Frontlines: Fuel of War

This is one of the games that came free with my 360, and I'll be honest, I can see why. It has also recently come to my attention that Frontlines is not actually an Xbox Exclusive. To be honest, not much loss there.

Frontlines, I think, defines the word 'mediocre' in the gaming world. I really can't describe it better than this - everything is ok and up to standard. Nothing excels, nothing breaks new ground, but nothing makes you want to throw it at a wall. The graphics are not bad at all; in fact I think that they are the best thing the game can boast about. The gameplay is fine, so fine in fact it makes me just want to stand up and scream 'THIS GAME IS SO OK!'. I never really got bored, the campaign had a good storyline and the enemies were believable, though I was rather underwhelmed by the ending. Admittedly, I was almost annoyed that it left it open for a sequel. It just isn't necessary. I enjoyed the sprint ability (and also the fact that you can reload while sprinting) and I think it has very realistic explosion damage, for example the grenades. All the weapons are very similar, and save the sniper rifles looking great and shooting shit, I didn't have much of a problem with them.

I think the most common criticism that has been made by players of Frontlines is the the vehicles. They control very unrealistically, such as the jeeps having turning as rediculously good as the cars in San Andreas. The tanks also fire shells that, after reaching their target at 10 miles an hour have very little effect. There is also a glitch which I have experienced and heard about from many other players where your vehicle reverses constantly if you are not pushing either analog stick. I really can't explain how irritating this is, but imagine you are doing a skillful handbrake turn using the same technique that you do in Halo (they have identical driving controls) but at the peak of the turn when you are at your slowest, you got backwards. What the hell? Lastly, the multiplayer is pretty useless. So few people actually play Frontlines that I have barely ever been in a full game. The maps are also impossibly huge, and despite having maximum teams of 50 (woah) you'll still find everyone too spread out across the map. One thing though I did have great fun with on the multiplayer; fighter jets!

I give Frontlines a 5/10. It's just a decent game that does what a game does and not much more. I wouldn't buy it, but as a starter game, it's not too bad.