Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

6.0
Average

Gameplay	6.5	"An easily forgettable and unpolished shooter."
Graphics	6.0
Sound	7.0
Value	6.5

By Robert Kuus

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Loosely based on the real life military operations of the US Rangers in Eastern Africa of 1993, Delta Force: Black Hawk Down drops us into the war torn environment of Somalia and allows us to experience Kalashnikov powered tribal warfare from a first person perspective.

Originally released on PC in 2003, BHD for the console is little more than a straight port that offers us the exact same game completely unscathed by modern day standards of graphics and basic game play. What was a fair game two and a half years ago now looks like a budget title, and when considering what else is on the market even the game play has made a comparative change from bad to worse.

BHD plays out like Time Crisis minus the light-gun, as you are constantly assaulted by a seemingly never-ending stream of Somalian hostiles that engage in combat with about as much sense as bulimic zombies looking for their next “braaaaains” fix. Furthermore the vehicular combat present in the game simply deprives you of your ability to move out of your own free will as the vehicles (either a Humvee or Black Hawk) methodically plod from point A to point B while you gun down scores of skinnys from a fixed turret like a rail shooter. In an attempt to liven things up BHD does provide mission objectives that usually sound complex and interesting from the loading screen, however these too are quickly reduced to killing even more of the daft Somalian militia.

Unsurprisingly the graphics in the game leave a lot to be desired, arguably though that was to be partially expected considering the number of characters the game can support on screen at once and the rather expansive environments. However, these things alone cannot account for the lacklustre, muddy texturing present throughout and when compared to the magic that other premiere titles have achieved in memory management it becomes difficult to justify BHD's resoundingly poor appearance.

Unfortunately poor graphics aren't the end of it, and BHD really does have more problems than a hamburger in central Mogadishu. For instance, bearing in mind the trigger heavy style of play that BHD opts for, it seems strange that just two or three bullets are enough to send you physically screaming back to the last time you used one of your precious save slots. This coupled with other irritations like a frequently recurring soundtrack, binary movement (like you would get from a keyboard) and poor squad AI will leave you far from endeared to this slap-dash war shooter.

All said and done though, BHD does have one redeeming feature that comes in the form of it's multiplayer mode. Giving us 50 players (or 32 for the PS2 version) online simultaneously is an industry first and something that really separates BHD from the crowd. A comprehensive assortment of different game types are present including a 6 mission co-op mode and a fairly decent list of maps that, if not a little repetitive, will ensure at least a few hours of gun toting fun. Additionally you are given a choice of character class (assault specialist, close-quarters combat specialist, sniper or medic), a contrivance that heavily augments the multiplayer experience by adding in that much needed tactical depth. Regrettably the multiplayer mode is not perfect and does suffer from unbalanced weapon power levels, but all in all it is pretty good, and is by far and away the best facet of the game.

At the end of the day Novalogic have basically regurgitated a two year old game and spruced it up with a decent multiplayer mode. If you're into rail shooters or just can't wait for Battlefield 2 then this may be worth a look, but for the rest of us Black Hawk Down is probably the man you're gonna leave behind.

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