Welcome to the first installment in a new column we like to call Pro Tip. This weeks Pro Tip, as the article title might suggest, is from Frontlines: Fuel of War.
Frontlines is just an average shooter. It’s nothing special. It doesn’t redefine the genre, it doesn’t show us anything we haven’t seen, it doesn’t even have a cover system. What it does have is some pretty horrible vehicle controls. And that brings us to our main subject.
Pro Tip: If you want to survive the last thing you should do is get in a vehicle.
Halfway through the first level of Frontlines your commander suggests you take a vehicle and go to an oil refinery. Don’t. You can walk just about everywhere in the game and I suggest you do because trying to drive a vehicle will get you frustrated, get you killed, and make you throw your controller into your new TV.
It is widely known that 11 times out of 10 vehicle controls in adventure games or shooters make me want to stab myself. The worst offender in recent memory is Lego Star Wars II, but there are countless others, and they have just added Frontlines: Fuel of War to that group.
In Frontlines you have to drive your car or tank and shoot at the same time. It would work out just fine if the controls were like Halo, but they’re not. They are one of the worst atrocities committed to gaming. I spent half the time with my reticle pointed at the ground crashing into buildings. Not fun.
You never need the heavy weapons that you get with a tank or hummer. You can usually find a rocket launcher or grenades lying around to destroy whatever vehicles are in your way. If your smart you can save your exploding remote control car to get you through a tough spot as well.
The vehicles were clearly designed for two people, as they are used the multiplayer. That’s great for the multi, but it really takes away from the campaign. So my suggestion remains; buy some stock in Nike, and walk everywhere you can.
[Creighton DeSimone]
