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Delta Force: Land Warrior
By "Admiral" Nelson HernandezGameplay
Naturally the missions are the heart of DF3. Each mission begins with a voice-over briefing, which puts it in the context of the overall situation and describes what you are to accomplish and with whom you will be working. After you select your weapons loadout, off you go.
Choosing your gear
The weapons include an assortment of sniper rifles, machine guns, assault rifles, submachine guns and pistols. It isn’t as extensive as Rogue Spear’s selection but all the important ones are there, and there is also the OICW Land Warrior assault rifle, the supposed weapon of the future. There are also some special weapons designed for underwater use, and automatic shotguns and grenade launchers. You can also carry a rocket launcher, satchel charge or a Claymore mine for those missions requiring high explosive power. You can carry a surprising amount of equipment: one primary weapon, a SMG, a pistol, grenades and one of the aforementioned explosive weapons. I think this is a bit much for one person to carry, and it basically negates the effect of having specialties. Your sniper can just as easily engage in close-quarters battle or demolitions work, since he has all the tools to do the job on any given mission.
Another problem with the weapons is that there is very little differentiation between any of them. One shot always kills the enemy in single-player mode, whether he is hit with a 4.7mm round from the G11 or a huge .50 cal. slug from the M82 sniper rifle. The only practical difference is in penetration of objects (the .50 cal. can drop multiple targets if they are lined up). The one shot, one kill design of DF3 means that it is hardly ever necessary to fire a weapon on full automatic or even in bursts, making the issues of recoil and rate of fire moot. All weapons are all armed instantly by pressing the appropriate button or using the mouse wheel, which in the case of machine guns and sniper rifles seems quite unrealistic. Overall, the weapons do not have the sort of individual feel they have in Rogue Spear. They all have the same stopping power, just varying ranges.
The Black Hawk is a constant companion
Auxiliary equipment includes binoculars, a combat knife, and a laser designator for calling in guided munitions.
Once you’ve chosen your weapons you are inserted into the combat zone via helicopter, parachute drop or boat. The interface layout is clear from the screenshots and is no departure from other first-person shooters. A situational awareness display on the left will show enemy locations if you have satellite coverage, as you do on some missions. Pressing the ‘C’ key will give you a commander's map view of the battlefield. An X will be drawn through the crosshairs if you target a friendly or a hostage, so friendly fire is quire rare.
Enjoy the view
The screenshots also showcase the game’s remarkable graphics engine. In the past Novalogic has used voxels rather than polygons to render its gaming areas. The advantage of voxels is that it is possible to create really huge battlefields several square kilometers in size, with none of the ‘fog’ present in polygon-based graphics. The disadvantage is that they have been CPU hogs. I am unfamiliar with the technical aspects of graphics programming, but Novalogic claims that DF3’s graphics engine is a 3-D/voxel hybrid. It seems to work very well. The game hardly ever stuttered on my machine, and you are able to see very long distances. The buildings and rolling terrain look quite attractive, and if the Delta Force series had more emphasis on using real-life tactics it seems this would be an ideal graphical setting in which to put it. Arid, temperate, jungle and cold climates are present, and in an interesting bit of environmental modeling the wind has a slight effect on bullet ballistics over long ranges.
The graphics and sound contribute to an authentic feel. The sound of gunfire is faint at long distances, but since you are often the only friendly on the map it is likely to be directed at you. Your enemies are sometimes just a few pixels large at such great ranges, so it is often difficult to tell where the fire is coming from. Occasionally a tracer round will help unmask the enemy’s position, but often you just have to scramble for cover.
Reach out and touch someone
All this long-range fighting makes DF3 a bit of a sniper’s game. While there is a certain thrill to lining the enemy up in your crosshairs and knocking him off, there are also costs in terms of gameplay. Using stealthy approaches is quite unnecessary on most missions, and close-quarters combat is rare unless you specifically go for that kind of thing. In most missions you can simply set up shop on the biggest hill and systematically take out all the patrolling enemies. Then you close in with your SMG or pistol and clear out the buildings. This is often enough to win, since the enemy never shoots the hostages, when it has any, and does not coordinate its response to you. At best everyone on the map who can see you will fire at you, but unless they too are equipped with sniper rifles they will have a hard time hitting you. Meanwhile you can pick them off quite quickly. At worst the enemies will react to your fire by freezing and looking around, which of course only makes it easier for you to plug them. Sometimes they run around without a purpose or rush at you. Individually the AI is not too bad; the enemies assume prone positions and sometimes even use cover. But collectively it is incapable of reacting to you unless it is in some scripted way. The effect of this is to make the opponent less than the sum of its parts. You generally face 20-30 enemies in any given mission (where do all these terrorists come from, anyway?), and sometimes even more than that, but the sheer numbers tend to be more of a problem than the enemy’s sophisticated fire and movement tactics.
Join the Delta Force, see the world
The AI for friendlies is not much better. You have no control over your teammates; all their actions are scripted into the mission, and you can’t set this script since there is no mission planning interface. In my experience they made no difference. Sometimes they knocked off a few bad guys, but most of the time they died quickly. It wasn’t a problem since they reappear in later missions no matter what happens to them and you are never penalized for friendly casualties. Their range of actions is pretty similar to the enemy’s: when they see a foe they will go prone and open up on him. Radio chatter is generally scripted as well. This was a bit of a disappointment to me since teamwork is so important in other games of this genre. I’ve found that having a team with good AI (as in SWAT 3) is one of the biggest keys to the elusive immersion factor that adds so much to a game. DF3 misses the boat here.
