Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

by James Sterrett

Article Type: Preview
Article Date: August 12, 2002

Product Info

Product Name: Black Hawk Down
Category: Tactical First-Person Shooter
Developer: NovaLogic
Publisher: NovaLogic
Release Date: Multiplayer Open Beta Released
Sys. Spec: Click Here
Files & Links: Click Here




We're Goin' In!
On August 2, 2002, Novalogic unleashed the fury of a package of code upon an unsuspecting Internet. This code permitted those who downloaded it to experience a one-map multiplayer beta test of Novalogic’s upcoming Delta Force game, Black Hawk Down. Armed with the sort of training that only long years of computer gaming could provide, we headed out into the mean streets of DF:BHD’s Mogadishu.

The terrain in town is quite varied

DF:BHD aims to provide players with 20 missions set in and around the events now made famous by Mark Bowden’s articles, book, and the subsequent movie, all of the same name. The game uses a new engine with friendly and enemy AI improved over prior editions, as well as the obvious improvements in graphics and sound.

Slums nestle alongside more permanent buildings

Weapons
The beta of BHD arms players with CAR-15 assault rifles, M-21 sniper rifles, the venerable Colt .45 pistol, and a knife. The CAR-15 and M-21 both come with a scope mode, and the CAR-15 can be set to single or automatic fire. So far, all of this is business as usual for veteran players of Delta Force. What’s new is the ability to fire .50 caliber machine guns from Hummers and broken-down Jeeps, and Miniguns from fortifications and helicopters.

Gotcha!

The best feature of the beta, without question, is the map. It looks reminiscent of Mogadishu as seen in the movie. It includes a wide variety of styles of building, from relatively upscale to shantytown shacks and street vendor stalls full of shirts. The biggest building on the beta map looks quite reminiscent of the target building from the action on October 3, 1993, albeit with the addition of a number of minigun nests that I don’t believe Aidid actually owned. Better still, nearly everything on the map can be climbed one way or another. As a result, the threat and attack angles available during play are highly varied. Looks good, plays well: if all the maps in BHD are going to be this good, it will be impressive.

You can get on top of virtually every one of those buildings

And of Course, Black Hawks
The other noteworthily nifty part of the beta is the helicopter rides. You buy tickets and stand in line next to this bizarre giant mouse…(kidding!). Er. The beta sports a Black Hawk helicopter with two miniguns at each of the two team’s base areas. Players can man the miniguns of just ride looking out the side door. The Blackhawk turns out to be on autopilot. Every so often, it takes off, flies a few circuits of the city, and then lands again. Nonetheless, the sensation of low-level flight is amazing in a way that the screenshots completely fail to capture. On the entertaining side, you can safely jump off at any time! Unfortunately, you cannot shoot the helicopters down in the beta, but they nonetheless add a great deal of atmosphere as they fly around.

Blazing away from a helicopter

Weaknesses
Inevitably, other areas of the game need work. The textures on the terrain models blur up close and those on the player models are not very detailed. As a result, the weapons models look clunky and don’t look too hot compared to other recent offerings. The textures, however, may undergo lots of work before the game is released. The multiplayer connection software worked well overall, but showed a tendency to hang when the map decided it was time to reset the scores. Again, since this was a multiplayer beta test, this sort of wrinkle should get ironed out before release.

A close look at the character and weapon models

A more fundamental decision, perhaps, is the way jumping works. It allows players to scale objects they ought to be able to climb over, which is very nice; but the tradeoff is that it does so by making jumping feel as if it takes place on the moon, a strange floating motion that is too high and too slow to feel realistic. You can, literally, jump over a car.

This displays the most entertaining bug in the beta. (Look at the main rotor hub in the larger image)

Gameplay
The beta mission is simple: team deathmatch, using uniforms that look like Rangers vs Delta Force. Inevitably, the gameplay on the server degenerated into a loose collection of people running around and blasting away at each other. Nonetheless, it’s clear that BHD places the standard Delta Force series emphasis on long-range sniping and the map provided a reasonably entertaining environment for this. Oddly, though, players who are prone seem to gain incredible advantages in combat. I personally stood over a prone sniper and emptied a magazine from the CAR-15 into him at point-blank range, only to have the sniper turn around and kill me in one shot as I reloaded. Others complained of the same thing; presumably the prone advantage will be re-tuned for the final release.

Spartan accommodations but a great view when underway

Overall, though, the beta shows that the game moves well, the control works well, and people who were fans of the Delta Force series before this should be very happy with the new installment. Just how well the single-player aspect will work remains to be seen, but the quality of the map design is encouraging. How well it will stack up against the other contenders out there, such as Army Operations, Ghost Recon, and Flashpoint, will depend on how much polish is applied between now and release.

CAR-15 vs Blackhawk - guess who won?

Preview System:

• CPU: Athlon XP1900
  
• RAM: 256Mb RAM
  
• Video: Geforce3
  
• Internet: Broadband connection

Resources

Articles:

• 2002/08/12: Multiplayer Open Beta Test

Files:

• Open Demo Expired Friday, August 16th, 2002.

Official Sites:

• NovaLogic's Black Hawk Down site

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