I’ve never played a game like Task Force Admiral before. Having spent a lot of time flying around myself, separating myself from the action hasn’t really been my thing before. That all said, an up-close demo that the team at Drydock Dreams Games shared with me has me wanting to experience more – a lot more, of the finished version of Task Force Admiral coming sometime in the future. Here’s a close look at what they have shared with me and a round-up of some videos that you may also want to watch!

What is Task Force Admiral?

While flight sims put you in the cockpit, responsible for the actions of a single plane and maybe giving orders to a small group, Task Force Admiral pulls you back a few levels and puts you in the admirals chair. You are responsible for an American WWII carrier taskforce, circa 1942, and puts you in charge of leading the battle, directing the resources, and hopefully achieving a positive outcome for your side.

The initial release of this title is aimed at providing a solid experience from the American side of the battle while future volumes intend to expand the experience to the Japanese side and potentially other time frames too.

In development for a few years now, I’ve previously written some pieces up about this upcoming title and each time I’ve had a look at what the team has been doing I’ve come away even more impressed. The huge array of accurately modeled ships, from the radar antennas, guns and superstructures down to the screws and keel, are just the beginning as the team have also spent a huge amount of time on the carrier battlegroups primary weapon – the aircraft!

Command the seas and the skies with Drydock Dreams Games’ Task Force Admiral

One might be forgiven for mistaking Task Force Admiral as a flight sim given the depth and detail that the team have put into aerial combat. While you direct the overall battle, you do have to admit to a sense of helplessness that commanders surely felt, once the battle had been joined. Was the plan that had been committed to battle the correct one to ensure success? Or were mistakes made and would that change the course of the war? This is the sort of experience that Task Force Admiral sets out to provide.

This is just a small team

One of the most remarkable things about Task Force Admiral is that this experience has been created by a comparatively tiny number of developers. A single full time programmer and a handful of part time developers, artists, and managers has put together what is already an incredible experience.

MicroProse has signed the team on as official publisher and I’m glad to hear it because this is a title that carries much promise!

What I got a chance to experience

The early preview that Drydock Games was able to share with me is a preview of a battle scenario with Japanese and American task forces facing off against each other. Its not playable in the sense that the battle has already been planned and forces are already heading out against one another.

So what we have here is more of a non-playable demo with a pre-set scenario. What happens once the battle is joined, however, its sort of up to random chance with the various AI actors engaging each other as best as they can. The results are unpredictable with both sides suffering various losses each time I’ve played it through.

In one play through both Japanese carriers were heavily damaged to the point where they were likely going to sink while the American carriers suffered damage but remained functional. The reverse has happened to me as well. In yet another play through, Hornet took a heavy beating while Enterprise was only lightly damaged – proving that fate really does protect fools, little children and ships named Enterprise.

The scale of the thing

What really struck me about this demo is the scale of everything going on. It shouldn’t have surprised me given the previews I’ve seen before but to behold it myself on my own system really helped drive the whole message of this project forward.

Task Force Admiral is all about the big scale giving you that virtual view of the battle showing off multiple units engaging each other, sometimes simultaneously, with potentially hundreds of ships and aircraft in battle at once.

One of the views confirmed that the Japanese strike package was packing no less than 38 aircraft – a combined strike of Vals, Kates, and with some Zeros for escort. Arrayed against them were small numbers of Wildcats. Still others were on the carrier deck being pushed back from their forward stowed position and then readied for takeoff. Minutes later they were climbing above the fleet engaged in a pitched battle to defend the ships.

Heavy and light AAA fire is also a big part of the scale here. Large guns, small .50cal mounts, and other defensive measures including ships turning hard to avoid torpedo strikes are all a factor here with masses of black smoke showing off the position of flak bursts – numbering in the hundreds.

The ultimate goal, according to the developers, is to be able to replicate the Battle of Midway at a 1:1 ratio simulating every ship, airplane, and strategy on display. From what I can tell, they appear to be well on their way towards achieving that because the whole thing ran like butter.

Although not factoring in right now, you can also take the camera around in free flight mode and check out nearby islands. This is mostly about simulating ship battles but their technology for landmasses is coming along and the tropical water effects and various tropical trees feels right from the scale of this game.

What comes next

This demo I got to experience was just a very small taste of what’s to come. The team are intending to offer a playable experience later on and begin to open up the game/sim more broadly to the community.

A release date and expected completion date are unavailable at that time and it looks like Drydock Games and Task Force Admiral have a ways to go yet before its ready for release as a polished experience. That said, I’m very excited by what I’ve experienced so far and this preview is a step towards them making their way towards publishing a released product.

Getting the experience right from the GUI to the feedback loop that then lets you play out your battle plans more or less in real time will be a critical element for this project as it progresses forward. I have a huge amount of hope for this project, for this team, and for Task Force Admiral to succeed as a very fun and accessible fleet management game that gives you plenty of visceral action together with the thoughtfulness of a strategy game. I think that’s where this title is headed and I can’t wait to experience more.

Interested? Be sure to check out Task Force Admiral Vol 1: American Carrier Battles on Steam and put it on your wishlist. And be sure to check out the team on their website, Facebook, X, and on their Discord.

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