HomeNewsDelta Force - Black Hawk Down
Tencent’s new Delta Force game restages one of the USA’s greatest military disastersGet ready for another Black Hawk Down map
Get ready for another Black Hawk Down map
Image credit:Tencent
Image credit:Tencent
The original Delta Force launched in 1998, which was a busy year for videogames: it saw the release ofHalf-Life, Starcraft,Thief: The Dark Project,Baldur’s Gate,Fallout 2and Grim Fandango, together with Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid on the console side. I’m not sure Delta Force can hold a candle to any of those, but it had a decent critical reception and attracted enough fans to spawn a fairly staggering number of sequels. It stands apart in my memory mostly for its huge draw distances and its corresponding emphasis on long-distance firefights.
The old NovaLogic series was very popular in China, according to TiMi. “I just remember it as like the first FPS game in China,” TiMi-J3 studio general manager Leo Yao told RPS in a quick chat before Gamescom. “20 or maybe more years ago, in the internet cafes, everyone played Delta Force. So it’s very, very popular with that generation. But because it hasn’t launched any sequels for a long time. So maybe for the younger generation, teenagers, maybe they don’t know Delta Force, but for older players, I think Delta Force was the beginning of their FPS experience.”
TiMi - whom you might know as the company behind Call of Duty: Mobile - have consulted with members of the original Delta Force devteam on the new game’s design and music, and asked old school Delta Force fans to playtest it. You can expect a new version of the old special operator customisation system, plus an updated arsenal. There will be two main modes, an extraction-based affair and the flagship big-bottomed PvP experience, with different missions to complete in different parts of each map.
TiMi have also devised a new campaign mode based on Ridley Scott’s US-Somali war movie Black Hawk Down, following in the footsteps of NovaLogic’s sixth Delta Force sequel. It’ll introduce a new version of the old Black Hawk Down map and recreations of the film’s night fights and vehicle scenes. The developers have sought input from one of the movie’s production companies, Revolution Studio, and hired Hollywood actors to portray major characters like Norm “Hoot” Gibson and Jeff Sanderson.
A screenshot of one of the older Delta Force games. |Image credit:NovaLogic / Old-Games.com
I can probably take or leave another immersive/authentic FPS in the Year of our Lord 2023, but there are a few things I wouldn’t mind looking deeper into here - in particular, the videogame legacy of Black Hawk Down, a Pentagon-endorsed, 9/11-era depiction of the catastrophicBattle of Mogadishuof 1993, in which the abduction of Somali National Alliance leaders triggered an overnight conflict that left hundreds dead.
The movie doesn’t feature any Somali actors in speaking roles, and has been criticised for airbrushing history. According toa 2013 paperfrom historian Lidwien Kapteijns, it exalts the US troops as flawed heroes, dehumanises the Somalis, and “conceals and misrepresents U.S. involvement in Somalia prior to 1993, which contributed to state collapse and violence there”. TiMi didn’t mention whether they had consulted with any Somali people or organisations on the creation of the new Black Hawk Down map.
Do you have any thoughts to share on this front, or any memories of the old Delta Force games?
