Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

Written by Glenn Wigmore  on September 12, 2005

Review: Not all shooters that come out are going to be great games, especially those that only have one main feature to prop them up.

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Delta Force: Black Hawk Down originally came out on the PC back in 2003, however it didn't make much of a splash in the overcrowded PC shooter market. It provided a standard campaign experience and also gave a functional multiplayer component, but its presentation aspects were only average and it just wasn't all that coherent or polished in its execution. Of course, the source material for the game, the lackluster movie of the same name, wasn't much of anything so that definitely didn't help. This being said, VU Games and Novalogic have created a port of the title for the Xbox, but the main draw for Xbox users is the 50-player support over Xbox Live. This feature does provide the multiplayer portion with some value, but the other aspects Ц namely the campaign, presentation, and gameplay features Ц all look extremely dated and bland, when they weren't even good in the first place.

The conflict in the game takes place in early 1990s Somalia where warlords were antagonizing the local people. With the fall of the country's dictatorship, misappropriation of resources and crime were rampant, and the U.N. was brought in to try and deal with the situation. American troops were deployed in various instances to help deal with rioting crowds, warring factions, and gunners waiting in ambush. The conflicts resulted in the deaths of thousands of Somalis and about 25 Americans. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down chronicles some of these conflicts.

The Xbox version of the game is pretty much a straight port of the PC game, but it features split-screen and system link support, as well as the 50-player XBL support (with full voice chat and Live features). The split-screen and system link options allow for cooperative play of specific maps, as well as arena deathmatch battles for up to four players. The Xbox Live support allows for more gameplay modes, such CTF and King of the Hill, but I'll talk more about the multiplayer aspects later.

The main bulk of the game can be found in the 17-level campaign mode, where you defend convoys, infiltrate towns at night, and suppress AK-47 wielding soldiers with a minigun on your Black Hawk helicopter. These scenarios weren't very well executed back on the PC and, unfortunately, they don't work any better on the Xbox console. Much of the game's folly can be isolated to the shoddy enemy A.I., which acts more like pop-up targets rather than cagey, gun-wielding adversaries. Their strategies involve standing around to get mowed down by helicopter miniguns, charging into heavily armored American convoys on their own, and failing to hide behind nearby structures for ambush or even logical safety. All of these flaws don't mean that you won't get shot at or even hit by the random Somalis you face, but they just aren't really that smart or intimidating. You'll enter missions with a preset weapon loadout, which usually includes grenades, explosives, an assault rifle and sidearm. Throughout the missions, you'll find health and ammo pickups sitting by empty houses and crates that will keep you going. Honestly though, if you ever really feel any danger in the game, you can just hang back and let your CPU teammates take care of most of the opposition while you pepper the stragglers from afar.

Much of what happens during missions feels very automated, as well. You don't have control over any vehicles and all they do is fly or drive around in circles until you've killed all of the enemies, none of which pose any threat since your vehicle can't be destroyed Ц quite odd, indeed. The indestructible merry-go-round vehicles are made even more amusingly bad when compared to the enemy armaments that you will face; your CPU teammates will either automatically destroy any vehicles, or several bullets from your rifle or minigun will be enough to destroy them, essentially rendering enemy vehicles devoid of any threat.

Not only are the scenarios of battle in the campaign not that entertaining or well executed, but also they are made even less enjoyable by the game's mediocre controls and HUD presentation. You can manipulate your soldier in a pretty standard fashion, with the left and right thumbsticks handling movement and aim, respectively. You can also use the D-pad to put yourself in a crouched or prone position, but this is handled stronger (and feels more realistic) in games like Ghost Recon 2. You can also click in the left thumbstick to make your soldier jump, plus you also have access to night vision for darkly lit missions. The back button handles your map and viewing of waypoints, but this doesn't always function as one might hope it would. It's not uncommon that you'll feel lost or misguided when heading around to the various checkpoints, and it's not always clear when you need to go somewhere or even what you're supposed to be doing when you get there. This isn't to say that nothing is instructed and objectives make no sense, but a more definite feeling of direction, position, and purpose has been handled much better in other shooters, from their pre-mission briefings or from in-game cues and instruction that aren't ambiguous or sparse.

