Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

The Good
Unfortunately the game has only a few good things and even they are nothing special. First good thing you will notice compared to earlier games of the series is that you are not a lone wolf anymore in a game about a squad - there are enough of your allies running around. The game also looks quite good for its time and has a good optimization which can't be said about the earlier titles. It even has some kind of physics modelling with debris flying more or less correctly during fine looking explosions. And here all good things end.

The Bad
And here comes the list of bad things. Narrative is, for the most part, non-existent which is a norm for Delta Force games but this game could've used something like a real story. Mission design is bad to say the least, missions are very linear and have you moving in a very tight corridor - stray off course a bit and the mission is failed which is pretty weird for a Delta Force game. Missions are also full of boring triggers and it shows right from the very first mission where you are riding in the hummer - there are only specific enemies that will ever hit your car, they are always the same and thus you can ignore most of them. The AI is just as dumb as it was in Land Warrior - I can't imagine anyone having a problem putting down hordes of enemies solo even on the hardest difficulty - in fact you will be doing just that because the aforementioned describes friendly AI just as well - it's like they are shooting only to provide some dynamics to the otherwise boring gameplay, because they rarely hit anyone - even if that anyone is just 20 meters away. Being made with a console audience in mind also didn't help the gameplay - the game now has med-kits and ammo crates lying around which are marked on the radar as well as having mission critical items highlighted - providing a handholding that makes the game even easier. Enemies have slowed reaction times which is a common thing in console shooters to compensate for a slow speed of a gamepad.

In my case the game didn't stay on my PC for too long and went right into the trash bin after a very silly episode that was having me clean the village. Trying to play the game like I wanted instead of following a pre-scripted railroad I rushed into the enemy territory together with an allied NPC that had to tag along because of a script - in the end I've killed a whole horde of enemies on my own with my ally never firing a shot - in fact he never even tried to crouch under a heavy gunfire. Seeing how mission progresses nowhere I decided to follow a waypoint - there I found an allied squad which was supposed to help me clean the village. Brave music started to play and suddenly shouts and gunfire could be heard in the absolutely empty village. My ally apparently remembered where he is and started to crouch - only now. And even if that wasn't enough - as soon as me and a squad stepped into a trigger - a new mission objective's script came into life - a boat (now empty because I killed all of the crew before I approached the allied squad) - started to turn and move away on its own. After blowing it up with only 4 bullets from CAR-15 I was forced to quit and uninstall the game. Even after the shooting gallery that was Land Warrior this is a disappointment, NovaLogic.

The Bottom Line
If you are a player who enjoys very railroaded shooters that handhold you through missions while punishing you for showing initiative, have a non-existent difficulty and you won't mind a game that is more like one of those modern Call of Duty games except without respawn and health regeneration - chances are you'll like this game. People expecting something more though will be better off firing up Delta Force 1 or 2. And even considering that there are much better (and more tactical) shooters.

The Good
I was actually surprised by the quality of this game. While I enjoyed the previous Delta Force games, they weren't exactly the pinnacle of realistic shooters. It was neat that you died in one or two hits, and that there was (literally?) infinite land for you to roam around in, but unless you wanted to take a huge risk you'd just grab your sniper rifle and play "Shooting Gallery" for about fifteen minutes then move on to the next level.

Black Hawk Down is in many ways similar to previous Delta Force games, but improves on every aspect. Because you spend so much time in urban areas, a sniper rifle is not always your best choice, and the enemy AI has improved greatly. Bad guys will take cover, man machine guns, do all kinds of great stuff to keep you on your toes. And as previous Delta Force games, the mission areas are God-damned gigantic.

And boy are some of the missions just...epic. One particular level starts you out at your base and you get a call that it's time to go into combat. You and nearly a hundred other soldiers all run down the road toward the helipads where several Black Hawk 'copters are waiting. You attach yourself to the Black Hawk and take off, along with several other Black Hawks. You fly up and away from the base, cruising over the ocean area, watching behind you as your base disappears into the distance. In front of you is a city, which you soon find yourself flying over, just barely over the roofs of the very detailed buildings. Below you you see people running around, doing their business, and you watch as soldiers go charging down the streets to meet their adversaries. A man calls out "RPG!" and the Black Hawk jerks to the left, narrowly avoiding the rocket-propelled grenade. As the Black Hawk realigns itself, you take the shot and take down enemy soldier who launched the RPG. Other Black Hawks start dropping soldiers into buildings to capture enemy leaders and rescue hostages, while your Black Hawk circles the area so that you and other soldiers can provide cover fire for the infiltrators. Finally it is your turn -- you descend onto the roof of a building, and take out the soldiers nearby. Other soldiers accompany you and they tell you to save the hostages in the building you landed on. And that's when the mission really starts.

That's just one of several missions that were, in a word, breathtaking. All this happens in one level, with a very short loading time and almost never a frame-rate drop. There can be a hundred things going on on screen at once, with a massive city and landscape looming in front of you.

I would say the best part about this game is that. The sheer size of the levels and memorable level design. One level requires you to go through an area at night, careful not to be spotted. Another requires you to make your way across a beach into a town while avoiding mines and artillery fire. Another mission requires you to hop on the back of a humvee, arm a machine gun and defend a food caravan. There are plenty of missions, each one better than the one before it.

The Bad
Sometimes the game just gets downright silly. There are levels where it's almost impossible to tell enemy soldiers from civilians, so, well, you just gun everyone down. Some levels you'll fail if you pull this sort of thing, but a lot of them don't really have any rules on civilian killing. I found myself pulling out a pistol and shooting up the people who threw rocks at me and told me to "Go away."

The sheer numbers of those you kill is a bit staggering. It's more like genocide than "tactical combat". I don't think there is a mission in which you don't kill more than a hundred soldiers and/or civilians.

Novalogic seemed to borrow the brain-dead AI from Rainbow Six. Your soldiers are all fricken useless. They can't hit a damn thing and never take cover. I wish there was a command to tell them to sit their asses down and wait for me to take out the enemy, because some missions require them to stay alive, and they ain't gonna do they on their own! The enemy AI is just as bad, but that's okay since they're so expendable.

The Bottom Line
A better name for this game could have been "Towell-Head Massacre 2000", since that's what it really is. It's much better than previous Delta Force games, and some levels are just amazing. The graphics are great and the action is non-stop, but really, it's just sort of silly how many people you kill in this game. Serious Sam has nothing on a US Soldier in Somalia.

The Good
I have owned this game twice and the main reason was the online play. Its a quick and easy process to get started and only takes a few minutes. Once your in you can join a variety of different match types (as you do with many other online shootem ups i.e death match, team death match, king of the hill ) i would advise to join a Team death match as u can most likely join a squad which i did and extends the fun even more. Graphics are still as gd as the main game and play isnt slowed down by tons of hoarding players ^_^. One thing is the maps are a little samey but u can download more and use them to host ur own games.

The Bad
Single player is a draw back to this game but it doesnt matter cos the online is so much better. I played through the single player game within an evening and i was kinda disappointed at there being no rewards for completing the game, But ive only ever played the single player once as the online stuff is 100x better.

The Bottom Line
Well u cant go wrong with this game really its only £10 in the shops now and its still going strong 2day. if ur a shoot em up fan then i would recommend this. if ur hard core (Unreal tournament) then u may wana stay away as the action and weapons arent as big and fast.

8/10 ^_^