Joint Task Force

Forcefully tasking jointly...

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Although the events in Joint Task Force are pure fiction, there are more than enough pointers to suggest that despite the names of the game's make believe army and its enemies, it could just as easily appear as a shady reflection of the military battles being fought in the real world today. You play a multi-national team of army men formed by the powers of the West, on a mission to stamp out a looming terrorist threat before a major attack can be formulated.

Joint Task Force's supposed aim is to hone your real-time strategy skills to the precision of a ballistics machine, but the reality is different when realising that each level is little more than a linear, violent romp through environments which are much more admirable in terms of looks than can be said of the gameplay. You start the game with very limited resources which need to be utilised with the greatest of care if you are to complete the objectives set by your general. Your reward for the successful completion of missions is large wads of cash that can be exchanged for assets to beef up your military presence.

However, no amount of gut-busting machine guns, roaring tanks nor the ominous might of helicopter firepower can make up for Joint Task Force's disheartening combat. Most gamers will never live to fully appreciate the dangers and excitement of life in a war zone, which is perhaps why there is such a demand for games based on such circumstances; but, whatever the reality, the player expects fluid bouts of excitement at every turn, not a repeatedly jarred trudge which involves repetitive combat and an over-cautious approach due to the rapidity at which a mission can completely collapse.

In order for your troops to do anything, they need to be told by selecting them, followed by clicking to suggest the action that you want them to carry out. The problem arises when not even the fastest move to select an ally and an enemy to attack is enough to prevent your opposition firing from all cylinders before your guy has even taken the safety off his weapon. This common occurrence isn't aided by the lack of cover for your men, nor the fact that the high-tech capabilities of your armoury are foiled as any tactics you might plan for them are hindered by the despondently unbalanced reflex time between you and your enemies. The instant that the screen pans to reveal any foe can leave you first surprised, then stranded and subsequently dead. You may not lose many of your men, but if a key individual falls then the mission is cut short and deemed a failure - cue much foot stomping and fist shaking interspersed with a choleric vocabulary too course for these pages.

To the developer's credit, they've had a good go at implementing some fresh ideas into the game, in a genre never short of a new title or two, many of which are content with churning out tried and tested formulas in order to please their target audience. The most prominent example in Joint Task Force is the ever-present influence of the world's media, a beast that is never too far away to pour scorn on your results and tactics, especially if the loss of civilian life is present. Unfortunately, like many good, new ideas it really needs tweaking before it's presence is more sufficiently and succinctly felt. As you progress it becomes less and less central to pay notice to the media announcements when you realise that their impact on your financial and moral commitments are minimal, sadly leaving a novel and appropriate concept somewhat redundant.

For a game that plays so averagely, the impressiveness of its aesthetic appearance is a welcome distraction. Despite the miniature size of the human models, they are all animated with a comprehensive range of believable movements. Furthermore, the sight of your military machinery in action is exciting stuff, and similarly striking is the realism of the game's physics despite the zoomed out view of proceedings. Moments arise where the frame rate suffers from the dreaded Sir Clunkiness, but for the most part the variety and scale of the game's environments go some way to filling in the cracks which the game's core mechanics have disappointed with. Navigating the levels is made simple by a clear map and markers, while the inventory that consists of all of your possessions is clearly marked and accessible from the off. An annoying voice-over man and generic sound effects can't be spoken as highly of, but they're functional, bearable and nothing you probably haven't tolerated before.

For all that Joint Task Force does to try and inject new life into the real-time strategy genre, it ultimately falls at the sort of fundamental hurdles that leave a yearning for more time spent on simple gameplay adjustment to see them fixed. Playing through the missions is an experience filled with spectacular highs stunted by lows which unstoppably avert your attention from a title that, by rights, deserves to have turned out better than it has.

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By Andrew Macarthy