Delta Force Black Hawk Down Campaign Hands-On Preview – An Intense Fight
[summaraize]
Delta Force released at the end of last year, and we liked what we saw. Team Jade has been busy putting the finishing touches on the game’s cinematic, co-op campaign, Black Hawk Down, based on the 2001 movie of the same name. MP1st was invited to Tencent’s Los Angeles office (publisher TiMi Studio Group is a subsidiary of Tencent) to get our hands on a select slice of the campaign, and we have our impressions ready now.
As Cinematic as It Gets
From the first frame of the first cinematic of the first mission, it is clear that the production values in Black Hawk Down are aiming very high. Whereas the Unreal Engine 4 was used for Delta Force’s multiplayer component, the Unreal Engine 5 is used here, to great effect. I got the sense that these cutscenes were pre-rendered, but if so, at least on the rigs we were on (Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5975WX paired with an RTX 4090 and plenty of RAM), the transitions into gameplay were smooth. All of the maps we sampled looked great, with verticality as well as dense areas, usually filled with enemies around every corner.
Black Hawk Down, the movie, went with a gritty, mostly realistic depiction of war, and this campaign is looking to follow suit. Any single enemy can easily take you out, but the opposite is also true – there were no bullet sponges to be found, as most enemies could be taken out with a headshot or a couple of well-placed body shots. Enemies do seem to have great vision, however, and you should expect to duck and crawl your way around most windows, or else you’ll end up needing to be resuscitated by your teammates.
Squabble Squad Up
Team play is important in a lot of squad-based shooters, and Delta Force keeps that spirit alive in the Black Hawk Down campaign. In fact, Team Jade’s own developers have yet to complete the entire campaign solo, despite that mode being the only time you’re given extra health and ammunition compared to the standard loadouts you are offered when playing in groups of two or more. This can be seen even in the game’s HUD – when a team member is down, there is only a single, timed white icon that shows their location. It doesn’t flash, nor turn colors as it gets closer to expiring. You have to pay attention to what the game, if not your teammate yelling at you over Discord, is telling you, because in the heat of battle it can be real easy to miss that you’re down a member.
We tried, and failed to pass, three different missions, multiple times. Two were evacuation missions, and one was a defense mission. Death came swiftly in many cases. Could the Black Hawk Down campaign be too difficult? With no difficulty sliders to work with, some people may say yes. But then, Delta Force is known for being a hardcore sim shooter, and the movie upon which the campaign is based is known for showing a hardcore angle of war. So, it’s fitting that this campaign represents a big challenge.
Solo Isn’t Much Easier!
With an estimated play time of around seven hours, and multiple paths to tackling most missions, there is some room for replayability. Each team can only have one person in each role, so you can’t simply pile up into support roles to constantly heal each other, so there is always an opportunity to try out roles you might otherwise overlook. However, once you remember where enemies tend to spawn, things can get at least a little easier.
The Delta Force Black Hawk Down campaign is shaping up to be a cinematic, highly-polished experience with a difficulty curve many will liken to a Souls game. Squadding up is essential for all but the most masochistic of gamers. If you manage to succeed, however, the feeling of achievement is great after countless failures and retries. Of course, I say this as a non-competitive first-person shooter player, and even though no one, including Team Jade devs, has cleared the single-player campaign in a solo run. I’m sure plenty of you out there will clear the campaign by yourself the first day it’s out. For the rest of us, Delta Force Black Hawk Down will have plenty to teach us about checking our corners when it launches just a couple of days from now on February 21, 2025.
Stay connected to MP1st and the latest news by following us on Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Google News.
