How to play
FRONTLINE is a first-person squad shooter in a bright, low-poly style. You fight with and against squads of computer soldiers who take cover, flank, pin you down with fire, throw grenades, revive their friends and shout out where you are on the radio. Move with W A S D, look with the mouse, shoot with the left button and aim down the sights with the right. R reloads, Shift sprints, C or Ctrl crouches, Space jumps and G throws a grenade. 1 to 4 or the wheel switch weapons, and V is a quick knife.
In Team Battle you and seven teammates take on eight enemies across three capture points, A, B and C. Each side starts with 200 tickets. A death costs one, and the team holding fewer points bleeds tickets every few seconds, so holding ground matters more than chasing kills. A round lasts eight minutes. When you go down you can choose where to come back in: at base, or at any point you own that is not under attack.
Lethal body hits knock soldiers down, not out, for up to 20 seconds (15 for you). Hold E next to a downed teammate to revive them. Headshots and explosions kill outright. E also picks up a fallen enemy's gun or takes its ammo, and refills you at the supply crate at base.
On a phone, a stick on the left moves you and dragging on the right looks around. Buttons cover fire, aim, reload, jump, crouch, grenade, swap, use and sprint, and the II button pauses.
Tips and strategy
Stay behind something. The enemy sees you through a vision cone and a detection meter that fills faster when you are close, moving or firing, and slower when you crouch. Every near miss makes them hide and shoot worse, so laying down fire on a corner keeps heads down while a teammate moves.
Do not stay in one spot for long. When a soldier spots you he calls it out on the radio after a moment, and the whole squad learns where you are. They remember that spot for about 22 seconds, then come and search it. Changing position after a fight throws them off.
Watch your sides. Every enemy squad has a flanker with an SMG or shotgun who takes the side routes on purpose, and a marksman who climbs to towers, roofs and hills. If the shots are coming from above, look for the bell tower on Ashfall or the lookout on Greenwater.
Use grenades on campers, and dodge theirs. The AI only throws when it has worked out an arc that lands near you, so a live grenade at your feet is a real threat. Move.
Fit a suppressor for sneaky play. Enemies hear a suppressed shot at about a seventh of the normal distance, which makes flanking much easier.
What's in it
Three battlefields: Ashfall, a war-torn village at dusk with a main street, a square, a ruined church and an orchard; Dustline, a walled desert outpost with zig-zag trenches, a radar station and two mesas; and Greenwater, a forest river with a stone bridge, a footbridge, a ford, a sawmill and a lookout tower.
Three modes: Team Battle (eight against eight), Skirmish (you alone against ten waves of hunting squads, with three lives and a life back every third wave), and Watch AI Battle, where you can follow any soldier and switch on the debug view to see what each one is thinking, where it plans to take cover and what it has heard.
Nine guns and a knife: a pistol, an SMG, an assault rifle, a burst rifle, a pump shotgun, a light machine gun, a marksman rifle, a bolt-action sniper and a rocket launcher, each with its own recoil, fire rate, range and reload. Four attachments change both the model and the stats: a scope, a foregrip (32% less kick), an extended magazine (+50% ammo) and a suppressor. You earn credits and XP for kills, headshots, assists, captures, revives and wins, and spend them in the Armory on guns, attachments and smoke grenades. Four difficulty levels change how fast the enemy reacts, aims and spots you.
Questions
Do I need an account? No. Your credits, rank, guns and loadout are saved in your browser.
Why did the enemy miss my first second in the open? On purpose: when a bot first opens fire on you, its first half-second is wider, so you get a moment to react. Harder difficulties shrink that window.
Is it violent? It is a war shooter with guns and explosions, but the soldiers are simple low-poly figures. A hit shows a small red puff; there is no gore.
Can I play with friends? An online mode is being built and will arrive in an update.