Frontlines: Fuel of War

Strangely though, the single-player offering doesn't grant such evil examples of high-tech warfare to the Red Star forces, despite the fact they have them in the online game. With fairly obliging enemies to fight against, on normal difficulty, you also have to be spectacularly rubbish to die at all during the first few missions, as not only do you have superior weapons at your disposal, but enemies carelessly wander right out of cover time and again. Elsewhere the recharging health system is very forgiving, and checkpointing is extremely generous too. It's a shame, because the single-player would be fine if it didn't feel unbalanced, your victory a foregone conclusion.

Of course, all of those niggles go out of the window in the rather nifty multiplayer mode. Supporting up to 50 players on 360 (the box says up to 32, but the Village map supports 50 and more will do so post-launch), the game rather comes into its own when you get around to experiencing it online. The basic premise is the same in that you're ultimately still trying to capture objectives (usually by, uh, standing near them for a bit, or blowing them up), and trying to outscore the opposing team within a set time limit over a number of rounds. Where the multiplayer mode really differs is in the fact that the maps are so much bigger, that both sides have sneaky technology they can call upon, and that real-life opponents are far more determined to stay alive. All round it's a far superior experience, and easily the game's best selling-point.

Before you jump into battle (and each time you respawn) you have six different weapon load-outs to choose from: Assault, Heavy Assault, Sniper, Anti-Vehicle, Special Operations and Close Combat. Each has three weapons, and some obvious pros and cons attached to each selection, so, for example, the Anti-Vehicle load-out gives you a rocket launcher, pistol and landmine, making it perfect for taking out any armoured vehicles but fairly hopeless at close quarters.

From there, you have a further four 'roles' to choose from: Ground Support, EMP Tech, Drone Tech and Air Support. Again, all are selectable each time you respawn, and each has three ranks attached to it. As you capture checkpoints, kill enemies and use role-specific equipment, a meter in the bottom right corner fills up, granting you access to higher ranks, and rewarding you with better equipment to use. For instance, a Coalition Drone Tech rank 1 gives you hover scout to send out to check out areas from a safe distance, while at rank 3 you can use a ground-based mortar launcher lethal against most vehicles and infantry. In addition, the Red Star equivalent in each category is subtly different. It might have a noisier engine, for example, but come with six rocket pods.

From our playtest on real world servers, plenty of large matches are already underway, and we have no technical problems or lag to report. Maps are spacious and matches are played in the right spirit, with everyone clearly having fun trying out all the various vehicles, from jets and choppers to tanks. Perhaps the inclusion of only one multiplayer mode - and a team-based one at that - will help keep it that way. There's no cross-platform play, but System Link is also present as an option for up to 12 players, with the usual ranked and player-match options and a selection of maps to suit matches of varying sizes.

One of the game's central problems is it looks a bit drab. Standing somewhere between Halo and Call of Duty 4, a passerby derided it as "the brownest game ever", which is accurate on certain sections, if a little mean overall. At times, Kaos crafts some excellent environments - the final level set in the ruins of Moscow is a wonderful example - and in terms of the explosive effects, vehicle models and so on, there's little to fault. It just lacks identity, visually, and feels uneven, which undermines the overall quality. One small thumbs-up, though, for allowing a "v-sync on" option - something of which I'm sure the rabid anti-tearing brigade will approve.