Delta Force's large scale combat reminds me of Battlefield's very best

GamesFPSDelta Force: Hawk OpsDelta Force’s large scale combat reminds me of Battlefield’s very bestWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Timi Group)

Delta Force

I was the first to turn my nose up at Delta Force when it was announced. The freshly released (it’s in open beta but if everyone can click your game on Steam and play it, it’s released) multiplayer FPS is cavorting in the skin of the legendary 90s tactical shooter franchise of the same name. But listen up: It’s actually pretty good. In its best moments it channels Battlefield 3’s sense of fun and chaos.

I knew it before I even got my first kill. Of course, that was nearly 15 minutes of combat before I actually had to take someone down. I’m playing a medic, and while Napoleon Bonaparte might have said an army marches on its stomach—citation needed— this army marches forward only because I will it. My team is like ants, swarming towards the objectives with only me and my medic bag between them and a trip to the respawn point.

Delta Force is, really, two games right now. There will eventually be a third when the Black Hawk Down campaign launches next year but for now there’s the two multiplayer offerings: Warfare is a 32 v 32 combined arms throwdown across various objective modes. Then there’s Operations, which is an extraction shooter that’ll have you scuffling around for loot before you try to get to an extract, a lightweight version of Escape From Tarkov that I bounced off near immediately.

(Image credit: Timi Group)

delta force

This isn’t the only reason Operations mode is—in my opinion— better off ignored, but personal preference could come into it more than anything else: Delta Force’s Operations mode is shallow, and has you looting containers and making a break for an extraction, chewing through other players and AI soldiers. Complexity is low, so you don’t have to faff around with magazines or grenades, instead just stuffing your pockets with medical supplies and bullets and get to work. Thing is, the joy of extraction shooters comes from the faff, so this was too shallow for me to get immersed in.

(Image credit: Timi Group)

delta force

Warfare though? At its best moments, it channels the chaotic energy of Battlefield 3. Delta Force’s maps are meat grinder, pushing all 64 players towards a single pair of objectives in the Rush-like Attack and Defend mode or spreading out the fight in the Conquest-style King of the Hill.

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So far, so Battlefield. But fight through the tunnels leading to the secret biolab at the heart of Shafted and it’s hard not to be reminded of pushing up the stairs of Operation Métro. Trench Lines has you fighting first to capture a military base then brawling through a series of trenches, a small town and then, finally, into a huge military compound with a giant tower in the middle. Fighting for control of the tower is essential, but more importantly, it’s a whole lot of fun.

On the face of it, Delta Force is aesthetically similar to Battlefield 2042, DICE’s latest. Battlefield 2042 has the stronger art direction, but otherwise I think Delta Force has it pipped in just how good the combat feels. Part of this is that vehicles and individual soldiers feel much less powerful than in Battlefield, so the pushes into enemy territory feel a little more furtive, with attacking waves hammering against a defensive line until you overrun the objective. Time-to-kill is low and the chance of getting a breakaway moment where you’re the hero feels so rare that when you actually do pull it off and flank the entire enemy team to pick off the enemy’s defensive position, it feels incredible.

(Image credit: Timi Group)

delta force

The weapon customisation is probably the deepest I’ve seen in a video game. You can switch out the stock, grip, barrel and just about everything else on most of the weapons in the game. Something I’ve never seen before is the ability for you to calibrate several of these attachments, too, tweaking the position of your sight or how the stock fits into your digital shoulder, slightly affecting weapon handling as well. I haven’t played with this too much yet, but it seems like a way for min-maxers to get everything they want from their weapon of choice.

Delta Force has a good foundation right now, but it has a bit of an identity crisis. I don’t care about these silly military men and their anonymous battlegrounds. It’s hard to give a game a sense of identity after launch, and I’d have my doubts about whether a hero shooter can be a hit if no one cares about the heroes themselves. Except, Delta Force already is a hit. Recently the game hit a player peak of 118,964 players. We’ll have to see how those player numbers look in a couple of weeks, but Delta Force is hot right now, and the best large-scale multiplayer shooter I’ve played in years.

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