Customer Reviews

Delta Force: Black Hawk Down

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

To address some issues about the game, the negatives first - yes, your squadmates have terrible shots, but they DO kill some bad guys, now most people say this is negative, to me, it's better this way - have you played ghost recon? in ghost recon your squad kills every bad guy before you ever get a shot! It's stupid. Although they do get in the way, thats how it REALLY works, you have to keep your eyes open and watch out for your teammates.

This game REALLY engulfs you into the Black Hawk Down atmosphere, the city really feels like Mogadishu, the buildings, the people, everything, feels and looks great... And the missions accompanied by the sound have a very theatrical feel, it gets your heart pumping a bit doing a takedown "We have a swarm of militia approaching our point" your heart starts racing a bit, you hear lots of militia voices speaking in their language, yelling, shooting, WOW... fantastic! So for atmosphere, this game ROCKS... Put some headphones on and just get entreanched by this game, you'll love every second of it.. You'll feel like your in the movie.

The missions are all really good, on one you actually get in a Humvee as the .50' calibur gunner - your in a convoy and going through the city, militia are on rooftops, coming out of alleys, all over just like the movie... awesome.. You also get to do takedowns, you fly via black hawk into the city, jump out on a rooftop, a second team lands on the deck and works through the 1st floor while you go top down with your team, meet up at extraction while hundreds of militia are trying to converge on you, you hear the bullets whizzing by your head, the yelling and gathering of the militia storms through your ears, "RPG, RPG", you know what may happen if you can't get to your convoy asap, but at last with some covering fire from the Black Hawk overhead, you make the getaway with your captured Tier 1 militants.

The game really does play quite nice, the AI isn't great, but it doesn't have to be, I personally don't really take notice to that. The controls feel nice, and all the weapons are a bit different, they fire nicely, the sights are nice, and the feel of the weapon overall is pretty good, you feel like your firing an M16, or a shotgun, etc.

So again, this game was fantastic, I've played most games, Far Cry, Splinter Cell, etc... Even other squad based games like the Conflict Series and Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon - to be honest, NOTHING has come as close as Black Hawk Down to getting that true feel of the battle - again, you'll feel like your in Mogadishu fighting the hard battle that our soldiers did. You'll be on the edge of your seat flying in on that Black Hawk helicopter manning the machine guns, and your thinking "is THIS where the black hawk gets hit, RPG RPG!!!" - I can't get enough, WOW! Buy this game, for $19.99 its a STEAL!

DFBHD is an ambitious game that has minor flaws, but the sum of the parts results in an extraordinary immersive experience. At first glance it looks like your garden variety shooter, the intro film looks average the menu screens are simple but flow smoothly and get the job done.

However, once you played about three missions, you start to understand that this is not your older brother's Delta Force. You are dealing with an adrenaline filled, immersive experience filled with detail and depth like I've never seen in a first person shooter.

Sometimes if your team mate gets shot, a med-evac helo will show up and medics will find your wounded team mate and carry him to safety. Angry villagers will sometimes throw rocks at you. You can initiate room takedowns in which one of your mates will flash-bang the room while the others will take the corners much like it should happen.

The graphics are by far the bet I've seen in an FPS. The music is better than the movie. The helicopter action is breathtaking. Some missions are stealth based, some are .50 cal frag fests. There are crocodiles, the best night vision I've ever seen, there have really rich multiplayer... and I haven't even finished the game yet.

This product sets a new standard in bang for the buck FUN, with a healthy dose of realism. I can't wait for the next one.

P.S. NovaLogic, how about adding driveable vehicles?

John

the latest addition to the Land Warrior series. I have beta tested the game prior to release and all my reported bugs have been fixed in the current multiplayer pre-release demo which may be downloaded here. The game boasts an awesome improvement in graphics from it's predecessor although only a few months have passed since it's release. The gaming engine appears to handle "lag" a lot better than all previous versions. The ability to man fixed and mobile positions that include minigun, Browning .50 cal, and M40 Grenade Launchers as well as ride in Blackhawk helicopters and HMMWVs (Hummers for all the civilians) make this one of the more versatile FPS games that I have seen in the past two years. The recent demo has introduced PSPs or Progressive Spawn Points which allow opposing teams to take control of the neutral flags. Once these positions are under team control a player can choose their respawn location from the available PSPs. I enjoy playing the demo and will definitely purchase the final version which is scheduled for release this October. I highly recommend that you download the demo. You can find a reason to not buy any game that deals with war. There hasn't been a war yet where everyone walked away. The point is, they merely are putting the player in the region it is not as if you are portraying any of the actual soldiers or commanding the operation that is doomed to failure. As with the movie, what you take away from the game will depend on your outlook but most will feel a respect for those soldiers who participated in the operation and those brave enough to make the sacrifice.

