Frontlines is one of only two
games by Kaos Studios (the other Homefront in
2011) before being shut down. However they were
previously known as Trauma Studios and collaborated
on Battlefield 2. So it's no surprise that Frontlines
is a bit of a Battlefield clone, only not so
good.
Frontlines feels like it's
been created for multiplayer with just a single
player campaign glued on the side. It's very
short - only seven large levels which take place
around 5-6 hours to complete. For Unreal Engine
3.0, it's not particularly impressive. I've
seen plenty games put this engine to better
use. We have the typical desaturated, brown
and washed out tones for 3.0, yet again. Boy
am I sick of this. Plain textures and structures
that all look fairly similar. The outdoor terrain
is a bit more appealing but soon enough you
return to small towns with large open areas
(so you can use your tank) and half-destroyed
concrete buildings. It's about the most done-to-death
setting in shooters I can think of. And I haven't
even played any COD4 or Battlefield yet!
Still, it might be a common
theme but it's not ugly. I'm just a bit over
seeing this theme.
What I mean by this game feeling
like single player is tacked on, comes from
the bot-type gameplay. There's linearity as
you progress through one objective at a time,
but enemies seem to keep re-spawning until you've
achieved this. They do dwindle in numbers the
more you kill, but re-spawning enemies is a
cheap tactic. They're also all identical - even
the characters faces are all identical! The
only change in weaponry are the odd, annoying
as hell, guys carrying rocket launchers.
Weapons aren't very fun to
use either, at least those that you're given
for most of the game. Even when scoping, your
bullets spray everywhere instead of where your
cursor is actually pointing. Recoil is overdone.
If you can hit an enemy in the head then props
to you, if you can't then you'll endessly be
firing into their body waiting for them to die.
There's also all sorts of gadgets that you can
use; mostly remote controlled vehicles that
can be used to take enemies out without putting
yourself in harms way. Nice idea, but I really
didn't use them all that much. If I played multiplayer
perhaps they'd be more useful.
Frontlines can only be considered
part first person shooter. The other part is
a tank game, because you're in a tank for almost
half of the game. Which is not a good thing
- I hate tank games. You can just hop out but
trying to take on other tanks and copters with
your handheld rocket launcher is no fun. The
tanks make mince-meat of everything.
The story I'll rush over because
I've got better things to do then review such
a short game, but it's about a war between Russia,
China, the rest of the world (meaning America)
over fuel. It's all a little interesting, but
doesn't really go anywhere and other than being
an underlying plot, the story isn't bought into
the game much. The in-between cinematic sequences
were nothing but gloss. I don't even know who
I was playing as in the game, let alone anything
about any of the characters apart from one of
them being a camera man. Perhaps that was me?
Anyway, overall Frontlines
is a short war shooter, same old visuals and
gameplay we've seen. It's not a bad game; perhaps
a nice little excursion on a Sunday afternoon
if you can put up with all the tank driving.
I dislike how critics hate on games just because
they haven't done anything new, and I don't
want to do the same, but ultimately I was bored
with this after five hours. Saints Row 2 I played
for over 30 hours.
A couple final notes: firstly,
this game gives me slight motion sickness.
Secondly, don't attempt to
install any of the very recommended patches.
For me as soon as I applied a patch the game
would crash after the splash screen every time.
Many other users report the same problems without
any known fixes. But prior to the patches, the
game works fine. And I don't know what the patches
attempt to fix, but I didn't find any bugs in
Frontlines.
