Humanitarian storyline of a near-future world
Now the last ‘real world’ RTS I reviewed was the dire Will Of Steel, which to be frank, was utter pap. It made swallowing a gallon of quick setting concrete seem fun by comparison, so I have to say that I had a few reservations over Joint Task Force. These were mainly rooted in how a ‘real world’ RTS would deal with the delicate subject matter of the areas the game is set in. For example, there’s several sections set in the Middle East and with soldiers and civilians still dying there each day, I’d have a big problem with a game based on that conflict in that area.
Click for larger imageBut Joint Task Force isn’t about going in, blasting away anyone who isn’t wearing the same uniform and then declaring “All your base are us!” before securing oil wells and offering up hugely lucrative building contracts to companies based in your home country. That sort of thing would be utterly unthinkable, wouldn’t it? But anyway, I digress as Joint Task Force takes a different tack altogether. Through the in-game dialogue and story-line, it’s clear that Joint Task Force wants to keep itself firmly on the side of the ‘greater good’, so many of the missions have humanitarian objectives, such as escorting UN trucks full of refugees or Red Cross aid supplies.
The back-story for Joint Task Force sees the game set in 2008, where the world is on the brink of a global economic and environmental crisis. Developed Western countries are diverting funds away from welfare and environmental programs to bolster their industrial economies and that, combined with industrial and environmental disasters is leaving the poorer Third World countries more and more isolated.
Click for larger imageIn regions where past wars or disasters have left countries crippled and unable to recover, the lack of aid from richer countries has seen these areas become a hotbed of trouble with several violent and highly organised factions rising to sweep across the area using terror and violence to their own profit. Eventually these once separate factions amalgamated into Matar, a global terror network that uses military tactics and weapons to further the unrest and de-stabilise entire regions while reaping the rewards of organized crime and terrorism.
In response, the Joint Task Force was formed by the UN with the sole task of combating Matar wherever it is found. Of course, being a UN formed group, the Joint Task Force is always under the public spotlight and operates a policy of counter-insurgency through direct action. Joint Task Force isn’t about conquering entire areas; it’s about removing the threat with surgical precision….
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