As the game progresses you'll start to find equipment and probably die, which gives you a chance to pick a new class of soldier to possess and start with different equipment. Other equipment can be picked up around the level and often will be lying around objective points. What you're holding changes how you approach the game because weapons 20 years in the future are cool. In the third level, we started in a lightly forested valley as a sniper. We picked up a flying drone and flew it over the next control point we wanted to capture and just left the little guy hanging there, because how could you pick up a flying drone and not use it? From its vantage point, about 100 yards above our enemies, it highlighted soldiers for us to shoot in the head, who we ordinarily couldn't see through the trees.
There are also remote controlled mini-helicopters with attached missile launchers, armored buggy drones with mounted mini-guns. You can use a variety of airstrikes, everything from a single precision strike to calling in a gunship that will hammer artillery fire at anything you point at. There are deployable stationary turrets and EMP fields that shut down vehicles and drones and make airstrikes impossible. Shutting down vehicles can really be a big help because there are over 60 things you can get in and drive and your opponents can use all of them.
In multiplayer matches, the most powerful equipment is earned each game through experience. As your soldier uses one of four templates (EMP, Airstrikes, Ground Support, or Drone Tech), he unlocks more powerful tiers of abilities. The final, third tier, unlocks some scarily powerfulabilities and can really shift the balance in a game, just as having the right equipment for a situation can alter your strategy in the single-player game. It's the ability to access a situation and approach it according to your personal strengths that could set Frontlines apart from its competition - that and the really cool advanced tech and weapons. Oh, and the just-a-bit-too-close-to-home story. Ok, so there are a number of things we're looking forward to in this game.
