Delta Force Console Review – Take Cover
After being delayed from its initial Q1 2025 launch to iron out some balancing and technical issues, Delta Force is finally out on consoles. Its timing couldn’t have been any better either, as while marketed to a different audience, its resemblance to the Battlefield franchise has been a significant draw for players, especially now that the open beta for Battlefield 6 is over.
With an influx of new players and a whole new audience of gamers to cater to, I decided to move away from my time spent on the PC version to experience this long-awaited console release, and I have to say, I’m left feeling a little disappointed.
Not the Console Experience I Was Hoping For
When my colleague Paulmichael Contreras reviewed Delta Force on PC last year, I shared much of his opinion on the title. It was a solid, free-to-play shooter that showed much promise. It wasn’t perfect, mind you, but its large-scale warfare, combined with a surprisingly fun extraction mode and a nostalgic Black Hawk Down campaign, felt like a breath of fresh air. The PC version had its fair share of issues—wonky aiming, performance dips, and a sometimes confusing UI—but nothing that felt like a deal-breaker. It was a solid foundation that I was certain would be refined for its console release. That, and since launch, the game has only gotten better with improvements to the gameplay, bug fixes, and of course, more content.
I won’t rehash what we previously said in our review, but generally speaking, we were pretty positive about the game, and sttill are, with the upcoming content drops set to arrive that’ll bring more vehicles and other exciting offerings. Delta Force might not be the perfect shooter out there, but it doesn’t need to be. Team Jade’s vision for the game is one I’m entirely on board with, and I can’t wait to see where they take the game next.
With that said, let’s talk about the console port.
The console release, of course, comes with everything (well, almost everything, and more on this later) that the PC version has in terms of content. I mean, that much makes sense since this does feature optional (bugged at the moment) crossplay with the PC version, so there would be the need for parity between the versions. So, the content is there, and with the game now in its fifth season, console players get the benefits of enjoying a more feature-complete experience than the game was when it launched on PC originally.
Again, I won’t rehash what we said already in our original review, so I’ll shift gears to talk about the console experience itself. First up, the general UI and controller navigation. I’m not a fan of it. I know I’m coming over from PC, but I’ve played many online shooters across platforms where the UI is fine. I mean, it’s not terrible, but it definitely needs more work. Playing on console has made me realize just how many menus there are in this game. It’s not a bother on PC since you can just flick to things with ease, but on console, there’s so much to press through, and on top of that, things just don’t always react to those presses. It’s easy to get confused about where your navigation is going, and it doesn’t fare any better in extraction mode, Operation. That’s somewhat common in extraction games on console, but it’s still not great here and could definitely use more refinement and better user tutorials. The spawn options seem to be bugged, too, with some items not being selectable or even functioning.
In general, the controller support during combat is pretty good. Mind you, I’m talking about how things are mapped and its ease of use, which Team Jade seemed to have at least nailed down there. But it goes without saying that the console version of the game suffers from several issues that make it feel, well, pretty bad.
The latency and general movement feel very “floaty,” almost detached in a way, and it’s quite possibly the worst I’ve ever experienced in an online shooter. Even after tweaking sensitivity and stick deadzones, I found myself overshooting on the aiming because of the noticeable delay in response. This floaty feeling is a consistent issue across all game modes, making precise gunfights and long-range engagements incredibly frustrating. It’s a massive blow to the core gameplay loop, which on PC feels tight and responsive in comparison. Basically, if you decided you wanted to crossplay with PC players, you’re putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. Of course, mouse and keyboard will always reign supreme when it comes to latency, but Delta Force especially makes it an uneven fight compared to many other shooters on the market today. That added latency just isn’t great, and it makes playing on console feel as if you are trying to walk against the raging currents of a river. It’s not good. I might play mainly on PC, but there are a handful of console shooters that feel great across all platforms. Delta Force is not one of them, sadly.
Which brings us to the next topic: Performance.
Playing on the PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X, Delta Force suffers from some major frame rate and screen tearing issues. By default, VRR is turned on, which adds even more latency, and the game supports two modes: quality and performance. You’d think with a target framerate of 60 frames-per-second that VRR wouldn’t be needed, but disabling it in any mode results in endless screen tearing. It’s almost nauseating to experience, and I’m unsure whether the game is dipping in framerates or just struggling at too high a level. I get it when you go from 60 to 120; having VRR makes sense. However, even in quality mode, where the target is 60fps, turning VRR off produces some of the worst screen tearing I’ve ever seen in a game. The latency is better, but that defeats the point if it’s near unplayable. Team Jade needs to address this ASAP. Considering the size of the console market, it’s shocking that it was even released in this state.
Now, for the Black Hawk Down campaign, there’s a performance issue occurring during cutscenes, which might be locked to 30fps. The performance didn’t seem to suffer from the same issue as the multiplayer mode, though that might be in part due to being on a different gen engine, where the online uses Unreal Engine 4, and the campaign uses Unreal Engine 5. Different studios worked on that, too. It still suffers from the latency and deadzone issues, and strangely doesn’t have a performance or quality mode to pick from. There is also no online co-op for the Delta Force Black Hawk Down campaign mode on console. I know it was a big complaint to not include a solo mode in the initial PC release, but not having co-op is an odd decision. The campaign’s difficulty was brutal the last time I played it, and though they likely did some balancing with it here, it’s not something I’m looking forward to soloing. I’m hoping this is just a bug and it gets patched later, but it’s such an odd thing not to include.
If there is one thing I enjoyed more on consoles, despite the UI needing more work, such as selling items, it’s Operation. Since it’s less hectic than the core PvP mode, the mentioned issues are a bit more tolerable. I also think the general feel might be better here? It could be a placebo effect. I know the latency and movements are far from perfect, especially compared to the PC version, but I am enjoying this mode a lot more regardless. I say give that a go to see if it fares any better for you, and if not, come back and call me crazy for it.
But overall, it’s a shame to see the state of the console versions, because underneath these technical issues, the core Delta Force experience is still there, and it’s still fun. The large-scale warfare, the engaging extraction mode, and the promise of future content are all still present. But the console port’s fundamental technical issues, particularly with the aiming and performance, make it a difficult game to recommend at launch. While I am hopeful that Team Jade will continue to patch and improve the game as they have with the PC version, as of right now, Delta Force on consoles feels like a step backward—a promising game held back by a poor technical execution.
I trust the studio will work quickly to address these things and the other reported feedback that the community has been sending. So here’s hoping things get better in the coming months, and maybe even weeks. For now, I’ll stick with the PC version and hope some of my console friends are willing to revisit the title once things have improved down the road.
Score: 6.5/10
Pros:
- If all the issues below can be addressed, Delta Force is a pretty solid and fun game.
- Large-scale battles, extraction mode, and a campaign, all for free.
Cons:
- Performance, coupled with screen tearing, makes this a tough experience to recommend in its current state.
- Controller latency/input lag is very noticeable, and no matter how much I tinkered with the settings, I couldn’t get it to feel “right.”
- Some menus need better controller optimization. Spawning in a vehicle, for example, is a different button press than just selecting the vehicle icon on the map. Some aspects of Operation are really frustrating to do.
- Black Hawk Down has no co-op mode on consoles.
Delta Force was downloaded for free on the PS5. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
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