Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising Preview

When Novalogic throws a party, it’s a blast … and a sniper shot, and helicopter-dropped incursions into hot zones, and …

To celebrate the pending launch of Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, Novalogic hosted an online, multiplayer shot-fest for the media. GameZone was invited along and picked up a sniper rifle to join the mayhem.

What was found was total chaos with an undertone of a capture-the-flag style of game for up to 150 players. There were a few very minor lag issues, and a few targeting woes that needed to be adjusted for (more on that in a moment) but for the most part, this PC title sported solid multiplayer gaming.

Players spawned on selected maps, replete with military bases. There were two supposedly different types of players, but in this scenario, a spawned player was recruited and then you moved to attack other players. Or you could freelance for a while and end up getting gunned down.

But the game itself was fast-paced and enjoyable. The environments were very well rendered, with a host of vehicles ready to us. The manual was a little short on instructions and the learning curve was about 15-20 minutes to get control of all of the commands.

One of the things to note was that going into the game as a sniper was tricky. The scope only worked in first-person mode (that’s actually a good idea), but you may have been using the reticule to track a player, but when you engaged the scope, you lost the player and were, in fact, looking downward at the ground – which forced a zoom ride across the terrain to see if you could re-fix on that target.

But once the interface became familiar, this game took on added dimensions. The chaos became more orchestrated and the game took on an intriguing life.

Yes, it was hard at times to determine the good guys from the other guys, and some players just shot anything that moved (come on, give us a break, Novalogic armed journalists and turned them loose in a world that doubled as a battlefield). But the ability to jump in a raft and cruise across the water, jump onto a helicopter for a drop into a hot LZ, or climb behind the wheel of a military vehicle was a blast.

The sound structure of the game was excellent, and added to the general tone. There were pre-recorded voice message (like ‘watch my back’) and the staccato or gunfire never seemed to cease, save when the game was over and the next session was reset. If you were killed during a massive battle, for a short window you respawned. Joining at the tail end of a session, and dying, popped up a stats sheet showing each player who participated and the number of kills each had.

Then it was on to a new location, new terrain, and new objectives.

Terrain was definitely a factor in this game. While player’s names were clearly visible above them, actually targeting them if they were in motion took skill with the mouse controls. Sometimes it was a matter of finding a pattern in their movements and taking the shot when the head popped up between environmental elements for half-a-heartbeat.

The environments of the game were well crafted and provided a lot of cover, and a lot of locations for setting ambushes.

Novalogic threw a multiplayer party for the media, and it was a lot of fun. But I would hate to be the person who had to clean up afterwards. Bodies everywhere, shot-up environments – yep, we made quite a mess.