E for All 2007 Preview

First-person shooters don’t garner much attention anymore. The genre does as a whole, but individually the games are losing ground. Most say it’s because there are too many of them, but the real problem lies within the lack of differentiating content.

That’s where Frontlines: Fuel of War has an advantage. At first glance, it doesn’t feel that different from other super-fast shooters (mainly the PC type – the controls and frame rate, though occasionally sticky in this preview build, are generally faster than the average console FPS).

The weapons don’t seem that different either. You’ll use an M12 Alamo Pistol, M177 Demolition Charger (plant it, run, and hit the button), Arc 3 Grenade Launcher, and Arc 3 Assault Rifle. On paper, those don’t sound out of the ordinary. And thus far they’re not – the game is filled with action but it still feels like another game you’ve seen and played before…

…Until you acquire the miniature vehicle weapons. These bad boys are as tiny as RC cars and as varied as helicopters, C4 drones, and tanks. The former two were available in this build.

C4 drones are great. You pick up this odd-looking object, thinking it’s some kind of weird mechanical device. It doesn’t look like a weapon. Then you hit the right trigger (attack button) and the game switches from the standard, first-person view, to a behind-the-drone perspective. Players can now control the drone and drive to any nearby location. Its functionality is only limited by the distance between the drone and your human player – get too far away and the signal won’t reach. The drone controls pretty easily with a two-stick, Halo-type system. Hit a step, bump, or some other small obstacle and the drone will hop around just like an RC car. No enemies were around, so I decided to finish the drone by driving under an abandoned vehicle. Press the right trigger again to switch back to your human character, and press it again to detonate.

The second miniature vehicle was the helicopter, a fully controllable device that can be used to infiltrate areas of the battlefield that are too dangerous to enter on foot. The controls are what you’d expect from a flight/combat game, not from an FPS – full aerial controls and missile capabilities (blast enemies into pieces). No kamikaze attacks were possible in the demo. I couldn’t even ram myself into a wall. But you will die if a missile is shot too close to the helicopter.

These miniatures could be a standout, crowd-drawing feature for Frontlines: Fuel of War. Only the Xbox 360 version was on display at E for All, but you can also get it on PS3 and PC when it’s released next year.