There’s no denying that it's hard to create games in the genre that’ll satisfy the fans, particularly with so many successful titles in the past doing such a fantastic job; the likes of Age of Empires II, Warcraft and Command & Conquer leave precious little room for new franchises to create a bit of innovation in their gameplay. However, with so many new modern, fast-paced RTS games popping up every now and then, someone had to finally get it right. And, thankfully, Joint Task Force breathes life into a new era into the RTS genre, and just proves that the genre is quite far from kicking the can.
Joint Task Force puts gamers in a number of difficult situations, as they’ll be facing all sorts of threatening enemies along the way. Gamers will take command of the frontline forces that are tasked with taking care of the most dangerous conflicts. Players will find themselves in a number of areas throughout the Middle East, fighting off dangerous terrorist in hostile territory, infiltrating buildings, or tracking down key enemy targets. You’ll be issuing out orders in a vast number of terrain types such as deserts, rocky mountains, jungles, industrial areas and even winter locations, all of which require you to approach each situation with different tactics. For example, there are a few areas in the game where you’ll be fighting in Middle East cities, meaning that enemies will be hiding in buildings, enemies that are likely to pop out at every corner. Meanwhile, the winter-based levels are much more open, with all sorts of long-range artillery spread throughout the level, including tanks, met along the way.
The long road to war.
As we mentioned, Joint Task Force kisses goodbye to typical RTS traits such as base-building and resource-gathering, relying on gamers to focus a lot more on tactics and outwitting their opponents. With this sort of gameplay, it takes away a lot of common RTS complaints, such as the ease with which you can flood opponents or hoard resources. In this game, you have to be on your toes as much as possible, moving your units around, searching for cover and using long-range artillery in much the same way that you'd have to in a real war. It’s a constant struggle of one’s wits and initiative in forcing out the enemy from locations and taking a stranglehold.
Probably one of the most attractive features of Joint Task Force is that the journalists will constantly be breathing down your neck, always interested in your battles. There’s a little screen in the top left corner, which will frequently broadcast television feeds from a news station live at the scene. They’ll often comment on the way you’re approaching battles, and this also proves quite successful in providing some additional story details and background. It’s important to note that the media also has an impact on the gameplay too. The Joint Task Force are very cautious on keeping a low profile on their actual intentions, and prefers good media coverage - making it important that gamers constantly try to stay on the good side of the media. There's a little meter in the top left corner that measures your reputation with the press. This can either increase or decrease, depending on which actions you choose to make throughout the game. For instance, you can do optional missions in each level, such as providing assistance to the U.N or escorting supply trucks, to name just two. It's also important that you don’t go around destroying civilians and their houses, as this too can affect your reputation.
Staying on the good side of the media will provide you with additional money to purchase reinforcements throughout the game (though doing optional missions will also increase your money). So, it’s a vital aspect of the game in which you'll need to provide help to those in need and going about your business in the most professional way possible.
You can expect to see many tank vs. tank fights along the way.
You’ll be able to take command of a number of different units throughout the game, all of which are more successful than others in certain situations. There are snipers, riflemen, medics, engineers and a number of different tanks available. You’ll often have to split up your units into separate groups to make the most out of them. There are many occasions where you’ll need to have a group of tanks move to a certain position and absorb the bullets from the enemy’s infantry, while your riflemen takes this opportunity to move further across the terrain without any attention. There are many occasions where you’ll be tasked with taking out an entire army with only a dozen units. So, it’s important that you utilise your surroundings for cover and your unit’s abilities as much as possible. You can often assault buildings with a few snipers, taking out the occupying enemies inside with relative ease, while certain other units can equip grenade launchers, missile launchers and even some heavy explosives that can take out buildings and tanks quite easily.
Another great feature is the ability to customise your lead characters a bit too. Gamers will be able to take command of a number of key figures called Heroes. These characters have a number of special abilities that help you during missions. The more they fight, the more experience they earn, which therefore means the more abilities they can learn. At each level gain they can learn new abilities such as improved firepower, or self-healing. Sometimes these abilities can also reflect onto surrounding units. So, it’s often a good idea to situate these Hero units within squads to boost firepower. Another aspect of Hero units is that they can also request reinforcements wherever they are on the map - if you have enough money at the time, of course. Besides lead characters acting as Heroes, typical units can also gain levels, thus giving you the power to promote them after each battle. For instance, you can have one of your snipers take out quite a few enemies that’ll increase their experience bar. So, at the end of each mission you'll be asked if you would like to promote certain units, giving them new abilities and attributes.
The AI is pretty important in providing the game with a strong and consistent appeal. While for the most part it's quite strong and reactive to your unit’s movements and actions (placement, hiding behind cover, going prone when fired at etc.), there were times when the enemy would openly run in front of our tanks. There was also times where we could blow up our enemy tanks without them even reacting. There are also a few minor path-finding issues with vehicle units too. While these minor issues aren’t too drastic, and don’t really hurt the game too much, they do hold the game back from being much better.
You'll have to infiltrate all sorts of locations to destroy the terrorist.
The game features a number of different ways to play: a campaign mode, skirmish modes and multiplayer options. There are twenty missions to accomplish that grow in difficultly the further you get in, which guarantees to have gamers sinking their teeth in for many hours on end. The nice little touch to this is that gamers will be able to replay the campaign mode in Cooperative play, which puts a completely new layer of strategy on the game and is great fun when playing with friends. Skirmish and multiplayer modes play quite similarly - there are key locations scattered throughout the map that you’ll have to take control of. These locations, once under control, will provide income for you to order in reinforcements. So, it’s a constant battle between gamers to take control and hold these locations, and forcing your enemy with none. Unfortunately though, the skirmish and other multiplayer modes are a little half-baked and aren’t quite as appealing as the core campaign mode and co-op options. Whilst playing in the skirmish mode, the AI is a tad underwhelming. The enemy AI isn't always forceful in taking control points, and when you take one of theirs, they don’t always react to it being taken - making this mode a little boring after a few games. The multiplayer mode plays quite similar but with actual human controlled opponents. There are a number of customizable options such as a money cap, domination, deathmatch, and other options that can make games last for hours or be over within ten or so minutes.
Graphically, Joint Task Force is quite appealing with quite a few outstanding graphical effects coming into play throughout the game. There are a number of weather effects that kick into play, such as rain and deserts storms, and the explosions and destruction to buildings looks absolutely outstanding for an RTS game. There’s never a glitch and the game constantly runs smooth. The music is done very well also; especially considering it’s an RTS - the music is engaging and isn’t at all irritating. Probably the only real downside to both of these aspects is that the game features some very sub-par cut-scenes with some ill-timed character animation and some over dramatic voice acting.
Joint Task Force is a good sign for fans of action-oriented RTS games. The game’s campaign mode is very engaging and fun, with a reliance of strategy the key factor in winning. While the other modes aren’t quite as enjoyable, they do enough to offer a different perspective to the game, especially the co-op mode. There are a few problems with the AI and path-finding, but overall Joint Task Force is a solid title that is worth checking out.
Loading...
