Let me get this out in the open before anything else is said about this game; don’t buy this if you’re not online or don’t plan to play it online.  The Single player is really there as a training system before you enter the game on Live.

On medium difficulty we’re talking 3-4 hours tops to finish the game.   However fun it is, it’s certainly not worth the retail price for the single player alone.  But to ignore the online game is to ignore the reason Frontlines was created.

The excuse for a story is that the world is fast running out of oil and the east has made a pact to combine forces and keep control of the vast percentage oil fields, leaving the west to suffer famine, recession and lack of fuel.  Cheery.  The next obvious stage is for them to grab the rest, which they start doing.  Anyway, western forces are having none of it and fight back and it just so happens that this is where you come in.

So we come to the meat of the game, the online mode.  Set in these mid-eastern areas where struggles for oilfields have escalated into full blown war, you and your AI or human controlled soldiers have to fight to gain areas which will push the frontline forward and eventually take control of the whole map.  So far, so Battlefield.  But where Frontlines really scores is in the decent vehicles that are instantly available.  Tanks, trucks, coptors and even civilian busses are at your disposal in order to grab those precious checkpoints.   All of which means 32 player battles on a large scale with masses of explosions.

The next neat idea comes in the form of Remote drones, airborne and land-based that can be controlled to fly or drive right up to the enemy and detonated or let loose with their weapons.   This adds a new spin on sneaking up to the enemy.  Often the drones are so small that you won’t spot them until its too late (even if you can hear them a mile off).  The price you pay for using them is that you can’t control your player at the same time, leaving you vunerable to attack while you concentrate on flying the drone.  Plus there’s only a limited distance before the signal gives out.

The graphics on a smaller monitor or HDTV are great, big explosions light up the sky and all the models are rendered well.  When you up the TV size, though, you may notice the HD graphics suffering in comparison to other more pretty games.  Still, they more than do their job in a busy warzone and even with a full 32 players there is little sign of slowing down. The teams and weapons seem to be well balanced and I’ve yet to see any scenarios where any one player can take complete control, something common in other FPS games.

So if you like your online games to be meaty vehicle based explodathons, Frontlines will be perfect for you.  I’ll be playing this for a long time to come.  It’s just a pity that the single player campaign isn’t any longer.

8/10