Demo Review - Frontlines: Fuel of War

Frontlines: Fuel of War developed by THQ division team, Kaos Studios, would be the game love-child if GRAW 2 and Battlefield 2 had one too many cocktails. Frontline is based in 2024 where the world has fallen into conflict over what remains of the planets natural resources. The game pits the Western Coalition (US and European Union) against the Red Star Alliance (Russia and People's Republic of China) for global supremacy.

In the demo, now available on Xbox Live, you take part in an assault on weapon caches and intelligence headquarters held by the Red Star Alliance. The game resembles GRAW 2 through its use of futuristic weaponry such as mini-helicopters, detonating remote control vehicles (pictured) and other miniature UAV's. Where Battlefield's influence shows is how each vehicle can be controlled by the player. For example, the game features the use of futuristic aircraft, tanks and other land vehicle, all of which will be used in certain mission. The game states that you will "play the entire mission," so if air strikes are needed, chances are you're in the cockpit. Also, since you don't take the role of any particular character, if you die on the field, you are given a choice of which type of equipped soldier you would like to respawn as. The demo only allows a mixture of an assault template, equipped with a grenade launcher, and a rocket-wielding demolition template, but it would be safe to say more will be available in the full game.

It was fun for the short time I got to play and, if you are a GRAW or BF fan, I would really recommend giving it a go around. Frontlines: Fuel of War will be available for the Xbox 360 in February of 2008.

- R

Images: http://games.gearlive.com/blogimages/ffow3.jpg
http://www.frontlineswar.com/images/news/drone_tigerrunner.jpg