Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising

Teams

The Joint Operations Task Force is an international assistance force under the command of the fictional Coalition of Nations, formed before 1999, composed of elite special operations personnel from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, Australia, and Indonesia. The Task Force previously served in peacekeeping operations in East Timor. Following requests from the Indonesian government, it was sent to Indonesia as part of Operation Typhoon Rising to stop the rebellion and re-establish government control.

The Indonesian Separatist Movement grew out of the 1998 Indonesian Revolution that saw the downfall of President Suharto. The rebels fight for varied reasons, seeking independence for certain provinces and protection against the Indonesian military and government. Joint Operations forces were deployed after three rebel bombings, including one that destroyed part of a school, one that destroyed a government building in Jakarta, and one that nearly killed the Indonesian president. Recently, military factions joined the movement, allowing rebels to capture military bases, weapons, and vehicles.

Expansion pack

In late 2004, Novalogic put out an expansion pack for Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising called Escalation, which needed the main game to work. It added fresh maps, weapons, and vehicles, pushing the fighting into new parts of Southeast Asia. Players could also parachute from choppers or high spots on the map.

A year later, Novalogic bundled Typhoon Rising and Escalation together as Joint Operations: Combined Arms, letting people buy both in one box. That bundle played exactly the same as owning the two games separately. In 2009, Navarre Corporation put out the same compilation again under the name Joint Ops: Combined Arms Gold.

Reception

Critics gave Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising a thumbs-up, per Metacritic. It came in second for Computer Games Magazine's 2004 Best Multiplayer prize, losing to Unreal Tournament 2004. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences also nominated it for Computer First-Person Action Game of the Year at their 8th awards, but Half-Life 2 took the win. Its expansion, Escalation, also got positive reviews on Metacritic, though slightly less praise than the original.