Frontlines: Fuel of War

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms
Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Frontlines: Fuel of War
Kaos Studios
THQ
First Person Shooter
Teen
8th July 2008
25th February 2008 Buy Now
PC (Reviewed), Xbox 360
http://www.frontlinesgame.com
1.9GB
23rd July 2008

What did I think before playing?
That this was another war-based FPS that must be coming out soon.

What is included?
This is a multiplayer only demo with two maps to play on. It is not clear if you can unlock new equipment, but I suspect not. There is also an "Extras" menu which includes a kind of knowledge base about the game, characters, equipment, etc. and an option to "Enter a Code." What those codes may be, where you get them and what they would unlock are anyone's guess. I heard there was an ARG around this title which involved passwords, so perhaps this is related?

What did I think afterwards?
You start out with a cool intro movie which gets across the idea of using modern warfare equipment, (think drones,) to push forward the front line of battle. After seeing that it seemed like an innovative idea to really highlight the front line.
After exploring the menus a little to see what was available, it becomes clear that you really just have to jump into an online game and find out how it works. Up comes a game browser which I use to filter some games, (e.g. populated, not full, running on dedicated server,) and join a 64 player game, (the largest you can have,) in progress. That loads up pretty quickly and I am presented with a kit screen and a map showing the front line. I have to pick a spawn point on the battlefield behind the front line. I play for a while and very quickly die. The game isn't running very well on my machine and it seems that the players out there are already good at this game, (which is where skill based matchmaking would trump game browsers every time.)
After running around for a while, trying out the five character classes and various equipment, I'm starting to get the occasional kill. It seems like you can only capture bases that are immediately either side of the front line though, (i.e. you must capture the bases in a linear order.) Now I realize the front line mechanic isn't anything special and is just a highlight of something that happens naturally in any FPS. In fact, it limits your attacking options when your team is on the back foot. In a game like Battlefield 2142, for instance, in that situation I wound try to sneak around to one of the other team's bases away from the front line in order to open up a second front.
What I did find annoying was that the respawn time felt long, with you sitting watching a loading spinner as you waited. Worse, spawning would fail sometimes and I would have to try again. I assume this is down to the base I was spawning on was over taken while I was waiting, but since I already had to wait for the spawn button to activate after a short timer on the spawn point select map after dying, I don't see why I need to wait again.
It may be worth pointing out that this demo came out five months after the retail game. I had said before that this could be a good way of keeping your game in the news, but five months feels a little too long after launch for me. I would imagine one or two months makes more sense, just after the initial sales bump.

Would I buy the full game?
No. Seems like a pretty generic FPS and has a steep learning curve when you just get popped by snipers almost immediately.

Demo Pros
Multiplayer demos are always great for giving you an idea of how much fun a game could be in the long term, (the Unreal Tournament 2004 demo springs to mind.)

Demo Cons
Almost 2GB! I had much more fun with 4MB yesterday.

Demo Rating 7 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.