Preview: Hands on with Frontlines: Fuel of War - Xbox 36026th March 2007Okay, so we jumped into a match on the side of the Red Star Alliance and immediately checked out what soldier types we could play. The game begins with the choice of the following soldier types: assault, heavy assault, sniper, anti-vehicle, special ops or close combat roles. Each role gives you access to different weapons and once you die you can switch types depending on the tactics you wish to employ - so far, so Battlefield...right? On a map titled 'Street's we immediately found a ladder close to our spawn point which allowed us to access a roof - good job we chose to be a sniper eh? From the roof we had a clear view down the Mexican street, which was littered with cars ideal for hiding behind and was bordered by tall buildings giving the illusion that is was far narrower than it actually was - it's actually a large, dangerous space where the majority of the action plays out. For the next 10 minutes or so we set up our camping position and proceeded to kill the enemy one after another as they blindly left their spawn and headed out into the open space of the street. Well, this is sort of boring, we thought. All of a sudden we noticed a few objects that were flying around and immediately presumed they were something similar to the recon drone in GRAW 2. As the object came nearer we noticed it looked like a small model helicopter. Interesting recon drone, we thought.  As we commanded our soldier to stand up to take a closer look the drone hovered to just under our knees and then exploded killing us instantly and sending us flying off the roof to terra firma. Extremely interesting drone, we thought, what's that all about? Now, we'd jumped into this multiplayer match immediately and we'd not read about Frontlines prior to the event, nor had we bothered to have a good look through the options available to us before we began; we foolishly thought Frontlines was a standard shooter, a clone of Battlefield 2, and nothing more. But, whilst many of the core game mechanics do mimic the series, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, Kaos has added an excellent assortment of these impressive drones, which aren't just there for novelty value, but do add a great deal to the core part of the gameplay. Now, drones aren't new - the addition of the mule and the improved recon drone in GRAW 2 for example has shown just how well drones can be implemented, but the variety of drones on offer and the way in which they give you that tactical edge in battle is where Frontlines really shines.
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