E3 06: Frontlines: Fuel of War Impressions

LOS ANGELES--We took an up-close look at the brand-new shooter Frontlines: Fuel of War at E3. The new game is the first for developer KAOS Studios, though technically not the first game project, since the most of the development team was part of Trauma Studios, the group that created the Desert Combat modification for Battlefield 1942 on the PC. KAOS is now working on an all-new game for the PC and next-generation consoles that will take place in a hypothetical near-future conflict based on an equally hypothetical (but depressingly possible) energy crisis caused by worldwide fuel shortages. To make a long story short, the petroleum-hungry world of tomorrow gets divvied up between two major superpowers, the Western Coalition (an alliance between the US and Europe) and the Red Star Alliance (joint forces of China and Russia), and you'll play as a soldier on either side.

According to KAOS general manager Frank DeLise, the game will attempt to distinguish itself by presenting a compelling, nonlinear single-player experience. The idea is that although you'll proceed through the game by taking on various missions, you'll always have a choice about which mission to do next; and by completing your missions, you'll be able to claim more territory for your faction, advancing the frontlines (hence the game's name) further into enemy territory.

Apparently, at the start of each mission, you'll play as a soldier who is part of a fireteam, and you'll be able to choose not only a basic weapon loadout, but also a specific "role" (such as recon or assault), which will act a bit like a role-playing game character class. You'll be able to advance ranks in your role over the course of single-player missions (or during individual multiplayer sessions), which will unlock new abilities for your role; for instance, we watched a demonstration in which a recon player advanced one rank, which unlocked air strikes as a new ability (the player could then use binoculars to spot a target, and then call down a bombing run).

We watched a few different missions in action and bore witness to what DeLise describes as the game's "go anywhere, do anything mentality." Like in Battlefield 1942, Frontlines will let you be able to approach battles not only on foot but also by jumping into various vehicles, and since the game takes place in a near-future environment, you'll be using hypothetical weapons and vehicles, such as an evolved version of the Comanche attack chopper and fancy armament such as "air-detonation" grenades that explode in midair and are great for flushing out opponents with a height advantage. You'll also be able to make use of other interesting toys, such as scout drones (either flying or wheeled varieties) that you can use to sneak past enemy defense and either take active control of or simply park in a dark corner and occasionally switch to. If you're not happy with your drone, or the enemies you're spying on, you can also have the drone go on a suicide run, charging at an enemy and detonating itself with a powerful explosion that should take down most infantry soldiers.

From the levels we saw, which included storming a small desert village and riding a tank into the fiery wake of a tactical nuclear warhead toward a mission objective, the game will offer considerable variety, not only in its mix of missions, but also in the way you can approach it. KAOS isn't discussing many details about the game's multiplayer, except that the game will support online play of some kind. Frontlines: Fuel of War is scheduled for release next year.