Frontlines: Hands on with War

Frontlines: Fuel of War is set in the year 2024, just far enough into the future to have today's prototype weapons in service. The game's premise revolves around oil reserves being depleted around the world, creating an ensuing energy crisis between the Red Star Alliance (a coalition of Russia and China) and the Western Coalition for control of the last major oil fields, which are located around the Caspian Sea. You'll play as part of the Star Dogs Division, a Coalition unit that's sent into the battle, and you'll go from the Caspian all the way to the gates of Moscow in the game's single-player campaign, fighting large-scale battles alongside computer-controlled allies and opponents.

The single-player battles are designed to be open-ended missions where you have multiple objectives, and you can pursue those objectives in whatever order you desire. One mission we played requires you to take out air defences in a town, as well as seize blueprints for a high-tech tank and battle for control of an ammunition stockpile.

You can attack this mission in any number of ways. The straight old run and gun technique probably won’t come off though, as the game rewarded intelligent play on our play through, but you can only capture objectives that are on the front line of battle, which is shown on the map, thus making you fight tooth and claw for every inch and mission objective.

To ensure victory in these objectives you’ll have a variety of next-generation weapons and equipment at your disposal. Included will be special air busting grenades, set to detonate once they’ve travelled a set distance, and a gun drone, which travels around the map at your control firing at enemies, although you’re wide open to attack while operating it.

Vehicles such as tanks and helicopters are also at your disposal, and the game looks like it will give every opportunity for you to use them to obtain your mission objectives.

The action in multiplayer is similar to that of single-player, though you do get to choose a class and a role in the game. The class you choose determines your basic weapons and equipment load out, so the special forces class gets a carbine or submachine gun and explosives equipment that need no explaining. Other classes include assault, heavy assault, sniper, anti-vehicle, and close combat.

If the build we managed to play is anything to go on, then this shooter looks set to give the genre a severe shake, with both a single-player campaign and an enthralling multiplayer experience. Demoes of the game are out on Xbox Live and PC, and will provide adequate enough action until the real deal hits in early March.