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Black Hawk Down returns in Delta Force: a free co-op battle available now
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Diego Nicolás Argüello
The early 2000s Black Hawk Down was based on an adaptation of the book written by journalist Mark Bowden about the crew of a Black Hawk helicopter that was shot down during the Battle of Mogadishu. The events led to a 2001 film directed by Ridley Scott. Now, 22 years later, Team Jade is refining the campaign with a modern look, while maintaining what made it stand out originally.
If you're wondering what to expect after all of these years, and what its presence means to Delta Force at large, we've got you covered with the details.
Up until this week, Delta Force was primarily introduced as a multiplayer affair. Released in beta on December 4, the focus on tactics-infused gameplay is married with quite distinct modes. Warfare, for example, pits 32v32 players against each other in large maps encompassing land, sea, and air. Operations offers Team Jade's take on the extraction shooter genre, where you have to loot and survive before attempting to flee unscathed, while Raid mode is about objective-based missions designed to be played as a squad.
If you're a fan of the idea of the latter, Black Hawk Down will sound enticing. It's a seven-mission-long rendition of the 2003 campaign, in which up to four players can pick a specialist with a distinct role—providing ammo, healing your teammates, and so on—to tackle objectives.
During hands-on time prior to release, it was intriguing to see a modern-looking campaign with the classic, retro feel of the early 2000s, when most of the video game conventions we've grown used to weren't established yet. In other words, Black Hawk Down is merciless. If you're in the line of fire, you won't last more than a few seconds. Bullets hit hard, and the enemy AI is surprisingly smart. Enemies are prone to hide while attempting to land shots from behind cover. But they aren't afraid to move around in an attempt to flank you either.
As for overall difficulty, you're really going to want to invite friends to tackle the campaign. Sometimes, only one or two shots from an enemy can result in your health indicator dropping from green to yellow. Specialists have medkits by default, but they take a handful of seconds to patch your injuries—plenty of time to leave you exposed to incoming fire.
Recalling the tactical element mentioned earlier, in Delta Force, there are specific body injuries to keep an eye out on to avoid movement penalties, such as an injured leg. In Black Hawk Down, this means that having a medic on your team is crucial—but so is having a source of ammo available, or a sniper rifle. The full squad is almost mandatory, especially since you can customize a specialist's loadout to try out different weapon combinations. The experimentation and dedication required to push against challenging objectives are worth the effort.
Visually speaking, this release matches the current animation and fidelity expectations, making use of Unreal Engine 5, and the presentation is fairly distinct even between missions. Whether you're escorting a critical convoy through a hostile area or locating scattered soldiers and guiding them out to safety, the care in visual details is tangible on every surface.
Black Hawk Down is now available in Delta Force for free. Playing through the campaign will reward you with multiple in-game cosmetic rewards. In addition, Team Jade has launched a web event called Flappy Hawk, a limited-time challenge that unlocks more in-game rewards, from intermediate and premium weapon experience tokens to a calling card. While you're in the game, there are a number of unlockables and limited-time events to take part in. Logging in daily will reward you with premium weapon experience tokens, among other goodies. Boss Adjutants, which are special enemies, are back in Ahsarah, offering neat rewards if you're able to find them, as their locations won't be marked on the map. There are also Adjutant Archives to locate, which can then be exchanged for even more supply items. Regardless of where you choose to start first, it seems your weekend plans are sorted.
Delta Force is available on the Epic Games Store.