Come for the battles, stay for the extraction shooting, avoid the atrocious campaign.

Delta Force review

As it turns out, Delta Force mainly adds to the noise.

Its multiplayer spins on large-scale combat and squad-based extractions are meticulously designed and undeniably entertaining.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player manning a heavy machinegun turret on the back of a Humvee as it drives down a detritus-filled Mogadishu street.

But they’re also structurally conservative, only making minor tweaks to otherwise familiar formulas.

This isn’t the only puzzling aspect to Black Hawk Down’s relationship with its source material.

For some reason, Team Jade has only remade about half of the 2003 campaign.

Cover image for YouTube video

Moreover, these missions are extremely short.

Team Jade’s solution to this is twofold.

Second, it ensures you are extremely hindered.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player defending against a wave of Somali militia near a crashed black hawk helicopter.

Black Hawk Down is abrutallypunishing affair.

Just a few shots can put your character down, and there are no save points whatsoever.

If your squad is wiped, you must restart the mission entirely.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing players taking cover in a wooden shack in the Black Hawk Down campaign.

Nor do I mind the sluggish movement or general feel of the combat.

The problem is that the combat’s general challenge is served with a heaped side-order ofbullshit.

Sadly, it being free is also the best thing about this campaign.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player moving down a Mogadishu street at night, illuminated by flares.

Overall, though, it’s a bust.

Too short, too basic, and lacking a clear design direction.

Fortunately, the competitive multiplayer is both far bigger and far better.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player looking out of a helicopter as it flies over Mogadishu in the Black Hawk Down campaign.

At time of writing, Delta Force’s multiplayer is split into two broad modes named Warfare and Operations.

As such, warfare comes with most of the same advantages and drawbacks of playing Battlefield multiplayer.

Team Jade does offer some more interesting ideas in its Operations mode, however.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing players coordinating to clear a building in the Black Hawk Down campaign.

If you die, you lose everything you’re carrying.

These missions are not especially involved.

Operations is also where Delta Force’s gunplay feels most at home.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player looking at a scale model of the Zero Dam level in operations mode.

This works well enough in Warfare, but feels better attuned to Operations' brief bursts of combat.

I also just enjoy how much sound plays a role in your experience.

Every noise both players and NPCs make propagates across the map, right down to their footsteps.

A screenshot of Delta Force, showing the player running past a moving train in Operations mode.

Actually firing your weapon, meanwhile, feels almost profane.

There are a couple of things I like less about Operations.

Ironically, the presence of operators in this mode feels like it runs counter to its premise.

Also, Operations is crying out for a solo mode.