Frontlines: Fuel of War is a near-future first-person shooter set in a resource-starved world, where coalition forces fight the Red Star over the Caspian oil fields. The full campaign was completed in a single session, with the ending cutscene closing on a cliffhanger.
The redeployment system gives the campaign multiple lives per level, resetting each mission and climbing to ten deployments in the later fights. It makes the soldier feel like a literal grunt, and it keeps the punishing enemy fire from becoming an unending frustration.
The gadget roster is the star, from the RC helicopter with rockets to the RC-car drones, the assault drone turret, the portable sentry gun and the airstrike call-ins. The railgun takes out a tank in two shots, and the lock-on RPG finds its mark wherever it is aimed.
The vehicle sections are among the easiest, with tanks that self-repair, a rapid-fire variant and a nitrous-boosted tank. The music is a surprise strength, with more of a soundtrack than expected and music that carries the Moscow suburb mission.
Enemy toughness and accuracy are the defining frustration, since every foe takes a fair bit of punishment while the protagonist folds quickly, even on normal difficulty. The weapon roster is thin, with the assault rifle weak and enemy weapons unpickable.
The controller scheme is not worth the trouble, with unadjustable stick sensitivity, broken crouch and prone mappings and no on-screen glyphs. The Windows version has no V-sync and suffers screen tearing, though the game runs cleanly on SteamOS through an old Proton version.
Overall, the redeployment system, the drone gadgets and the decent music make Frontlines: Fuel of War a relatively fun, brief shooter. The bullet-sponge enemies, the thin weapon roster and the odd cliffhanger ending are the caveats.