Strike Force: Tactical Warfare

Strike Force: Tactical Warfare
Developer(s)	Rogue Studios
Publisher(s)	Monsteristic Xbox Game Studios
Series	ShooterofIO
Engine	Unreal Engine 5
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox One Xbox Series X/S
Release	September 10, 2023
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Strike Force: Tactical Warfare is a 2023 first-person shooter game developed and published by Rogue Studios. The game is the first installment in the Strike Force series. Strike Force: Tactical Warfare was released on September 10, 2023, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Strike Force: Tactical Warfare was developed across six years.

Development on Strike Force: Tactical Warfare began in 2019 when Mark Rogueson formed a group of 8 developers to work on a mod for Battlefield 4 using assets from 2018's Battlefield 5. Rogueson assigned himself the director of the project and alongside the other seven developers they worked on the mod. In Late 2022, the team had already completed the mod and decided to turn it into a full premium release. However, that meant the slated June 2022 release date had to be removed. Strike Force: Tactical Warfare was announced to be the title with a release date in Late 2023.

Gameplay

Further information: Gameplay of Overwatch

Overwatch 2 is a hero shooter, where players are split into two teams and select a "hero" from a roster of 40 characters. Characters are organized into a "damage" class, responsible for offensive efforts; a "support" class, responsible for healing and buffing; and a "tank" class, responsible for creating space for their team. Each character has a unique set of skills, made up of active, passive, and ultimate abilities. Overwatch 2, like its predecessor, primarily centers on player versus player (PvP) combat across several different modes and maps, and includes both casual and ranked competitive matches.

The original Overwatch was designed for six-on-six team combat, with two of each class on a team. In Overwatch 2, the number of tank slots was reduced by one, bringing the total number of players per team to five. According to game director Aaron Keller, developers hoped that losing a tank would speed up gameplay as they believed that the original six players scheme rendered gameplay slow. It is also intended to ease the amount of things players and spectators need to watch out for. New maps were designed to include more cover options to compensate for reduced tank-based protection. Additionally, damage class heroes now have an increased movement speed, support heroes slowly regenerate, and tank heroes were redesigned so they could take on a more offensive role. Heroes were visually refurbished as to reflect the passage of time since the events of the first game. Overwatch 2 includes a ping system to direct the attention of teammates to specific points on the map.

The game also introduces a new PvP mode named "Push", similar to tug of war, in which teams vie for control of a robot that pushes a team's payload to the opponent's side of the map. Along with being incorporated into Unranked and Competitive play, Push has become part of the standard map rotation of the Overwatch League, replacing the Assault mode. Assault maps (colloquially referred to as "2CP", meaning "two control points"), such as Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony, are not available in the core Overwatch 2 game modes as these have been deemed unbalanced in response to community feedback. However, they are available in the form of custom games and sometimes appear in the non-competitive arcade modes, which are switched out daily.

Overwatch 2 was released as free-to-play as opposed to the premium monetization model of its predecessor. It also discontinued loot boxes in favor of a battle pass system which is offered on a seasonal basis and corresponds with the introduction of new maps and heroes. The game also includes an in-game store where players can purchase cosmetics directly. Blizzard stated that new heroes will be introduced as rewards on the free tier of the battle pass, and players who fail to make the associated tier will have other routes to obtain the hero for free in later seasons. In addition to battle pass cosmetics, players can purchase seasonal cosmetics through the in-game store. Further, special events lasting two to three weeks have been offered, offering new cosmetics for completing various challenges as well as new cosmetics available for purchase. With Overwatch 2, Blizzard has also created collaborations with other franchises, including Blizzard's own Diablo IV, as well as content from third parties such as the anime series One Punch Man and Cowboy Bebop and the Korean idol group Le Sserafim.

A Blizzard Battle.net account is required to play Overwatch 2, regardless of platform. Overwatch 2 features cross-progression, with in-game cosmetic items and progress being shared across PC and console versions. Unlocked cosmetic items, in-game currency, and player statistics from any Overwatch profile linked to such an account are merged, and are available on all platforms. Competitive skill ratings are separate, with console and PC ranks remaining independent of each other.

Post-release updates

Starting in Season 6, in August 2023, three story-based PvE missions were added to the game, with more planned in the future. These advance the lore and narrative of Overwatch. These missions are generally designed to complete multiple objectives, and are similar to previous short-term event missions offered previously from the first Overwatch. These missions are only available as free-to-play game modes during specific seasons, but the player can purchase permanent access to these missions separately or as part of a battle pass bundle. Further, in September 2023, special Hero Mastery missions were introduced for three heroes, with more planned in the future. These missions are aimed to help the player learn and improve their skills with the given character.

With Season 9, starting in February 2024, a major overhaul of combat and the competitive system was introduced. All heroes gained a boost in health and passive healing, while buffs were applied to all characters with guns or similar weapons. This was intended to improve survivability, remove the likelihood of a character being killed by a simple quick burst of fire as well as to prevent them from being quickly healed. In contrast to the approach since Overwatch 2'ss launch, which progressed a player's rank after winning 5 games or losing 15, the new system resembled the original Overwatch approach where the player's competitive ranking is adjusted after each game, with additional information as to what aspects of the match contributed to the ranking change. With these changes, Blizzard announced that all players would have their competitive ranking reset and would need to perform ten matches to gain their starting competitive rank.

Within Season 10, to be released in April 2024, new heroes will no longer be tied to the battle passes, and instead free to all players, a retroactive change to include the previous heroes released since Overwatch 2 release. Player will still need to have completed the tutorial missions before gaining access to these heroes.

Development

Strike Force: Tactical Warfare started as a advanced modification to Battlefield 4 using the Unreal Engine and was developed solely by Mark Rogueson who was given permission by DICE to develop a remake with different content. Development on Strike Force: Tactical Warfare began in 2018 however was delayed multiple times due to the slow process made as a single developer. In 2019, Rogueson formed a group of 8 developers to work on the game and planned on using assets from 2018's Battlefield 5. Rogueson assigned himself the director of the project and alongside the other seven developers they worked on the mod. In a developer update blog post in March 2020, Rogueson said the mod's focus was to enhance gunplay and make it fast-paced similar to how Call of Duty plays, by this time, Rogueson gave the team a name "Rogue Studios".

Multiple delays occured throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and forced the team to shut down their work until June 2020 without work from home — due to them not having good enough computers in their homes and felt they couldn't complete what they needed to do during lockdown. By July 2020, DICE gave permission to Rogue Studios to market their game as their own as long as they don't use content from any Battlefield game.

Rogueson confirmed that the mod was now classed as a "fully fledged video game" with its own "identity" by February 2021 and confirmed they intended to release the mod in June 2022. In Late 2022, the development team decided the game felt too much of "just being a mod" instead of a game. In December 2022, it was confirmed the game was titled Strike Force: Tactical Warfare and would be free to download with a Battle Pass formula to be used for post-launch seasonal content. In discussions on how long the game would be supported for post-launch, Rogueson said they intend on supporting the game for "a few years" before moving onto a new project. The release date of September 10, 2023 was announced on January 1, 2023.

Release

Strike Force: Tactical Warfare was released worldwide on September 10, 2023, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Future

A sequel to Strike Force: Tactical Warfare is being worked on slowly as confirmed by Rogue Studios.