Str: Taskforce [by Cornutopia]

Game Review:  Taskforce
Release: 16 October 2004
Genre: Strategy
Developer: Cornutopia Software
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, 1000 Mhz, 128Mb RAM, DirectX 9.0+
Players: 1
Price: $24.00
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In Cornutopia’s recent release, Taskforce, you get to control a squad of up to six elite commando units and fight through 30 missions against an ominously named super villain, Doctor October Morgane. The battles are turn based encounters where each character has a predetermined budget of movement and action points, as well as a variety of weapons he or she can use. The game boldly attempts to breathe new life into the struggling genre of squad level tactical combat.

Taskforce initially succeeds, but it doesn’t always seem to offer fair and deterministic game play like its past idols – the original Laser Squad, the X-Com series, or Incubation.

But let’s take a look at the game from the beginning. My first impression was very good, seeing that the game had accurately recognized my German version of Windows and was displaying perfectly localized text in a simple opening sequence. And it still looked good after I had listened to the cool menu music while making some adjustments, like screen resolution, my preferred language (English and German localizations were available) and sound volume.

In the equipment screen of the first training mission, I was satisfied to find the obligatory pump action guns, machine guns, carbines and various types of grenades to equip my squad with; and after searching for the button to start the mission for a while, I learned that you simply have to tell the soldiers you want to take along to stand up. Very nice!

I was not prepared for the actual mission, however. My job, according to the briefing, was to take out six other guys at the Taskforce training facility in Switzerland. After some chaotic exploration of all the movement possibilities, my team’s action points for the first turn were depleted. Two turns later, the team barely out of the first corridor, my two front men were blown to smithereens by a big purple bottle of sorts that was thrown at them. A yellow one followed, engulfing half of the room in a fireball. I tried to move my team away from the fire, only to see that it rapidly spread over the next three turns, and none of my four remaining squad members got out of the blaze alive.

“Wow”, I then said to myself, “this is quite challenging. Get up, guys, we repeat the drill!”

Long story short, while I finally managed to beat an equal size team in the three training missions after many hours, I found the actual campaign to be so shockingly demanding, I didn’t even get into the campaign’s plot far enough to write about it yet. Something about mutant terrorists and a mysterious corporate conspiracy, I guess. Phew!

The single most frustrating element of the game is a rule called Opportunity Fire. When a character in the game has enough action points left at the end of their turn, they may automatically fire random salvos at the enemy when one comes into their vicinity – during the opponent’s turn! Did I say random? Because I mean random. Here’s an example:

Soldier X, who carriers a heavy machine gun, was shot in the torso and recently used his first aid kit. But his stamina is almost depleted, and hence I decide to not move him for a turn, so he can rest. He’s in good cover, behind some crates, near a group of hostages I am supposed to rescue. Stamina regeneration also depends on the number of action points a soldier has left when you finish your turn. Then, an enemy moves into my guy’s field of vision, and opportunity fire causes Soldier X to auto-fire a large burst of machine gun rounds just vaguely in the direction of the enemy, killing two nearby hostages in the process. Mission failed!

Taskforce has many, many of these infuriating moments in store for you, especially since every time you restart a mission, the enemies will be at randomized positions on the map. Sometimes, the game is merely cruel and unforgiving, like the countless times your party will get gunned down from behind or above. But just as often, it’s pure havoc and you’ll have to plan your moves a long time in advance to avoid losing your precious squad members.

So where does that put you as the player and potential buyer? Taskforce is definitely not a game for casual gamers who just like quick fun and action. Instead, it rewards the cautious strategist, who plans his every move with precision, and who can patiently wait for the right moment to bring a volatile hostage situation to a controlled end.

Graphics: 6
The game’s tile sets are pretty neat, it’s all rendered in 3D and you can switch the perspective around and choose between many different angles. Explosions create nice lens flare effects, and the whole look and feel is consistent. However, the stiff animations of the units are pretty disappointing. Contrary to this, bullets and other projectiles fly in ultra smooth slow motion – this makes it easier to see where a shot came from, and what kind of weapon was fired. Admittedly, it appears a bit odd at first. Unfortunately, while the levels look rather good on the ground floor, the upper stories, to which you will frequently have to switch and move around in, may look fragmented and generally very confusing. Still, Taskforce’s graphics are tolerable, despite being a little below par.

Sound: 5
Sounds are sparse but crisp, and explosions pack quite a punch when you happen to have your stereo hooked up to your PC. While the menu music is pretty awesome, the game itself has no background music at all, and it definitely needs some.

Game Play: 6
This game needs to do away with opportunity fire, or at least make it less random and dangerous to innocent bystanders and fellow Taskforce members. If you look at the other aspects of the game, you have a nice and complex simulation of squad level combat, including true line of sight and a complex damage model that influences injured characters’ stats.

Value: 5
Thirty missions, each lasting several hours even on the easiest difficulty level – that’s quite a campaign. While players may argue that by simply making the game extremely difficult, its actual value can’t be raised, Taskforce manages to be a new experience every time you play.

Concept: 9
Yes. Definitely, the concept is outstanding, and full of details, such as the random level generator or rooms in which the doors are blocked by improvised stacks of crates. Additionally, squad level combat can be very addictive and there are hundreds of ways to solve a mission – given that none of the game’s random factors will prematurely end it for you.

Fun: 4
I say it again: Taskforce is extremely frustrating at times. Once you’ve restarted the same mission for the tenth time after a hostage bled to death because it got hit in the head by a stray shotgun pellet half a dozen turns ago, you simply can’t appreciate the nicer aspects of the game as much anymore. However, I found myself trying really hard to beat those missions, looking for creative tactics to use in challenging situations.

Overall: 6
Taskforce might be a perfect buy for players looking for a serious challenge. At times, it’s really fun and exciting, but frequently, you wonder why you still bother trying to beat story mission one. Curiously, you do keep trying, until you realize that you have concentrated on every move you made while you played for hours, your current mission isn’t anywhere near a successful ending, and that is long past midnight already. It’s up to you to decide whether this kind of sleeplessness is good or bad!
Added: November 16th 2004
Reviewer: Moritz Voss
Score:
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