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Visually the size of the environments makes up for any roughnessWhat Frontlines manages to do really well is capture the feeling of war. At times you'll have enemies coming at you from all directions, rockets will be screaming through the air, tanks will be bombarding your position with heavy fire and your team mates will be laying down suppressive fire. As good as this is, Frontlines just doesn't have the spark and edge in its single-player campaign to make it truly special. Developer Kaos Studios has managed to take what is essentially a multiplayer game dynamic and turn it into a highly entertaining single-player game, but Frontlines misses out on the special moments you'll find in the more scripted shooters.
Rather than have jaw on the flaw moments play out in-game, in Frontlines they're relegated to cutscenes. If you accomplish something you want to see it happen in the game, not in a totally non-interactive video. Speaking of the videos, the story in Frontlines isn't quite as engaging as many of the most popular shooters on the market and despite things being told by cutscenes it feels like you're just jumping from one war zone to another, without any real sense of consequence.
AdvertisementIf the single-player game suffers slightly because of its bold approach to gameplay, the multiplayer portion of Frontlines excels. It's a lazy comparison, but what you have here is a Battlefield-like multiplayer FPS, complete with ground and air vehicles, objectives and control points. Given that Battlefield Modern Combat is getting a little old in the tooth this is no bad thing, but the big point in Frontlines' favour is being able to play in mammoth matches of up to 50 players - although only on one map for the time being.
Whether or not you enjoy the massive-scale online battles will ultimately determine how fond you become of Frontlines, as it's by far the game's most impressive feature. Maps are truly colossal in size, absolutely requiring the use of the many vehicles, and the large player numbers means team work is essential. If you enjoyed the Xbox 360 multiplayer demo then you'll no doubt go crazy for the full game, which offers far more content and the larger maps that make for online games unlike anything you'll have played before on a console.
Using the many drones is great funBuilt on the Unreal Engine 3 Frontlines is no slouch visually, but it's not quite as polished as Epic's now legendary Gears of War. In its defence, Frontlines offers levels that dwarf those seen in Gears and there's far more going on here. Compared to its open-world FPS rivals it's by far the best looking, even outdoing id Software's recent Enemy Quake Wars. Things do get a little too hectic at points, causing some noticeable slowdown, but the game moves at a pretty slow pace anyway, making these moments unfortunate but far from a disaster.
Frontlines as a single-player game actually came as quite a surprise. I'd expected its open nature to feel like a series of watered down multiplayer matches, but once you get into the heat of action it's a thrilling experience. It's the multiplayer that will give Frontlines legs though, providing gamers with epic 50-player battles that really give the big boys of the genre a real run for their money. THQ hasn't had the greatest showing on next-gen consoles so far, but Frontlines has the potential to be a very successful franchise.
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Richdad wrote at 19:12 on 22 February 2008
Its not as bad as stated, its better than Turok atleast. I hope they might make it much better next time.
Doobi wrote at 19:43 on 22 February 2008
I've been playing the MP demo and it's awesome! I can't wait for the full game, 42 players on Oil Fields is just hectic.
Mulac wrote at 21:04 on 22 February 2008
Hmm...given the review was good I may invest in this.
FantasyMeister wrote at 22:31 on 22 February 2008
I was surprised it got 8/10 but I'm only judging by what I saw from the demos, I guess overall it's a fair score as Frontlines really is quite an achievement technically, and although all the gadgets are fun to play with (remote control helicopters, airstrikes, mobile machine gun emplacements etc), it just didn't grab me.
The major plus is that in the 360 multiplayer demo when we got a 16 vs 16 match going the game lasted for hours as the battle swayed too and fro, but on the flipside I found it to just a long drawn out game of domination, there weren't any other multiplayer modes.
It's definitely up there with the Battlefield series, but I think being limited to domination all the time doesn't do it any favours. On the other hand if you're a team player then it could be right up your street.
I thought it was 64 player on PC and 32 player on consoles, the review mentions 50 player which is a little confusing.
old wrote at 04:12 on 24 February 2008
it is 50 players online for the 360, they are using dedicated servers
FantasyMeister wrote at 05:45 on 24 February 2008
Cheers for that, now I'm impressed.
NinetiesKid wrote at 17:51 on 24 February 2008
The demo had pants graphics, and although I know it shouldn't, that really put me off :(
Also, for the ten minutes that I was playing, I only saw like 2 other guys, the map just felt way too big!
MatthewGolden wrote at 22:01 on 25 February 2008
It is one of best games ever! 25 vs 25 YES for dedicated servers!
Netmind wrote at 06:19 on 26 February 2008
I hope this is as good on PC as it obviously is on 360.
VG tried this on PC yet?
TomO wrote at 09:44 on 26 February 2008
We haven't played the PC version, but the game's built on UE3 so it should be fine.
Ginger_Jesus wrote at 18:42 on 26 February 2008
It performs so well on the demo on XBL, with UE3 is mind blowing seeing as it holds up to 32 player support. Great review Tom, I might just buy this for my brothers birthday this monday coming. Also some feedback from a couple of members on here suggest GH:3 and that also looks very good.
newbinator wrote at 00:23 on 13 March 2008
it sounds like a huge rip off of battlefeild....but that was a good game, so i more than likely am going to buy frontlines. but really, the commercial has is the same map as one in battlefeild. behind that wall there will probably be a nuke factory... if so, it is a magor rip off battlefeild. atleast i get to pick off a load off newbs and fight elites like me.
demon slayer73 wrote at 12:16 on 19 March 2008
im gettin it in like 5 hours i cant wait!!! on 360 it gonna be awsome and with ue3 thats what there makeing gow 2 with!!!! awsome a real war online!!!