The offerings that DF: BHD gives for split-screen and system link allow you to engage in multiplayer arena deathmatch, as well as cooperative play for several levels. It is definitely odd that you can't play through the entire campaign in co-op mode, but since the campaign or co-op missions aren't that good, it's not really a big deal either way. When playing in co-op, there are some small presentation hitches to accommodate for the two players, but it's nothing that brings the game below its already mediocre level. The split-screen deathmatch isn't much of anything, due to the fact that the maps are quite vacuous and you'll have trouble even finding anybody when only four people are participating. Still, it doesn't hurt to have the mode in there, even though it doesn't add anything Ц bots would've helped here.

The Xbox Live support is the main selling point for both the game and the multiplayer component, and it can at least be said that this feature delivers, somewhat, for those that want an online shooter with lots of players and voice support. All of the usual Xbox Live options are there including QuickMatch, OptiMatch, Create-A-Match, friends lists, stats/leaderboards, and content download. The 50-player aspect of the online mode comes together because of Novalogic's hosted servers that are plentiful and stable, meaning gameplay is reasonably lag-free and playable. There are also player-hosted servers, but these are rated with the usual connection indicators, and experiences will, of course, be varied.

The online experience combines class-based conflict, ala Wolfenstein, with tactical shooter elements, akin to Rainbow Six: 3. What needs to be pointed out is that this game, while playable and functional online, doesn't play as well as either of the aforementioned titles. When compared to the class-based Return to Castle Woflenstein, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down doesn't work as well since you have to pick your class offline and that is the only class you can use for an online session. Why you can't change this on the fly is definitely puzzling and it hurts the fluid nature that class-based gameplay can have.

As for the Rainbow Six: 3 elements of Black Hawk Down, they fare slightly better, but don't match the overall customizability and playability of the Tom Clancy game. Aspects like hit detection work quite well, but identification and finding of enemies can be much more frustrating in Black Hawk Down, as your radar isn't always that clear in indicating where the enemies are. The bane of spawn points in Black Hawk Down means that you'll often get spawn camped or ambushed in certain areas, and since you're stuck as a certain class of soldier from your offline profile, there's nothing you can really do to change it when the going gets rough. All in all, the 50-player servers are nice, and there are some varied gametypes, but the limited class-based elements, poor presentation, and general bland nature to the shooting experience doesn't really make the online something you'll hunger to play on a nightly basis.

Visually, the game doesn't look all that hot, mainly because it's a two-year-old port of a PC game that has obviously received no upgrades or refinements for the console release. Environments are large and sparse, and none of them show much detail outside of the small conflict areas and villages. Landscapes seem to go on forever, with no real attention paid to the outskirts of the battle zone. Player models don't look much better, but are comparable to those seen in the Rainbow Six games. In general, the textures and models are quite muddy, and this does provide some difficult instances of trying to distinguish friend from foe (when far away), and the city environments help blend the enemy in, which is somewhat accurate, but this happens more because of the weak color palette and limited detail. Explosions and gunfire are standard in nature, and they don't really provide any drama to firefights. Often times, you just knock over a few stationary enemies, then blow up a small truck, and then move right on Ц there's not peripheral gunfire or explosions to make the conflicts seem more chaotic. The only mild high point for visuals is the inclusion of 480p support.

Audio is also important in war games, but Delta Force: Black Hawk Down's sound only pans out slightly better than the visuals. There are requisite gun and bullet sounds, which work decently, plus some random chatter from your fellow soldiers and adversaries. Much of the voice work is repeated, but it does at least set a bit of tone for where you are, geographically. Music ranges from generic rock beats when you are gunning down enemies in your helicopter to eastern-themed choral chanting when perusing city streets for enemies. Again, it's just clear that the developer put in no extra effort for presentation aspects, even though they were a couple of years old already.

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down provides a very mediocre experience in all of its gameplay modes. The game is a port of an old game that has not had any presentation upgrades, nor have any of its gameplay flaws or quirks been addressed. The multiplayer support has received the basic regiment of Xbox Live features, but these only make the multiplayer experience moderately palpable.