New Indie Tactical Game a la X-Com: Taskforce

[chaedwards]

Taskforce

Developed by the same guy who did Lost in Flatspace - mission-based turn-based tactical shooter that looks quite interesting.

Here's some stuff from an interview that he did with The Independent Gaming Source

It's a squad level turn based strategy game, in the mould of games like X-COM or my previous games, Arcangel and Hilt II. The game is technically a sequel to a freeware Amiga game, Taskforce, that I wrote in 1994. I've always been a fan of turn-based strategy games. I don't find R.T.S. games strategic.

In Taskforce, you command an anti-terrorist unit in a series of plot-based missions. Many of the missions borrow plots from movies. Mission two for example, Born of the Dead, puts the player in a shopping mall full of zombies (yes, they do need a shot to the brain!) and features background music that parodies Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Future missions include fighting giant spiders, clones, and all sorts of plot twists and turns.

Here's a bit more from the website:

The Mutants of October Morgane

When the controversial animal testing lab Cyrus Life Sciences is invaded by heavily armed animal rights extremists, the international anti-terrorist Taskforce is called in to take care of the situation... but all is not as it first seems...

As a Taskforce Commander, you will control your elite squad of soldiers to fight exciting and terrifying enemies. You will fight on levels that are different each time, complete a large variety of objectives in day or night vision conditions, and play any completed mission at any time as a single game.

There's a Gametunnel review that smashes it up pretty bad, but it's been patched up since then, with the complaints made being taken into account. I've downloaded the demo, and I'll let you know what I think. At the very least the Dawn of the Dead scenario sounds mouthwatering...

Edit: Found this in a forum post from the author

The environment in Taskforce is destructable, but it can vary map by map. Basically I can specify whether a block is indestructable or not, which is sometimes essential to constrain the player. For most of the missions though, you can blast through walls (a 'rush raid' approach to the hostage rescue in the demo mission can work well, I've managed to complete that by blowing the walls to 3 sides of the room in one turn and quickly taking out the captors with snipers).