[H1]Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?[/H1]
Being introduced to classics by my friend becomes a classic. Delta Force, 1998, is no exception.
Originally expecting a hardcore tactical shooter, I ended up being in Call of Duty of it's time - more casual approach, quite limited, but fun nonetheless. Kill count by the end of the game went above a thousand, that's how "grounded" it gets. I guess it's a proper Delta movie experience.
[H2]Pros:[/H2]
-No introductions or boring dialogues with non-characters. You do you job and vanish. Simple. No need for drama.
-Quite fun gunplay. You aim and shoot, no need for shaking hands.
-Despite very limited options of this time, game does put you in different conditions - from small stealth raid to full-on invasion (which you end up doing most of the times). Hostage situations are obnoxious, but that one task in Indonesia to protect a convoy was fun to me.
-Speaking of - different locations and sort of explanation. We've got a druglord in Peru, rebelion forces in Chad, bio-threat in Indonesia, military revolution in Uzbekistan and nuclear threat in R...Novoya Zemlya. Brave Delta saves the day!
-Aiming. My god, this is AWESOME. You get a scope on right part of the screen and you can still see things normally on the left part. With pixel hunting, you can be both sniper and navigator to yourself. More games should've done that. This is awesome.
-You are not in charge of units. You don't command them, they're on their own.
But despite it, there are cons to be considered
[H2]Cons:[/H2]
-While in fact game rendering does look better than on screenshots, it's still pixel-hunting you do. I have no problem with that, but some of you might.
-It required a fix to be installed in order to even run. And it crashed few times.
-No plot, no characters, nothing. That was a pro, now it's a con because you simply don't care if your allies die. Oh! Speaking of!
-AI is dumb. Both folks and foes can stuck, miss up-close or vice-versa - headshot you from 500 metres. Honestly, plenty of times I ended up being alone. Folks die like flies. CHARLIE IS DOWN! CHARLIE IS DOWN!
-That one mission in Uzbekistan, where you have a ridge with a platoon of snipers and general trying to flee. Have fun with that one.
-No music (except ONE soundtrack in main menu) or credits roll. After I beated everything, I've checked if I missed anything, manually rolled credits, sighed and turned it off.
-♥♥♥♥♥♥ pre-load. Few times I was obnoxious they offer me MP5 to a raid, or sniper rifle to close combat.
-Satchels and claymores DO NOT WORK. Apparently, NovaLogic at some point just broke them for multiplayer purposes, but now we have an "uh" moment when you settle charges and it doesn't work.
-IGI style permadeath - you fail at any point - you restart. And you die in one-two shots, so be careful. At least enemies are not bullet spounges, except for .22 caliber.
Overall, 1998 sounds like a great year for gaming. While not THE FIRST 3D FPS, it's approach on wildlands, tactical vibe and non-chalant AI somewhere out there somewhat helping does feel charming. Probably it inspired tactical shooters like Flashpoint or Ghost Recon, I felt like coming back to Ghosts, only this time I'm not in charge, so I get only the fun part.
Of course you don't expect much from such game. But what it does - it tries hard, so cute.
p.s. btw manual is wrong, USA pretty much acknowledges Delta, it's just they're secretive about their operations, budget, units etc. Ain't SEALS to speak up "One time I took down two tanks with a grenade. It didn't explode."
[H2]You Delta boys are a bunch of undisciplined cowboys. 5/10[/H2]
