will survive the headshots - always prep for the follow-up shot. Another quirk is the AI of your squads - sometimes your surrounded by them supposedly fighting with you and they are firing like hell at the enemy and it seems they aren’t hitting anyone at times and your doing it all and it gets you cussing at squad because they seemingly cannot hit anyone thats directly in the line of fire of four of your soldiers and makes you think are you guys friggin BLIND!
The vehicles do not have the terrific fluidity of a Halo 3 so it can be frustrating at times with the Tanks and often I’ll jump out of the tank and use the Rocket Launcher with auto aiming and it kicks butt as long as you don’t expose yourself in the open for too long. That rocket launcher and mini helicopter missile firing drone are the MVP weapons as are some of the drones once you get used to them.
Despite the quirks I enjoyed it very much and it has good replay as you are in control of your battle plan tactics (though it won’t let you leave a battle) you decide the tactics and no one else on each level.
Hell - great fun for $20 and the storyline is very appropriate for the times we’re in today. Just like EDF 2017 many love it and others don’t but for $20 no big loss as it still has resale value with next to nothing lost. Enjoy!
EDF EDF EDF!!!;)
4 Stars Enjoyed it as casual entertainment
I looked at this game a while ago but didn’t give it any consideration due to the reviews. This is why reviews should be taken with a grain of salt.
The graphics, controls, and gameplay are what you’d expect. Physics is sometimes a bit funky, especially sliding collisions against obstacles. I played all the GRAW, RSV, COD style games. Frontlines falls into that genre, so I picked it up used. I had fun with it. I played it casually to relax after work. It is relatively short, maybe 10 hours.
The true weak part of the game is the story itself. I didn’t really get as drawn into the events as in other games despite of believing that energy is an important issue that will lead to more problems eventually. Some of the weapons are a bit too futuristic for my taste but that is not a real issue.
Overall I don’t regret having spent some hours of my life on this game and would encourage any fan of fps war games to give it a try. It’s available pretty cheap on the used market.
4 Stars Alex and Sam’s game
It is a good first person Shooter. Game play is rather short, but Multi player is great.
3 Stars Hard to find Shooter
Fun little shooter with a speculative future theme. When it came out it didn’t seem to get much media attention. It has since become hard to find in brick and mortar stores.
Filed under: Xbox 360 Video Games