Command simulation Task Force Admiral – Vol.1: American Carrier Battles has officially launched into early access after years of development. The sim focuses on WWII Pacific carrier battles with the ability to take control of the big picture or zoom into a specific unit. Let’s have a look at what is on offer!

Take command!

I’ve been talking about Task Force Admiral since 2020 when the developer behind the project reached out to me with a ton of information and in development screenshots at the time. The project has continued to develop over all that time, come in under the MicroProse family of sims, and released a playable demo a couple of times. Now, Task Force Admiral has released into early access!

The developer cites classics like SSG’s Carriers at War, SSI’s Great Naval Battles, and MicroProse’s Task Force & Pacific Air War series as inspiration for this command simulation. The title gives you the ability to command the battle as a flag officer running the big picture of the carrier air war during the pivotal battles of 1942 or you can play in a slightly more relaxed manner viewing the overall battle or zooming in using a flexible camera system.

The title boasts 95 ship classes, 42 aircraft types, fully researched and unique custom visuals for ships and aircraft across specific squadrons and units. All if this while you play a series of historical and hypothetical scenarios. There are two maps included with the title at present, playable fighters, savegame function, and compatibility with TacView to review your battles at a later date. A mission builder and quick scenario generator let you setup your own battles as well.

Task Force Admiral is, like many titles in this genre, releasing first into early access. The company has released a roadmap and a plan for their eventual launch with a 12-18 month development period post launch adding things like twenty additional scenarios, sixty additional naval and air units, cinematic replay module, interactive tutorials, a museum section, and campaign gameplay functions.

A graphic has been released detailing the rest of the roadmap adding features like combat chatter, static and animated crew, new music, updated VFX, as well as additional gameplay like direct gunnery control. The developer says that the gameplay loop is about 60% complete and there is more that they want to do.

Task Force Admiral – Vol.1: American Carrier Battles is now available on Steam for $35.99 USD. There is an introductory 10% off right now which lasts until February 10.

Initial community reaction

I’m pleased to see that initial community reaction is very positive. There are obviously some things that the title still needs, a more comprehensive tutorial is often cited as an important feature, but it sounds like most people buying in understand what they are getting into with the title in early access and are quite happy with the title overall.

Steam currently lists the reaction to the title as Very Positive based on 242 reviews. That’s a great first impression for this long in development simulation!