Frontlines™: Fuel of War™

It's a lot of fun for what it is. There's nothing super great here, it's just fun to blast through but gets rather repetitive.

Better than most movies coming out now a days.

Game works fine for me. Its a solid old school shooter with a lot of features for the time.

the scale of the multiplayer was alot of fun back in the day. without players probably not worth it

Great game, lots of fun.

5

The first of two games by Kaos Studio before they went bankrupt. A favourite of mine!

Fun Game

At first, when looking at the steam page and reading the game contents, I expected a rather different product, something that would be similar to "Planetside 2", a type of game that has the global war aesthetics. Although the game turned out completely different to my imagination, its a decent shooter that involves a wide diversity in equipment, allowing the gameplay to be more dynamic.

I'd say its "Call of Duty" with "Battlefield" inspirations, as the addition of vehicles are awesome, making the game stand out. The gameplay actually feels great as it delivers the total war aspect, with shooting, fighting and vehicle combat all around the player, especially when rockets whizz over the head, exploding somewhere in the background or under your feet. These characteristics portray the authentic feel, which involves the player into the fight, especially when you drive off the enemy forces and take the objectives one by one, feeling less resistance with each step. While the story was not anything spectacular, I was more interested in the missions, as various battle scenarios, where the NPCs are surprisingly well set, as they do not always target you no matter what (as in other shooter games), but also pay attention to other threats, such as your teammates and friendly vehicles.

Now, the game lacks, in my opinion, in gunplay, because the weapons seem very inaccurate with high spray. Assuming that the assault rifle is your most used weapon in almost all the missions, shooting it felt very unsatisfying, as it would already lose its efficiency already in mid range (especially if you're trying to shoot the enemy's unguarded body parts, whose behind the cover). Speaking of enemies, they are fairly buffed (or perhaps the weapons' damage is low), as you need to decently spray the enemies with bullets in order to kill them. I found the MG (also the sniper rifle) to be the most efficient, as it two-shots everyone and can easily tear up sentries, but unfortunately its available only by the end of the game. The legendary red barrels that explode upon shooting, are also lacking in their function, as explosion damage seems to have a very small area of impact, which is the same with any explosive-related weaponry.

Nevertheless, I liked the game, despite it not meeting my expectations (my expectations, my problems XD) and having troubles in key areas, the overall gameplay feel is there and I can definitely recommend to try the game, if you like shooters.

Frontlines: Fuel of War, conceived and developed by the legendary team behind a highly ambitious mod for the original Battlefield:1942 at the time, is set in a dystopian world in the distant year 2024, in the midst of a global energy crisis. Following the usual generic end-time scenario, the Western world, which is morally beyond reproach, goes up against the subhumans from the Eastern Bloc under the natural leadership of the USA. The game contains some political commentary, albeit few, in terms of how much wars cost, including in terms of resources. ‘How could a war over oil be fought, with machines that refilled upon it’. However, anyone hoping for a critical story about the meaning of resource wars, surprising plot twists and the role of major powers in them will be bitterly disappointed. Because the thoroughly moral intro only serves as a creative fig leaf. The cutscenes are narrated from the perspective of a war reporter, who plays absolutely no role during the game. But it doesn't get any more critical or even creative than that, because the game is simply boring after a short period of play and serves up the usual first-person shooter mishmash. It's also amazing how much is blown up in the game - even though there is supposed to be a worldwide fuel shortage. Everywhere, even in the remotest generic Asian wasteland desert, there are fuel barrels filled to the brim, just waiting to explode. This is the game's biggest problem: the constant contradictions. Interesting world-building at first, but immediately followed by generic trash. Over-moralising pseudo-intellectual reporting by the war reporter, but shortly after mindless working-through and capturing checkpoints. The choice of locations was also made as easy as possible: They are always reliably grey-brown-sand-coloured, monotonous and offer absolutely no variety. Hardly any creative energy was invested in the level design either. If it weren't for the regular Russian signs, propaganda posters and graffiti in Cyrillic letters, the game could be set in the Midwest of the USA. The gameplay is one-sided, the campaign is far too short and the controls, apart from the few vehicles, are spongy. The helicopter controls are by far the worst, simply rubbish and therefore useless for combat and progressing in the campaign. Your ally squadmates are absolutely useless as well, while the enemy AI is far too accurate, even at what feels like hundreds of metres away. However, you have to give the game credit for trying new approaches in the shooter genre: for example, it is possible to use drone cars or armed mini-helicopters for close air support. However, Battlefield:2142, released two years prior, did all of this much better. And also provided players with more varied game modes and far more realistic and well thought-out maps. I can't say anything about the multiplayer, as the servers were shut down years ago. One of the things that annoys me most about alternate world scenarios are the obsessively hyperfuturistic infantry weapons. This game is no exception and presents you the usual generic infantry equipment with no surprises: Rifle, pistol, shotgun, hand grenades and sniper rifle, the occasional rocket launcher. That's it. That's enough and that's all there is, you'll have to hold out until Moscow. Even if you'll probably never use more than two weapons most of the time, because the game hardly gives you any opportunity to do so. The scattering effect of those weapons is catastrophic and forces you to engage in annoying close combat. Fortunately, we have been spared a sequel. I have no idea or explanation as to why such a talented development studio like KAOS has delivered such a loveless, sub-par piece of crap to market. This game is a waste of time.