I picked up a copy of "Black Hawk Down" yesterday, and I couldn't FORCE myself to stop playing it, even for a moment. Think of this game as "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault," but instead of all those World War II trappings, it's Somalia circa 1993. It rises head and shoulders above previous games in Novalogic's "Delta Force" series, with its heavily scripted action and furious combat sequences. Building-to-building combat is some of the best and most furious I've ever encountered (and I consider myself an AVID first-person shootist). You will literally feel like you are there in Mogadishu as the bullets zip past your head - it's like taking a step inside the awesome Ridley Scott film (albeit with a 'Teen' rating). "Black Hawk Down" suffers from a few issues with enemy and friendly AI, some minor graphical glitches, and some inappropriate one-liners, but all in all, it's not a game to miss. Do yourself a solid and pick up a copy ASAP.

Black Hawk Down is a solid FPS, though many of the complaints posted here are accurate.

The AI is not very good, but again, if you read accounts of Somalia and even see the movie it's obvious that the militia was not a trained army of very good marksmen. They had numbers, numbers, numbers, a lot of guns, a lot of RPGs, and would just run into the street shooting at you. You'll be picking off hundreds of people throughout this game. If you finish all of the missions, you may likely kill over 1,000 people while losing less than 20, which is about what the USA did in 1993. The AI of your teammates is worse. They are bungling idiots with worse accuracy than Imperial Storm troopers. In addition, they don't always listen to orders--when you're about to sneak around a corner your teammates will burst into an area and start shooting. If an enemy is behind a wall, the AI gets confused and your men will shoot at the wall, even though you can't shoot through it. Naturally, if you want things done right (enemies killed, missions accomplished) you have to do it yourself. Many boards look the same, the enemies all wear the same few outfits, and you can only shoot x number of civilians before your mission ends.

It's still a lot of fun though, even if many boards are just trial and error. There is also a set number of saves per board, though on only one board did this approach a problem (namely, the last mission).

On the whole the game is not very difficult, however it is a lot of fun. The graphics are excellent--the rusted, blown apart remains of Mogadishu are well captured, and one gets an idea of how difficult and bloody urban battles can be. You'll probably beat the keyboard with your fist after you get shot by unseen snipers or hit by phantom RPGs, but you just reload the game and take some revenge. I loved the weapons selection. However, I found little use for the sniper rifles on whole missions, which is a shame. Since you have it with you the whole time, it's not very practical for going through the streets and taking on roving gangs. You can break out some machine guns, like the SAW or the M-60 and do your best Rambo impression, raining red-hot lead down on hapless militiamen. I liked the side arms as well. The sound effects are fantastic--the hisses, pops and cracks of gunfire in the streets sound great. It's amazing how much you can do with between two and four men; night vision goggles, flash bang grenades and silencers enable you to take down entire buildings in a couple of minutes, Delta Force-style. Of course, your own men will occasionally run in front of you and take a hit, but again, they're not too bright.

There could have been more blood, which is a disappointment. You get a lot of blood when you shoot someone, but they skimped on the gore factor, which given the real nature of the whole thing, they shouldn't have. At least the bodies stay in the streets. The people do some realistic dying on screen; they spin around, are blown out of windows, go flying from grenades. Just like Hollywood (!) You can see how accurate a CAR15 or M16 is by picking off people a few hundred yards away. If you man the miniguns, watch out.

It might not be the best FPS for the PC (depending on who you talk to) but it's still a very good pickup. I bought this game after watching the movie, which made me want to play a FPS (not exactly an anti-war film). It's nice to get a game based on real conflicts (other than WWII). It's a bit easy, but the online play is good and it should provide enough hours of bloody fun.

"Delta Force: Black Hawk Down" is what you get if you take "Medal of Honor: Allied Assault" and set it in 1993 Somalia, but it's not quite as good as that may sound, thanks to some annoying flaws in the game's design. Does that mean it's not a good game? Not by a long shot - it's an enjoyable first person shooter, and rises above some of the mediocre genre efforts that have been released within the past few months (see "Unreal II: The Awakening," for example). The game may not live up to its potential, but it's a solid effort that's worth a look.

If you watched Ridley Scott's fantastic film, "Black Hawk Down," then you already know the historical premise for this computer game adaptation (although most of the game details missions prior to the events of the movie). Mission after mission, you'll find yourself battling militants in shanty African cities and towns, completing a series of objectives before you are permitted to advance to the next level, or couple of levels, as not all missions must be played in sequence, refreshingly enough. You will also get to pick which weapons you take into said mission prior to play, which is nice - although you'll find yourself sticking to your favorite set of weapons and rarely using the others that are offered. When all of this is done, you enter the midst of combat, and then the action begins.

You will rarely go it alone in "Black Hawk Down," but don't expect a lot of help, even so. Your squad mates are little more than set decoration, and while they do add to the sense that you are but one soldier in a large campaign, they are usually no help at all in firefights. They shoot at their enemies, sure, but they almost always miss. At least their senseless behavior won't get in your way most of the time, since they depend upon you, and, thankfully, you can pretty much let them do their own thing (though, sometimes, if too many of them die, a mission can end prematurely). Your enemies are equally mindless, and generally employ one of two unrealistic tactics: they either stand in place and shoot at you, or charge you head-on while opening fire. They never really take cover or fire in short, controlled bursts, and though their aim is considerably better than those of your teammates, they still could have used some training. Fortunately, shooting them is rather fun, as they react fairly realistically to gunshot wounds (though in another nod to the unrealistic, there is very little blood and gore). Gunplay is far more satisfying here than it was in "Unreal II," for example, and despite a lack of variety in enemy encounters, it's pretty good stuff, and worth the price of admission.

