"Frontlines : Fuel of War" Smashes My Dreams For The Next Great MP FPS

In 2002, EA released Battlefield 1942, one of my true all time favorite games ever. In doing so, they raised the multiplayer FPS genre out of the dregs of the deathmatching and capture the flag which was so 90's. Conquest game modes, vehicles from battleships to jeeps, 64 player servers, dogfighting in the air, and very well thought out maps all came together to make a truly different and fun game. It was done so well that it still hasn't been surpassed, even by all of the expansions and sequels that have been released into that series since then.

That's the bar I've set for any online FPS that I buy. The graphics need to be current, and the gameplay needs to be as good or better than that 2002 title. Frontlines: Fuel of War is a game that I bought with high hopes to achieve just that. After all, why else would anyone waste all of the time and money to build and publish this and why would I spend money to buy it?

Well, silly me. The answer to that question is that I didn't know any better. Sucker? This game is a step backward, and in a big way. If I just run down the list, it gets pretty ugly fast: The squad system sucks, there are no commanders, no spotting targets (very useful), no stamina bar, and no universal upgrades or experience. The vehicles, guns, and classes are the same exact thing that I've seen in every other game like this -- the ground vehicles are limited to 3 standard types of a jeep/APC/tank and the air vehicles are the same jet/attack chopper/transport chopper. The graphics, audio, and map design are all average.

The unique gimmick in this game was the "Frontline", which only serves to stop the other team from capturing the key points behind action. It keeps the action centered around a central area, with the "frontline" moving across the map until the other team is cornered and wiped out. This is only any good if you are type of player who doesn't want to have the dynamic of the other team sneaking or rushing past your frontline and flanking you. Wuuusssssss.

The only real different thing about this game, and hence the only good thing at all, was the secondary kits you can choose to add-on to any other of the main soldier classes. These range from things like "ground support" where you can place a fixed machine gun or a turret, to the "air support kit" where you can call in air strikes. The kit that I can't remember having seen in any other game is the "drone tech" who can remotely control little attack robots that have some different methods of destruction. That kept my interest for a minute or two.

And finally, for all the people who actually claim it matters if the single player completely sucks or not on a game that is obviously made for online multiplayer, this game actually put a half decent effort into making that happen. However, since it really couldn't hold a candle to a game made to have a single player storyline, after about an hour I decided that I wasn't going to waste my time. Yes, it was there, but it was nothing special, so why bother. A silly mix between a tutorial and a half-baked storyline.

I am so mad even just writing this. It's been a pretty long time now since a decent game of this genre has come out. Battlefield 2142 was a year and a half ago so I figured this was the next title! The problem is that the game is completely irrelevant. If it would have been released maybe 2 or 3 years ago, it may have been half decent, but when compared with anything that's already done, it's just a big fat "average". I guess its 70 on Metacritic is deserved, because I wouldn't buy a game with a 70. Never again do I jump on a title the day it comes out and drop $50 before it's got a Metacritic score or I've played the demo. This was a waste.

Counterstrike, here I come.