Awesome if you got it for 7 AUD, which is a steal, and awesome if your a low end PC gamer as well

Literally predicted ww3

Bought it on sale because I saw a review saying the weapon accuracy is the worst they ever saw.

I've been firing guns for an hour and felt like I only shot 20 goons.

If you think missing an entire clip is funny, play it. If not, its a mid game.

It's been a while i think it's been over a decade since i played this game on xbox 360 and it's how i remember it.

the Best'est'est of games around

The reality and simplicty

Got it for nostalgia and for it being from 2008 I did not remember it being surprisingly great to handle this many years later.

i played on the hardest difficulty and i've quite enjoyed what the game has to offer.

the overall game design is quite solid with no real complaints in how the weapons work, it even has a weapon selection which does come in handy, there are also quite a few ways to complete the objectives within levels, its a semi-linear experience in that way, and the game describes itself as open world as well.

despite playing on the hardest difficulty and considering this game is about a war of resources i figured it would at least have "bet on soldier" level of difficulty, but other than some hiccups at the first sniper level and the final level in general i didn't have much trouble going through the levels normally, and the game does have systems to make the game easier, like auto regen health, infinite ammo boxes, and being able to die a few times with your progress being saved before you are forced to either spawn back at an objective or simply restarting the mission (you get to pick), and throughout the game i've often stood in gunfire long past my usual expiry date though i do occasionally go through rapid unscheduled disassembly when a tank or helicopter get to me.

the campaign itself is 4-5 hours long and probably 1 hour shorter for each difficulty that you go down.

the story was fairly interesting, the underlying story is about humanity running out of oil before a suitable replacement could be found, im sure such a story hit much harder in the financial crisis year of 2008 but it still holds up, and it does have some uniquely interesting moments within its story and gameplay, having to engage in tank battle because you've been nuked? having to attack militarized civilians? china annexing taiwan in 2024? stuff thats i've found to be fairly unexplored.

although, even good game stories need good gameplay to back them up, and considering the stuff i've said about it being fairly easy the story wasn't super engaging as a result but the couple of named characters we do have are alright, though it is a shame that there aren't any subtitles for this game.

personally i thought i wouldn't like this game since i've once played it on xbox 360 and had the weakest game experience ever with stuff like weirdly mapped buttons that you where unable to switch for some reason, and i guess i didn't figure out save points either from what i remember.

but with all that being said im not sure why the game is at 67% i think it deserves like 75% at least even if the multiplayer has been shut down for a decade, this game also goes on pretty steep discounts so i would recommend getting it on sale if you enjoy war games.
although when booting up you will have to install at least 4 additional things when prompted and the version of PHYSX might not work and might require troubleshooting.

Fun solid game. Loved it when it first came out and still find it fun. Fighting in a tank as you battle through a nuclear detonation was definitely the unique aspect of the game. Still play it and plan on playing with the difficulty ramped up.

Awful

too good a game for this time, it’s a pity that they will never make a sequel, it was such a thrill, thanks to the developers for making my childhood :(