A War of Identities - 60 Minutes With Delta Force
Delta Force sets out to be a hybrid of Call of Duty’s intensity and Battlefield’s scale — but after an hour, it feels more like a compromise than a combination.
Delta Force makes a quick first impression, but it's not the one I hoped for. On paper, it feels like it’s aiming for the middle ground between Call of Duty’s tight, cinematic shooting and Battlefield’s large-scale warfare. After an hour with it, though, it feels more like it’s stuck between the two, never really committing to either style.
The gunplay tries to capture that snappy, responsive feel you’d expect from a modern military shooter, but it doesn’t quite land. Weapons lack the punch and weight that make firefights satisfying, and enemy encounters don’t build the same intensity as its inspirations. At the same time, the larger maps and objective-based play seem to want the scope of Battlefield, but without the same sense of chaos or strategy that makes those sandboxes work. The result is something that feels caught in limbo; it’s familiar, but not engaging.
To get down to some of my main issues with the gameplay itself, I'm beyond tired of the whole individual “operator” gameplay that's plagued every shooter for the past decade or so. Not every shooter - modern or otherwise - needs distinctive hero characters with their own special abilities. Real militaries don’t function that way. And while it may be to make the game more fun, it doesn't make it more diverse because every shooter under the sun lately appears to be copying what is quickly becoming the same old tired formula.
The over-the-top speed fiend gameplay also needs to be left behind as it's too reminiscent of later Call of Duty titles. Incredibly fast-paced twitchy shooter gameplay should be reserved for the more arcadey shooters, but even the more sci-fi games usually steer clear of such action. This design choice results in tonal whiplash when compared to the Black Hawk Down expansion, a more gritty and realistic portion of the game.
But it’s not all rough edges; there’s a glimpse of something stronger in the Black Hawk Down expansion and it did hit different. Instead of trying to juggle large-scale battles and scripted intensity, it narrows the focus. Missions feel tighter, more grounded, and the sense of danger is immediate. Enemies push harder, the firefights are chaotic but manageable, and the difficulty spike forces you to slow down and think about every move. It’s punishing at times, but in a way that adds weight to the action instead of making it feel hollow.
That's part of the reason the game as a whole feels jarring. You have your slower, more methodical story that is tighter in scope and based more in realism, but it feels like it's an afterthought because it’s an add-on. On the other side of the same coin, you have the breakneck pace of the multiplayer with its jumping, sliding, and diving, all in a bid to outdo the opponent. Both of these call back to previous CoDs with a more grounded campaign paired with a twitch-shooter multiplayer.
One more thing that personally rubs me the wrong way, though you're entitled to disagree, is that the devs intentionally made the choice to push the console release even further back to port the game to mobile first. Now, I'm sure the devs had their reasons, whether it's orders from higher ups or they want to cash in on the mobile market cash cow, but I don't think it's a very good reason, whatever it may be. Not that it matters. It's a F2P live service shooter in a market already oversaturated with them. Whether it continues to grow and retain an audience or die out and join the great live service hellscape is anyone's guess. We'll see in due time.
There’s also a stronger atmosphere with the Black Hawk Down campaign. I threw myself into the first mission after messing around on the MP for a while and found it to be more enjoyable overall. The setting of Mogadishu gives the missions a distinct identity, and the close-quarters combat adds a constant edge. And for the first time, I felt like the game knew what it wanted to be a demanding, boots-on-the-ground shooter that isn’t afraid to test you. It feels less like a copy of CoD or Battlefield and more like its own experience, even if that experience is tough as nails.
After an hour, my takeaway is split: the base game struggles to find its footing, stuck between two titans it can’t quite match. But Black Hawk Down shows there’s something here when Delta Force stops imitating and leans into its own identity. It’s challenging, distinct, and far more compelling… just enough that I’m tempted to come back to it down the line to see if it does improve and change my mind.
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