Like "Allied Assault," "Black Hawk Down" is a heavily scripted game, which is a mark in its favor. In perhaps one of the best missions in the game, you'll be called upon to clear a garage of militant presence, only to find a horde of militia members swarming upon the place moments later. They even drive a jeep through the wall and open fire from a 50 caliber mounted machine gun! Fun stuff. Some missions may be a little too heavily scripted, though - when you're aboard a Bradley combat vehicle manning the turrets, you had better memorize the pattern of incoming RPGs, or else you'll never make it through the level. It's all about trial and error. Some helicopter missions are remarkably frustrating as well, thanks to this fact. A strange, limited save system compounds this problem. Don't expect unlimited saves.

While it is perhaps realistic that the game's environments all look very much alike, it's not the most fun from a gamer's perspective. Granted, half the game goes by before it begins to annoy, but eventually you can't help but mutter to yourself, "Wow, this looks pretty much exactly like the last level I finished." Compounding the issue are enemies who pretty much all resemble one another and fight in exactly the same manner. Fortunately the mission objectives are different enough each time that it shouldn't leave you completely disenchanted with the product.

Yes, "Black Hawk Down" has its share of problems, but it's still a good game. If you're a fan of "Allied Assault," or real world first person shooters in general, then by all means give this one a try.

Final Score: B-

First of all I have never played a Novalogic FPS besides BHD,so wheather they are good or not i don't know.
But i do know a good game when i play it and W0W, this is a good game.

The Pros:

+Very Good Graphics
+Lots of Shorter 15-20 min missions as oposed to a few loooooooong missions (Coughmedalofhonorcough):
+A good mix of Historical and hypothotical missions including the tragic but ultimatly sucsesful Oct 3rd 1993 raid in wich 19 american service men lost there lives:
+Medivac Helicopters will touch down to pick up a criticly wounded member of your squad,this however only happens in a very select few missions but when they do come it is very cool:
+You can man the awsome 50 Cal. gun on humvees, and the mind blowing 6000 RPM mini gun on black hawk helicoters:
+Multi-player is fun and includes the classic game modes including but not limited to, Capture the flag,team death match,and every man for him self death match (the latter of wich is my favorite)and i only have a 56K modem w0w:
+Easy to execute team commands and room take-downs.(The flash bangs and grenades in BHD have yet to be parelled by any FPS on the market):
+A large array of weoponry to chose from before a mission ranging from the standard M-16 To the all out full auto SAW to the long range M-21 sniper rife,plus a standard ussue of frag and flash bang grenades:
+The stelthy night mission with the silenced MP-5 is a BLAST!:

I could go on and on whith the Pros but this would be more like a commercial than a review if i din't point out the downfalls of this game.Sooooooo here they come.

The Cons:

-Limited saves.WHY??? WHY??? WHY??? save limits range from two to nine saves per mission which really is not enough on the mission where you run the Mogidishu mile.
-Events are heavily scripted.
-Music,hmmmmm there is something to be desired here,sometimes it's okay and somtimes it's downright awful,turn off the game music get the movie sound track and just play that instead:

-The manual could have been alot better,it is filled with more historicl data than key commands or tactics(I still don't know how to launch the grenade from my M-16)
-Some missions have a default weponry load-out so you can't chose what you want to take with you on a mission,but luckily this is rare and is not much of a problem.

in conclusion,This game isn't perfect but no game is,don't listen to all the negitive reviews, this is well worth the $$$,go out and buy this game, you will not be sorry.

4 1/2 Stars

thx :-)

This by far is the best Delta Force ever made. I have only played the demo but the last two in the series were most definately duds. The graphics eclipse all of the other games. The trees actually sway when the helicopter goes by! The explosions look real and shrapnel comes out of the explosion, like the REAL thing. I have played all the Delta Force games and this ranks near the top with the first Delta Force. The person who said the game was a disgrace to all the people who died in Somalia, is wrong. Is Medal of Honor a disgrace to the people who died in World War II. These games are honoring the people more than disgracing them. Overall, if your looking for a fun first person shooter with great graphics and fun to play this is it!

I never liked NovaLogic's Delta Force series. Those game felt too much like unpolished MODs made by fellow gamers. Adding the fact that you had to pay good money for mediocre games didn't make it any better. I happen to download the Multiplayer Demo of this, and a first I was a lil frustrated. I hada take into account that that was a Test Demo, without all the features added. So after playing it for a few hours I really started to like it, and I'm a huge fan of Tom Clancy's games. Not at all what I ezpected from NovaLogic.
The graphics are way better than what they've produced before. And the netplay, pretty impressive for a test demo. I was able to snipe from the Helo with great success. This game has alota promise. I'm now just waiting for the release of the full game to decide myself. Judging from what the unpolished demo shows, this game should be a great success for NovaLogic... as long as they don't rush it out the door.

It's the best game since counter-strike! The graphics are excelent, the music is incredible,the A.I is blink-killer, if you like this type of game you must have this one!