Being a war buff, I was excited to play a game based on the “Battle of Mogadishu,” the 1993 confrontation in Mogadishu, Somalia, that resulted in a relatively large number of casualties for both the American forces, as well as the Somali.  Many of you may recall this battle from the movie Blackhawk: Down. Terrorist Takedown: Conflict in Mogadishu was developed by Jarhead Games and published by CITY Interactive for the PC.

Without going into too much depth, the United States Army Rangers were on a mission to capture high level members of the Habr Gidr clan (headed by General Mohamed Farrah Aidid) during a scheduled meeting in the city of Mogadishu, Somalia.  The Rangers were to drive/fly in from a remote base to a location within the city and capture their targets.  The plan didn’t go smoothly and two Blackhawk helicopters where shot down by rocket powered grenades, and the recon mission soon turned to a rescue mission.

With this story for a background, a nice stage is set for a first person shooter.  I expected to be either shot down and have to make my way out, or performing the rescue.  The game is setup as the latter, allowing for more direction and I had hoped longer gameplay.  My hopes were high as I hadn’t played many shooters as of late, but given the cost/reputation (budget priced) of this line of games I adjusted my expectations.

Sound: 60%
As the game began, I realized that I hadn’t quite aligned my expectations low enough.  The sounds in the game were sufficient - nothing special, but they served their purpose.  There was little difference in the sounds of different guns.  The menu screens had played music, similar to most modern games.  It was rather monotonous, but it sounded good.  Enemies would yell when they engaged you, but overall, sound quality was only moderately better than the graphics.

Graphics: 50%
I was very disappointed with the graphics in Terrorist Takedown: Conflict in Mogadishu.  Though this a budget priced game, the graphics left much to be desired.  It was as though I was playing a game from six years ago.  Many of the areas were rather barren due to the natural landscape of Somalia, but that is no excuse to have such a poor backdrop.  Many objects in the landscape were very blocky or had unnatural looking textures.  My biggest complaint concerns the lack of a smooth interaction with the landscape.  At some points the bullet holes from my guns seemed to be floating on the walls of the buildings.  Enemy’s appendages could be seen through walls/floors before and after I killed them.  With so many buildings, streets, warehouses to walk through I missed the occasional oil drum explosion or window breaking at the impact of my bullets.  Just when you think things couldn’t get worse…..

Gameplay: 40%
From the beginning I suffered through the game play.  Major battle scenes were like the Arcade shooters of the early 90’s.  Enemies popped up in the same spots timed the same each time. 

The order in which the enemies appear is very predictable.  You are given a distance marker and when you reach the marker you can be sure the enemies will follow shortly.  Its like taking a step past the threshold of the door into the Buckle and being flocked by sales people.

At one point in the game I was in a clearing of buildings standing next to the downed Blackhawk and began to draw fire from the roof tops.  Enemies were perched on 5 buildings.  I shot the enemy at my 12 o’clock then the one at my 2 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock and finally my 11 o’clock. Then to my surprise enemies appeared in the same locations.  SOOO I shot the enemy at my 12 o’clock then the one at my 2 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock and finally my 11 o’clock.  Again to my surprise the same thing, this happened 4 or 5 times.  I stood in the square and shot clockwise until they stopped appearing.  One nice thing was the variations in which the levels were played.  Though not impressive it broke up the game play.

Various levels have you either shooting a machine gun from the top of a Humvee or from the side of a helicopter.  The game counts your accuracy but the results don’t seem to affect anything.  The rounds in both of these weapons are unlimited which allows you to hold the fire button down for the entire level and just carpet the landscape with bullets.  This gets old quick.  At one point I contemplated taping the left button down on my mouse and letting my cat play.  He tends to sit on my desk when I’m on the computer and he is very fond of batting the mouse around.  I’m sure he could have made it through the level.

The controls are pretty standard aim/shoot with the mouse; movements are controlled with the keyboard.  You have the ability to lean, crouch, strafe, etc.  If you push the 9 key you can enter cheat codes (MPGUNS will give you all the weapons, MPHEALTH will give you full health.)

Cut Scenes/Video: 60%
The cut scenes are only as good as the graphics allow so the scenes were okay but the poor graphics caused them to be less enticing.  They play a very small role in the game either way.

Summary: 57%
Terrorist Takedown: Conflict in Mogadishu is a budget level game, but that’s no excuse to skimp on the game play.  Any game, no matter the level of graphics, sound, controls, etc. cannot overcome boring game play.

   

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