Delta Force:Task Force Dagger
Lately I have found fun and online sportsmanship playing tactical team based shooters. Over the years there have been great additions made to the genre from developers like RedStorm and Novalogic. I would have to call myself a fan boy of both companies past and future creations. Having said that, is one of the more recent additions to the Novalogic games (no not Black Hawk Down) , “Delta Force: Task Force Dagger”, a departure from the brilliant games the company has made in the past?
Nova Logic
The Story So Far
This game, like Black Hawk Down, is based on real life events. The game could even be classed as controversial in the way that it is dealing with ground combat in Afghanistan during what the media tagged “War on Terror.” So, to this end, the single player campaign deals with the battles that took place in Afghanistan in order to restore “stability” to the region.
Single Player
When you first start the campaign you are able to choose from one of ten Special Forces from around the world. The units range from Delta Force to CIA, British SAS, and Canadian Forces and for the purpose of my campaign, the Australian SASR. Each Special Force has a little extra talent in certain aspects of their capabilities; in the case of the SASR you are a little more accurate and devastating with grenade launchers.
After selecting your player, you will parachute in on your first mission. This is where you will find single players greatest flaw. You are all alone; you have no back up units to command and co-ordinate in order to trap the enemy. This leads to the games second flaw, the reason you don’t need to be in a squad. The AI is extremely predictable and easy to defeat. When they start firing on your position they will often hit you, but you will usually see them before they see you, and an overhead spy vehicle really does leave the Taliban at a disadvantage. I wasn’t in Afghanistan so I can not tell you whether or not the Taliban where well trained soldiers, but I believe that they could sure set up flanks, ambushes and even set up a defensive line. These seem to be lacking in the game and the Taliban will fire a few shots and then run closer, fire another volley (if you haven’t killed them) and will repeat this until they are on top of you.
The Mission’s in the game do make some attempt to make up for the shortcomings of the AI. Like all Delta force games, the missions make use of a lot of firepower, you will be able to laser target buildings and call in air strikes on specific locations. You will hear and see the planes fly over and carpet-bomb the targets. You will move around levels in Black Hawks, and boats, you will fire at utes, trucks and tanks. Most importantly you will be throwing down enough explosives to level several SAM sites, Aircraft and important stores of ammunition. However not every mission is a lot of fun and some do slip into the realm of tedium.
My Favourite Missions
The game boasts about having 30 missions, well I can tell you the figure is closer to 40. The missions that I liked the best were around and past the 30 mark, so you need to be in it for the long haul in order to get the most out of the single player campaign. Two Missions stand out from the crowd as memorable and repeatable, these missions are both focused on stopping the Taliban fighters crossing the border into a neighbouring country.
The first one includes you flying in a Blackhawk; you will see a convoy of somewhere close to 15 or 20 vehicles escorted by Taliban. As you fly over the convoy you are able to shoot grenades at the trucks (if you are SASR you’ll hit ‘em) and utes. The Black Hawks gets low enough to drop you off in front of the oncoming convoy. At this point you are right next to a nutter-bastard-machine-gun ™ , that’s when you open it up it stays open and you can cut down the in coming vehicles and soldiers. When that runs out you fend for yourself for a while. The level is transcended from the Space Invaders theme of “wave after wave” of enemies but it is done in a way that makes it fun (is killing for fun in games wrong?).
The second memorable mission has you scuttling through caves to get through a mountain, taking out any stragglers you might see. The border is not far beyond the mountain. As soon as you make it out of the mountain you will see a truck and ute take off, at this point or before, you put the missile launcher on your shoulder and aim just ahead of each vehicle and blow them up. You will still need to run down the hill after the fleeing Taliban and shoot them dead.
It’s not all Blood and Guts
Believe it or not you will not have to kill everyone, you will just need to kill most of them. When you have achieved a certain number of kills, members of the Taliban will surrender and put their arms behind their heads. However, if you do want to take out some frustration you can kill surrended Taliban fighters. There is nothing in the game that fails you for committing what would be seen as “War Crimes”. This is something that should be addressed in a patch.
Graphics
The engine is dated and is not the same that will be used for Blackhawk Down. However the endless landscape is something that stops you from feeling fenced in. You can run on into infinite if you so desire. The character design for the bad guys is a little lack luster and a bit more variation would have been welcomed.
Sound
I cannot say a bad thing here. By far the best audio design in any of the tactical shooters in retail release on the planet. The “Blackhawk Down” sound is better, but I really enjoy the way the developers have listened to weapons firing and have realized that weapons fired in two or three rooms away can still be heard, in fact unlike so many shooters, weapons as far off as a kilometer can be heard. For those who have played the “BHD demo” you will be familiar with the disorientation caused by hearing a single gunshot every 10 or 15 seconds and not being able to pinpointl from whence and how far away the shooter is by the sound and echo through the buildings. You will also know that guns fired at the other end of city with little other noise around can be heard. TFD has managed to capture this, those playing the game will notice it when they are playing multiplayer more then in single player missions.
Multiplayer
“Nova World”, essentially it is a free Multiplayer First Person tactical shooter server and system (not quite to MMOFPS), which allows you as a gamer to move up in rank and become a 5 star general. Each Multiplayer mode has 50 levels that are achieveable. There are a lot of rungs to be climbed on the way to a five star general and if it was not for the 250 ping that I got to US servers I would be on the servers every second night striving to become a 5 star general. Several people have achieved this status and no one on the multiplayer servers is egotisical or speaks in the text graffiti that is “Leet Speak”. So if you want an environment of gentlemen gamers that compliment rather then curse (in the majority at least) then this could be the game for you. There is still a lot of enjoyment to be had even if being in Australia puts you a quarter of a second behind the mainstay US and GERMAN gamers that play the game.
In order to keep your profile on the Nova World servers you need to log on at least once every 60 days. It is well worth the time just to have a game or two in order to keep your status up to date. Usually each time I play I advance through a few levels and earn a commendation (Medal or Rank) and am satisfied that I have not just spent a few minutes doing sensless killing, I have also managed to add some kind of “Character” to my experience (Perhaps this is what makes MMORPG’s so addictive).
The game modes are similar to those that have appeared on “Nova World” since Delta Force 2. The massive environments add to the experience, as do team matches with more then 32 people. The most common played multiplayer game I came across was “Team King of the Hill”, but the classics “Capture the Flag”, “Attack and Defend” (What Counter Strike is Essentially), “Search and Destroy”, “Deathmatches” and the increasingly popular “Flag Ball”, which like so many multiplayer games nowadays, involves the use of one flag that needs to be placed through an opponents goal. On the whole the diversity of modes makes for a new experience each tihrough an opponents goal. On the whole the diversity of modes makes for a new experience each time you go online.
Conclusions
If you are thinking of buying this game, make sure you have an Internet connection to try out the NovaWorld servers. They are something interesting to behold and have been building toward something better with every game that has been released by Novalogic. I am going to be generous as a fan of Novalogic and give the single player 7 and the Multiplyer aspect of this game an 8.5.
hrough an opponents goal. On the whole the diversity of modes makes for a new experience each tihrough an opponents goal. On the whole the diversity of modes makes for a new experience each time you go online.
Conclusions
If you are thinking of buying this game, make sure you have an Internet connection to try out the NovaWorld servers. They are something interesting to behold and have been building toward something better with every game that has been released by Novalogic. I am going to be generous as a fan of Novalogic and give the single player 7 and the Multiplyer aspect of this game an 8.5.
posted by Shane G · at 10:41 am · filed under Reviews