NetGuido

To think that a console first person shooter can survive in this day and age on multiplayer alone is a bit of a stretch. Sure, the prospects of a Huxley– at least when we first heard about it five or so E3’s ago– sound interesting, whereby a MMO turns from RPG to FPS. We aren’t there yet, however.



The idea of a fifty person multiplayer experience via Live is not a new one, although KAOS Studios is the first to pitch it in the HD era with Frontlines: Fuel of War– a game that looks eerily like GRAW 2 if you squint hard enough when looking at the still shots. NovaLogic, famous for their big online PC skirmishes, gave this concept a try on the Big Black Box in Delta Force – Black Hawk Down. The game worked, and was entertaining in various ways, but the whole piece de resistance– the fifty player bullet point– drew little attention due to the servers rarely being filled with enough men and women that were behind, or smart enough to tackle huge, team-oriented combat.
The cash register failure that was Delta Force – Black Hawk Down brings us to this question: Will hardcore, online, console FPS players take Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and the up-and-coming Rainbow Six Vegas 2 out of the disc tray long enough to give Frontlines: Fuel of War a chance to catch on? An even better question may be, will the frenzied FPS fan even want to plop down full price for Frontlines: Fuel of War to be granted access to fifty player online battles? If the thought of playing fifty player online matches via Live (complete with aerial and ground vehicles and high tech gadgetry) can only muster up a “meh” from that thing you call a brain, then you may want to spend your FPS money elsewhere. This is our clear way of letting you know that the single player campaign of Frontlines: Fuel of War is not really worth the game’s asking price. Crème de la crème FPS titles like the aforementioned Halo 3 and COD 4 can easily get by with nary an internet connection/Gold Live account, but realize that Frontlines: Fuel of War’s solo romp isn’t as fleshed out as these GOTY 2008 nominees. The single player in Frontlines: Fuel of War doesn’t necessarily feel tacked on, but it will have that TimeSplitters vibe of being a training ground (read: bot battle) for the massive multiplayer engagements. There is a semblance of a story in the single player, and one that revolves around real-world fear of dwindling natural resources, but rest assured Frontlines: Fuel of War’s solo stuff reads more like a training manual than (ironically) a Tom Clancy novel.
Since the single player leads you down every combat role and puts you in the cockpit of just about all of the available land and air pieces in the multiplayer, you’ll have a good idea of what will ensue when the servers are loaded up with forty nine other GamerTags. Character roles are far from cut-and-dry and different than the typical medic, CQC, sniper, et. al. roles that litter most FPS’ of this design. The modern military bent of Frontlines: Fuel of War allows roles such as Air Support, which allows soldiers radio for distant and destructive long-range support. The EMP is basically the defense against the vehicles completely overtaking the cleverly designed and sprawling maps of Frontlines: Fuel of War; fame equivalent to an FPS medic or NFL offensive lineman, but a very important role nonetheless. The Drone Tech is pretty much self-explanatory and important in the modern military landscape, which we have all learned about not only from GRAW 2 but also the latest batch of U.S. Armed Forces commercials. Last but not least is the Ground Support which mimics the role of squad mechanic– including repair and placement of larger pieces of equipment that the other classes can’t even touch.