Delta Force: Hawk Ops is aiming to be a jack-of-all-trades shooter
6.10.2024
By Diego Nicolás Argüello, Contributor
During a hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest, we were able to get a feel for some of these modes. Havoc Operations is Hawk Ops' take on extraction shooters, while Havoc Warfare falls more in line with the likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield, emphasizing the use of vehicles and lobbies with dozens of players working together at the same time.
Considering that the final game will also include a single player campaign—an apparent recreation of the Delta Force: Black Hawk Down campaign in Unreal Engine—Hawk Ops is set for an ambitious comeback.
The Havoc Warfare demo sent us on a battlefield with a simple objective of defending different areas around a map, with 16 players on each side. If you're familiar with online shooters, you know what to expect in terms of weapon loadouts: You pick your primary and secondary weapons (as well as a handful of gadgets and grenades) before diving into a match.
Operators, however, add an interesting twist to this selection depending on your playstyle. There were five Operators available in the demo we played, each with a distinct toolset and advantages. Luna, for example, has a bow that can fire both electric arrows that deal damage over time and a recon arrow that marks enemies exposed on its path.
I was partial to Stinger, who belongs to the support category. This Operator has a healing pistol that can be used on allies to recover their health and suppress debuffs, and he can even use it on himself. His gadgets focus on providing smokescreens (quite literally) while his passive trait allows you to revive downed allies faster. Though the Havoc Warfare demo didn't have other players, the bots provided enough challenge for me to see that having a few Stingers in your team will prove crucial to victory.
In contrast, Hazard Operations has a slower and more methodical pace. It features a huge free-roam map where you manually pick up and tackle available objectives, combining the legions of bots as well as other player groups. But there's also a focus on preparation, as you have to purchase gear, weapons, ammo, and all sorts of supplies before you head to the mission. They all have different rarities too, even the ammo, which means it'll take bigger sums of money to have a substantial advantage from the get-go.
If you've played Call of Duty: Warzone, Hazard Operations in Delta Force: Hawk Ops is fairly similar in structure and overall feel. There are missions, contracts, and even boss encounters. There’s an interesting take on healing: getting injured in a specific body part adds a debuff where you lose health over time. Healing yourself with a medkit will prevent you from dying, but the injury needs to be taken care of with a specific item.
There's loot pretty much everywhere you look, from safes scattered around the map to lab coats, briefcases, and plenty of downed enemies. You can find weapons, ammo, and supplies, of course, but also an array of miscellaneous items that are meant to be sold. These take up space in your backpack, so you can't simply grab everything, and you can later invest those funds into better gear for future missions.
As with Havoc Warfare, the demo only featured bots. Some of them made use of shields, requiring you to flank them or use grenades, as well as armor and heavy weapons.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops has fairly ambitious goals in mind. Its mechanics and iterations on simulation-type features fit the genre well; overall, it shows a lot of promise. As with other online shooters, however, the full experience will be dependent on players experimenting with all the tools available. Based on my experience, there'll be no shortage of modes and mechanics to learn when that time comes.
If you're eager to try the game for yourself, there'll be a closed-alpha playtest sometime in July for PC players. The release version of Delta Force: Hawk Ops—which does not currently have a firm release date—will be available in PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, as well as Android and iOS devices. It will also feature crossplay.
Wishlist Delta Force: Hawk Ops now on Epic Games Store.
For more on Summer Game Fest, check out our full recap of the live presentation here. We also have rundowns for the rest of the festivities, including the PC Gaming Show, the Future Games Show, and Guerilla Collective.