Front Lines Download (1994 Strategy Game)

Front Lines is a tactical wargame of the "near" future (set in 2020 or 2044, depending on whether you play the U. S. or German version). It can run in either single-player or two-player mode, and can use a head-to-head feature by modem. All the usual forces of the modern army are present, but by this time heavy laser weapons have become practical, soldiers wear powered armor, unmanned ground strike aircraft are common, tanks can hover as well as roll, and artillery projectiles are even more powerful and accurate than they are today.

You command your army, which may incorporate some U. S. forces, in the European theater. Some of the opposing forces answer to a corporate conglomerate. The roles of offensive, defensive, and supply assets have to balanced properly. The game progresses through a series of land battles over various kinds of terrain -- and the terrain gives varying combinations of advantages and disadvantages. The game has some limited representation of Europe's real-world geographical features, which gives a sense of why they are militarily important. For example, you can see the importance of the Fulda Gap, just as it was important in previous World Wars, and just as it would have been important if the Cold War had become hot.

Each battle has one or more objectives, and also a time limit. To win, you must accomplish your objectives while stopping the enemy from accomplishing his, and you must do this before time runs out. Each objective accomplished earns you a certain number of victory points. At the battle's end, the winner is the player with the most victory points.

What do you call the offspring of a male Warlords and a female Command and Conquer? Front Lines! And like all offspring of two different species, this game is also sterile.luckily. We can only be glad this game will be unable to pass on its genes.

Front Lines is a turn based war strategy, in which you lead your little platoon of troops to battle and hopefully accomplish the mission you have accepted before the allotted number of turns have passed. Unfortunately, these missions can sometimes take ages because the game play is quite slow (although it might just be my computer.) I seem to recall waiting in front of my computer for approximately seven minutes before the computer player decided it was done moving its tanks around. The movement around the map is jerky, and can get extremely frustrating. If you have the patience however, the game does become quite enjoyable.

Although the sound is nothing special, it does accomplish its job. There are cute little wrrrrr-ing sounds went tank moves, and little booms when vehicles explode and guns are fired. The soundtrack is an enjoyable midi track that may drive you to the insertion of flaming Q-Tips into your ears if listened for too an extended period of time.

One plus of this game, is that it comes equipped with a map editor. Once you have become bored with the supplied maps, feel free to change and mess around with the terrain (put your platoon on an island surrounded by water and watch the infantry try to get to their mission points. oh the agony!) You can create legitimate maps as well, if you take the time to learn how the map editor works.

All in all, Front Lines is an ok game, but I believe it to be nothing special. I am a fan of games such as Star Craft and Command & Conquer, so I prefer real time strategy to turn based (the computer just takes too damn long!) Still, for a turn based strategy, this turned out ok, once you get passed the choppy animation and slow moving computer.

Front Lines is a hypothetical wargame that strongly resembles QQP's venerable The Perfect General series, combining the elements of board game warfare with good graphics and sound. Set in the next century, the game simulates tactical-level ground combat, with focus on armor and infantry.

One of Front Lines's high points is the variety of play options. The game includes dozens of pre-constructed and challenging scenarios for one or two players, as well as a full scenario builder and editor you can use to design your own battlefield. In terms of gameplay, Front Lines fits somewhere between The Perfect General and Blue Byte's Battle Isle series: it is not as realistic as The Perfect General, but it gives more nods to realism than Battle Isle. The catalog-style descriptions of vehicles are excellent, and even instructive for the casual wargamer. The movement and combat interface system is easy to use with realistic battle segments. The game isn't a fast-paced rush to victory, but rather an exercise in small unit tactics with a great level of detail. The computer keeps track of hidden units, elevation, line of sight, target strength, distance and more. Overall, an excellent design that is ideal for novice and intermediate wargamers. Flawed AI and some questionable realism, though, means expert wargamers should stick to Norm Koger's Red Lightning for their realistic hypothetical wargame fix. Not as good as The Perfect General, but a worthy attempt. Recommended!

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Front Lines have also downloaded:
Gary Grigsby's Pacific War (2000), Frontline: Fields of Thunder, Fields of Battle, Gary Grigsby's World At War, G.I. Combat: Episode 1 - Battle of Normandy, Fall Weiss 1939, Europa Universalis III, Europa Universalis: Rome