Frank Delise - Lead designer of Frontlines : Fuel of War - Xbox 360, PC

Drones in abundance!

HEXUS: Drones! Cool, very Ghost Recon. We hear Frontlines is pushing the use of drones to a whole new level.How many drones are there in total?
Frank: There are 6 to control. The Western Coalition have a recon drone, assault drone and a mortar drone whereas the Red Star Alliance has a recon helicopter, assault helicopter with rockets and an RC car, packed with C4, which can drive under vehicles. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, some are faster and more powerful than others.

HEXUS: Will we get access to these drones from the start?
Frank: In single player they are doled out, so you pick them up an objective or you might go into a room and find one there. In multiplayer you start with one drone and as you level up you’ll gain access to another two. Three in total for each side.

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HEXUS: Can we expect to see any high-tech gadgets?
Frank: Most of the weapons are pretty standard, such as assault rifles, heavy assault rifles and snipes. The rocket launcher is really cool because it has the ability to stray fire and a lot of the things in the game are skilled based. Vehicles have weak spots, so if you can find it you’ll take them out in one hit by choosing the trajectory and guiding it to that weak spot.

HEXUS: What vehicles are in Frontlines?
Frank: There’s 60 vehicles in the game. Tanks, helicopters, jets APCs, jeeps, you name it we’ve got it.

HEXUS: All sounds great, but will Frontlines have the replay-ability factor?
Frank: The replay-ability is huge. We wanted to make it completely non-linear, so if you die you become another soldier and keep moving forward so you are always chipping away at a much bigger battle. I hated playing war games, dying and then having to re-do a certain part and this was the reason we’ve chosen to do Frontlines this way. Every mission is looked at as if it’s a real location, they are defended and laid out as if it would be in the real world. Some guys will hold one area, others will be walking around hunting to see if they’re being attacked from the perimeter. There are many different ways to approach an objective.

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HEXUS: We’ve heard the guys from Kaos mention how great the AI will be. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Frank: The AI is completely contextual. If they find you, they’ll flank you and hunt you down.

HEXUS: Finally, what’s happening with Live Anywhere? Is it going to come to fruition in Frontlines?
Frank: We’re definitely looking at it right now. We’d like to, it’s just a matter of timing. At some point we want to support it. WE can definitely say we’re looking at it.

HEXUS: Thanks for your time Frank, appreciated.
Frank: No problem.

We'll have a more in-depth look at the game play in Frontlines in due course.