Xbox Live Verdict: Frontlines

Our new Xbox Live Verdict feature looks at online play, looking at Xbox games old and new to see if they're still worth playing online. This month: THQ's 2008 shooter, Frontlines: Fuel of War.

Future wars will not be won by soldiers on the ground, but by radio-controlled cars and helicopters packed with C4 explosives. That's one of many valuable lessons to be learned from Frontlines: Fuel of War, a game where the big guns play second fiddle to the fun techno-toys.

This squad-based shooter boasts 50-player battles, the biggest of its type on Xbox 360. While other games have crumbled under the weight of an ambitious player-count, Frontlines is all the stronger for it.

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Kaos Studios had the good sense to run dedicated servers, ensuring a lag-free experience and a steadfast community to do battle with.

For a game that didn't sell very well, we were more than a little surprised to find so many people still enjoying it. A year and a half after launch, it's no problem at all to get into a 40-player battle.

Frontlines was designed to be a strategic shooter, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. The goal is to capture pairs of control stations, each one creating a new front line for your players to spawn from.

Unlike Battlefield, where you get small skirmishes around each of the isolated control points, Frontlines creates one huge clash in the centre of the map. Everyone piles in, strategy goes out the window and lots of stuff blows up. Not the most cerebral of games then, but it's still immensely fun and remarkably easy to get into.

The five character classes are identical, aside from having different weapon load-outs, making the learning curve fairly shallow. It's possible to further specialise your character though, making them an expert in combat support, radio-controlled drones, electro magnetic devices or air-support.

It's a distinctive feature, because it prevents character classes from falling into their usual clichéd brackets.

Sending drones out to do your bidding is the game's most inspired feature. Chasing tanks around with an explosive RC buggy is ludicrous but enjoyable. The flying drones are also fun, mostly because they're difficult to see and are great for stealth attacks. Using them to sneak up on snipers is immensely satisfying.
The Frontlines community is well-populated, but not very talkative.

It seems that most players are too busy blowing things up to discuss strategy. At least you're generally spared any mindless chatter or kids making strange noises.

If the game has any serious flaws, it's that there aren't any standout maps. There's plenty of variety and unobtrusive geographical features, but many of the battlegrounds look bland and lack exciting choke points. Whereas Battlefield uses rivers and bridges to create bottlenecks, Frontlines action feels far more spread out and disorganised.

This is a game for those who just want to pile into a tank and destroy everything in sight. It's chaotic, and the high number of players means there's rarely a dull moment.

Kaos' servers are remarkably stable, and the developer deserves credit for running them. The fact that you can still have such a good time so far after launch proves it's all worthwhile.

Ben Talbot