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Platform: Xbox Genre: First Person Shooter Publisher: Novalogic/VU Games Developer: Climax Studios ESRB: Teen (T) Released: July 26, 2005
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Delta Force: Black Hawk Down Score: 7.0 / 10 |
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Pros: - Intense and action packed gameplay - Online Play - Cooperative Mode
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Cons: - Cannot drive vehicles - Visuals are relatively bad -Gameplay is fairly straightforward and simplistic - No real storyline or character development - Not bots for offline play - AI is predictable
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Related Links: Review: Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (PS2) |
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"The online setup is great, supporting an in-depth ranking system and easily accessible online options." |
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History Lesson: In 1992, the United Nations along with the United States launched Operation Restore Hope in an effort to suppress the growing famine, insecurity and clan warfare that had ravaged the East African country of Somalia. The military force which arrived on the beaches of Somalia in 1992 was made of mostly American troops which played a pivotal role in opening supply lines, protecting non-governmental organizations and ensuring the safe distribution of food and aid. As success was being made in the horn of Africa, the newly elected Clinton Administration took office and scaled back its presence in the country. As the slow withdrawal of American troops took place, insecurity and clan warfare began creeping back into Somalia.
In the summer of 1993 President Clinton ordered the deployment of Task Force Ranger, which consisted of elite US Army Commandos (Army Rangers and Delta Force Operatives). Codenamed Operation Gothic Serpent, Task Force Ranger’s mission objectives differed from those troops who were involved in Operation Restore Hope. Task Force Rangers mission objective involved targeting a powerful warlord by the name of Mohammed Farah Aidid in the capital city of Mogadishu. The movie and the book: Black Hawk Down, are based on the final mission US troops were involved in during there operations in Somalia. The final raid Task Force Ranger carried out in Somalia left 18 American Soldiers and over 1000 Somali’s dead. The political fallout and the grizzly image of a dead American soldier being dragged through the dusty streets of Mogadishu forced the Americans to withdraw all there troops from the region and scrub any plans of apprehending Aidid.
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (BHD) lets you experience the ten months US forces spent in Somalia. It’s important to note that BHD is in no way connected to the movie or book of the same name. None of the characters from the movie or book make appearances in the |
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game. It’s also important to note that the Xbox version of BHD is a straight port of the PC version, unlike the PS2 version. The game consists of sixteen missions, with one training mission at the very beginning. The training mission just familiarizes you with all the character actions, weapons and obstacles you may come across on the battlefield. The first few missions of the game see you in the shoes of a 10th Mountain Infantry soldier carrying out missions such as protecting convoys and destroying weapons shipments. From there you take the role of a Special Forces soldier carrying out more dangerous missions that center around targeting individuals who are of interest to you. |
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Each of the sixteen missions plays out the exact same. Each of these levels is comprised of linear environments that see you shoot down gunman after gunman with some variation thrown in for good measure. Aside from the regular on-foot action seen in so many military shooters, there are some “on rail” segments where you can ride in humvees, little birds and Black Hawk helicopters. Unfortunately you cannot control any of these vehicles. Instead you can only sit in them or take control of the machine guns mounted on them. Since a majority of the game takes place in urban locales in and around Mogadishu, the levels have been populated with civilians. Many of the civilians react angrily towards you, throwing rocks and cursing you and your fellow soldiers. Civilian casualties don’t occur often in the Xbox version of the game. If you’ve played the PC version, then you’ll know that your moronic teammates would open fire on civilians and kill them immediately, but in the Xbox version of the game it’s much more difficult to incapacitate civilians, so this makes the game a little easier in some ways. Rather than having a checkpoint system, each of the single player missions have a limited number of saves you can use anywhere within a mission. The saves come in quite handy, considering that the single player game is not very easy. Unlike the PC version, it seems like you can die much quicker in this version of the game. The gameplay is largely trial and error. Once you die, you’ll usually figure out where the enemies come from, considering the enemies always attack you from the same spot.
The AI for both enemies and your teammates is quite horrendous. Your teammates couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. Frequently they’ll walk right past enemies and not give you much help. You can issue about nine or ten commands to your soldiers, but you’re better off just letting your braindead soldiers follow you around each level. The enemy AI is just as spotty. Many times you’ll see Somali gunmen run away from you at top speed, run around in circles or charge you head-on. All of the enemies take only a single shot to kill. So shooting an enemy in the foot or in the head can score you an easy kill. Perhaps the developers decided to take this route because of all the enemies you’ll face at once. The single player campaign is extremely short. You can easily finish the game in eight hours. There isn’t much of a reason to go back to the campaign mode, but there are six missions out of the campaign that can be played co-operatively with up to three friends. There are also a number of competitive modes through split screen play for up to four players, but they are nothing special, considering there are such few maps and no option to play with bots. The real bulk of BHD lies in the online mode. BHD supports 50 -- 50! -- players online through Xbox Live. The online setup is great, supporting an in-depth ranking system and easily accessible online options. There is also a promise of downloadable content in the near future too. The game features all the same modes found in the PC version of the game: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Flagball, Attack and Defend, Search and Destroy and King of the Hill.
Much like the PC version, the Xbox port suffers from the same online problem: no controllable vehicles. Instead, like the single player, you can just use the attached weapons on vehicles while the vehicles drive or fly on scripted paths. Riding in the vehicles online doesn’t offer an overwhelming advantage as it’s quite easy to kill players in vehicles. Lag isn’t a big problem, provided everyone has a good connection. Finding online games isn’t a problem either, considering there is a fairly large online community. The visuals in BHD are relatively poor. The textures have a muddy look to them and some of the character animations look awkward. While rare, you’ll sometimes run into some unusual graphical glitches like your fellow soldiers getting stuck on ladders or some sort of environmental obstacle. Also, lots of the characters could use quite a few more polygons. On a positive note, the particle effects from explosions look excellent. Given that the game takes place in East Africa, expect to see lots of brown in terms of the color palette. The environments look extremely run down, much like in real life. You’ll frequently come across bombed out buildings, shanty towns, huts, etc. The game’s audio is a mixed bag. The music is a mix between tribal and rock music. The tribal music sounds quite authentic, but the rock music doesn’t fit very well. The voice acting is second-rate, sometimes being too over dramatic and uninspiring. Delta Force: Black Hawk Down is a simplistic shooter military shooter set in modern times. With so many shooters on the Xbox, BHD fails to stand out from the rest of the pack; however, those looking for a shooter to go online with should certainly give BHD a try, but those not interested in online play should look elsewhere. - Siddharth Masand (September 8, 2005)
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