strong FPS singleplayer and somewhat lackluster multiplayer ... for now
GENERAL/STORY: The FFOW story is reminiscent of BF2142. In short and in this particular case the two coalitions are fighting over oil or whatever is left of the oil resources. Or as the developer more eloquently put it: "The world of Frontlines, circa 2024, is the dark depressed result of the excesses and missteps of 20th century modernism. Overpopulation, environmental decay, technology, and the erosion of civil political structures have left the world a dangerous, chaotic place. ... The pressures that overpopulation has put upon natural and economic resources combined with dwindling energy supplies extracted a huge toll on the once mighty system of states and super states." Anyways, as in most of the FPS genre, any backdrop story will do fine if it provides good enough reason to start shooting around. FFOW, tho, successfully created the story that's a representation of a very realistic scenario of the near future. Combining the realistic story and realistic visuals that most of us can relate to, FFOW succeeded in bringing a highly attractive FPS package, but maybe failed in some areas of implementation of these ideas.
GAMEPLAY: The singleplayer is well done and only a few will find the gameplay displeasing. The AI on both sides is very good. All 8 or so maps look great and offer a solid FPS experience with nice story intros and visuals. The weakness is that there is no any "take cover" mechanics implemented not even the "lean left/right" routine. The maps are rather large and offer multiple paths to an objective, but the illusion of "openness" quickly comes to an end if you wonder beyond the developer's map imaginary boundary (you know, the typical "return to the battle soldier" as seen in many other games of this nature). The multiplayer has all the weaknesses of the SP, but it also adds its own problems. The weapon balancing strongly favors vehicles, so the attraction of good old typical infantry fights is pretty much gone from many MP maps. You rarely see peeps with assault rifles, LMGs, or subs running around and fighting it off. Even the anti-vehicle rocket launchers seem to be too underpowered from any distance. While the MP maps are rather large, they are also graphically busy which further encourages "camping". Unless you are in a vehicle, pretty much you can play any role in the MP as a sniper would. And talking about the snipers ... a way too accurate and damaging -- even a single body shot can kill. The vehicle-mounted guns are also too damage-inflicting and too accurate. So far, the MP is not very attractive to most of the experienced FPS MP veterans -- simply put, the MP doesn't require any skills except maybe knowing the maps to some extent. The challenge is missing here. It also seems that many cheats/hacks have already infested this game's MP. Overall, a solid SP experience, but the MP component needs lots of work and adjustments.
GRAPHICS/VIDEO/SOUND: The graphics/video is very good, not the best I've ever seen by far, but also not bad at all and some scenes simply look great if you have a higher end rig. At least with Nvidia cards there is a "freezing" bug acting out every 20 seconds or so and the only solution for right now is to turn the "foliage" off in the video options (you can leave everything else at as high settings as your rig can handle). The game sound is very good too, definitively above the average. Overall, the entire sound-graphics experience can be described as "above the average", but not exceptionally excellent.
NEGATIVE:
- frequent temporary freezes (at least with Nvidia) -- turn off the foliage in video options as a workaround
- on Vista, "CD/DVD error" -- after patching the game to the v.1.0.1, download and install Securom (disk protection) fix from Kaos (the play disk is #2 disk)
- the weapons balance in the MP leads to the vehicle dominance with very little good old infantry-type of firefights
- no ability to pick up weapons from the ground in both SP & MP
- no ability to play with the "Red Star" weapons in the singleplayer
- somewhat questionable end of the round stats in MP
- MP anti-cheat measures are weak or non-existent
- no "take cover" or "lean left/right" mechanics implemented
CONCLUSION: FFOW is a solid FPS singleplayer and if you are primarily a singleplayer gamer than this is a pretty good purchase, especially if you wait till the price goes down a bit. However, the multiplayer component is not that hot ... at least not yet. Typical BF2/BF2142/CS and other FPS multiplayer veteran nuts won't find much challenge in FFOW. These problems could be addressed with a patch. In short, I would recommend this game if you'd like to play it in its singleplayer mode. On the other side, if you are primarily looking at this game's multiplayer as a possible replacement for games like BF2, BF2142, CS, etc., then I'd recommend to wait and see if this game's MP gets any better in the future, offering a more challenging play and more maps. But if you like tanks and helis or you'd like to play with a variety of drones (drones are probably the most unique feature in this game) you could give the MP a try anyways. Not a bad game at all, and if the developer spent just a bit more time on some final details instead of releasing the game with technical problems this could have been a much better experience for many.
Score: 7.1/10