“First-person shooter” is a broad term. This could mean anything from a monster-filled horror movie like FEAR, to a sci-fi adventure like Metroid Prime, to a demon-eviscerating romp like Doom. Even narrowing it down to a label like “military FPS” still puts Call of Duty’s linear campaign, Battlefield’s massive PvP combat, and Escape from Tarkov’s white fist extraction under one umbrella. Delta Force, the latest installment in the 26-year-old shooter series, is probably best defined as a slice of each of the latter three – with a dedicated large-scale PvP mode, a separate extraction shooter mode, and (as yet unreleased), it sits somewhat awkwardly in the middle of a Venn diagram . It’s still too early to give a final verdict, but the first hours of the game before launch intrigued me enough that I can’t wait for the next deployment on vigorous servers later this week.
Since this release is technically the beginning of an unspecified “open beta” (which, in the case of a free-to-play game, really just means the end of it), only two of the three main modes are currently available, with the campaign planned as paid DLC somewhere in the background . Of the two currently available, Warfare is Delta Force’s answer to Battlefield’s team combat. 64 players fight for supremacy in one of several huge, sprawling arenas. The matches I played during the early review period focused on Warfare’s attack and defense options, although King of the Hill and some other time-based modes will apparently be available at launch.
Offense and Defense pits one team on the attack tasked with capturing several strategic points before a finite number of respawns runs out, while the other team defends these areas with an unlimited number of lives. If the attack is successful, they replenish their respawns and the cycle starts over in another part of the map until the entire field is occupied or the defense stops them. It’s a good setup; Initially, the offense has the advantage due to favorable terrain and a vast number of vehicles, but the situation will even out as the match progresses and the defense retreats towards its own base. This means that each side usually spends some time as both a figurative hammer and nail.
The battles certainly feel huge, which is a good thing. Fast respawning means both teams are densely loaded with soldiers. Once the bullets and rockets start flying, the chaos and confusion on the battlefield becomes invigorating. It’s especially fun when you take control of a vehicle and start running after the opposing team. A tank fully loaded with gunners can dominate, but don’t sleep when you hit a straight machine gun turret on top of an armored car.
Fortunately, every time I found myself on the wrong side of the tank, I wasn’t completely helpless thanks to the variety of agents you can choose from mid-match. These named characters are something of a hybrid between a basic loadout and a custom-made hero, which fits the universal theme that persists in Delta Force. If you’re being overrun by vehicles, it might be a good idea to respawn with a rocket launcher, and if the fight is in the open, it might be time to employ your trusty sniper rifle. Each character has unique abilities that are also helpful in combat, like Luna’s detection arrows that can be fired periodically to reveal enemies, but none are powerful enough to win a skirmish outright, let alone the entire match.
I just wish the actual action was better. The bullet’s arc and trajectory have a major impact on shooting, so guiding targets is vital for exact long-range shooting. This, combined with the miniature time to kill, makes the shooting feel more like a military simulation like Arma. This is all well and good in itself, but it clashes greatly with the aggressive pace of play provided by the objective-based attack and defense mode. Slow bullets at the mercy of gravity that kill you instantly feel a little too airsoft for an intense battle for a key chokepoint.
Get in, get the loot, get out
On the other hand, the operational mode is based on the well-known extraction shooter framework; You and up to two friends can form a three-person team to enter an area, shoot, loot and carouse. Whatever you bring to your base between rounds can either be sold, stored, or used on your next attempt, and anything you have on you if you die or don’t escape in time will be lost for good. This is a proven formula that Delta Force follows to the letter, but the high quality of workmanship compensates for this unoriginality. Q
Each level is an open sandbox filled with potential goals. Maps easily highlight points of interest, such as bounty targets, safes to loot, and intel to decipher. This may seem like a compact detail that should be praised, but in a genre dominated by games like Escape from Tarkov that are deliberately designed to be foggy, having critical information shared is a nice differentiator. I like being able to just leave a landmark and know what awaits me when I get there without having to memorize maps.
Once you’ve chosen your destination, you’ll have to fight your way through squads of AI soldiers and sometimes human-controlled enemies. You never know who is nearby or in what numbers, so every enemy engagement begins with a quick risk assessment: do you fire and risk everyone knowing where you are, or do you sneak up to approach stealthily, leaving potential a threat on the pitch? Making quick decisions based on confined information makes the action strategic and engaging. This is especially true if you see other humans, as they are certainly more threatening than bots, but they can be loot-rich targets and are worth taking on.
I’m a fan of the enemy variety so far. My unit eliminated roving bands of gunmen, took cover in buildings to avoid sniper fire, and performed flanking maneuvers on the fly to avoid riot shields. In one memorable moment, my team was pinned down by a massive armored villain firing a minigun at us as we threw grenades from behind cover. Another time, one of the three of us was breaking into a protected while the other teammate and I provided cover, and I almost jumped out of my chair when a giant alligator jumped out from around the corner and tried to interrupt our fun.
My main concern with Operations at this point is the loot loop. There are all sorts of containers everywhere, such as filing cabinets, coat pockets, downed enemies, etc. – but after just a few hours of running in this mode, I rarely bother checking them anymore, now that I have a good idea where to go for the actually more exorbitant items . I hope there won’t be a point anytime soon where the maps feel “solved”, but they already seem less active with each launch.
The time in between is spent in the Black Zone, which serves as your home base. Here you buy, sell and upgrade, especially the amount of storage space. This is where you also manage a well-built equipment option. This allows you to save several different sets that you can take into battle and rebuild them with just a few clicks. Items will first be pulled from your inventory and then automatically purchased from the store as needed. It’s a quick and proficient way to get back into action and helps mitigate the effects of a failed extraction.
Of course, all of this is just my initial impressions – it takes time to get a comprehensive feel for how well a PvP mode like Warfare works, and there are still a few operations I haven’t explored, so I’m not quite ready to give a final verdict until I I will play on live servers. However, I can say that the extraction mode is a lot of fun to start with, and I like the scale of PvP encounters in Delta Force, even if I’m not yet convinced that this shooting style is suitable for this action. At least it’s clear that this is a good free-to-play shooter that can cater to a few different FPS tastes, but it remains to be seen whether it will be able to maintain my interest once the initial novelty wears off.
