Delta Force has a long and storied history that I really didn’t know about. With roots dating all the way back to the 90s, Delta Force was a tactical shooter franchise developed by NovaLogic. THQ acquired the rights to Delta Force after NovaLogic closed, and now it looks like the same rights have been transferred to Level Infinite.
This week at Summer Game Fest 2024, I had the opportunity to sit down with Level Infinite and Team Jade to learn all about how the company is reviving this classic shooter franchise for modern audiences while still paying homage to its legacy. This is Delta Force: Hawk Ops, a free-to-play, fully cross-platform shooter with a variety of game modes and loads of ambition.
Team Jade has extensive shooter experience stemming from the hugely successful Call of Duty Mobile, among other games, but this is the first time, as far as I can tell, that the team has created something with such broad cross-platform aspirations. Indeed, Delta Force: Hawk Ops is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Android and iOS along with cross-play (via typing), cross-progression, premium story mode add-on, on top of free multiplayer. The developers even boasted to me that they optimized the game so much that you can run it on a GTX 480.
In a world with mountains of competitive shooters, Team Jade certainly has their work cut out for them, but I can attest that they seem to have completely nailed the gameplay of Delta Force, especially as a huge Battlefield fan. That’s why Delta Force: Hawk Ops rises to my list of most anticipated games for Xbox and upcoming games for PC in equal measure.
What if Call of Duty and Battlefield had a baby, with a deeper emphasis on sim tactical gameplay?
Delta Force: Hawk Ops reminded me how easy it is sometimes to slip into a “gaming bubble” and not know that entire franchises and games even exist. Delta Force is a hugely successful classic franchise in its own right, but this carefully crafted reboot already has a lot of buzz behind it in mobile gaming communities, with trailers tracking millions of views. I want to be clear that I haven’t experienced the original titles, but this is largely from the perspective of someone who usually plays classic Call of Duty and Battlefield modes. As a fan of both, I was incredibly pleased with what Team Jade had to offer here.
The build I played was in early alpha, so some bugs were to be expected, but even now it feels incredibly polished and visually stunning. The game is built on the Unreal Engine — but you honestly wouldn’t know it. Team Jade really put on a masterclass in how to shape the Unreal Engine to achieve a very unique feel that incorporates the speed of Call of Duty while still maintaining the class traditions of the original Delta Force games.
For my first experience, I was treated to a familiar attack/defend mode that Battlefield players will no doubt find familiar. It’s a large-scale 64-player war full of vehicular combat. I wasn’t able to get my hands on a vehicle in the demo build, but I was able to play around with various operators, their tools and weapons.
The game is set in a modern yet almost futuristic world of war where robotics and drones are more common. One operator gadget I had was a group of mini drones that would fly to an area and emit a suppression field, helping to choke enemy lines. Another gadget I had was basically a healing weapon that allowed you to shoot players with darts that would keep their hit points high.
What intrigues me most about I feel it of Delta Force: Hawk Ops was the way the game felt somewhat like a mix of Call of Duty and Battlefield. The time to kill (TTK) and movement feel is certainly something I’d more easily compare to Call of Duty, with a quickness I’d expect from Activision’s flagship shooter. However, the sheer scale of the maps, the satisfying killzones, and the inter-squad gameplay are certainly more reminiscent of Battlefield. Dropping ammo crates, health packs, healing teammates, laying down suppressive fire, and those epic dead ends are exactly what I would normally look for in a Battiefleid title, and Team Jade did it incredibly well.
I only had time to try out one map during my time with the game, but it hit me with Battlefield Bad Company 2 vibes, right down to the silenced VSS rifle as I weaved in crisp headshots in the theater of battle.
There are mountains of Call of Duty and Battlefield clones on the market, especially on mobile. However, I think it would be a disservice to Delta Force: Hawk Ops to count him among them. It’s clear that there’s some Call of Duty Mobile expertise fueling the feel of the game, along with inspiration from large-scale combat sims like Battlefield, but they coalesce into something that ultimately feels unique in its own right. However, Delta Force: Hawk Ops has a lot more to it than the Battlefield-like Havoc mode.
Free to play with cross-progression on mobile, Xbox, PC and more
As I mentioned, Delta Force: Hawk Ops is a truly cross-platform shooter. It offers full cross-platform play and progression, including literally every single modern platform. Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation, Android and iOS, all on one engine, with the same gameplay feel. That’s a pretty impressive feat, especially when you realize it’s all running on Unreal Engine as well.
I have some preconceived notions about how Unreal Engine usually feels and plays, and Team Jade completely shattered that with Delta Force: Hawk Ops. In fact, the developers told me that the game is so optimized that it will even run on PC GPUs from over a decade ago. However, the version I played was running on a higher-end PC and looked pretty stunning.
Generally speaking, players will not be forced to compete in unfair matches. Touch control players will be bundled with other touch control players, for example, although it remains to be seen how well input detection works in practice. Battlefield 2042 can be particularly annoying on this side, lumping players with mouse and keyboard and controllers into the same lobbies. I guess it’s not an easy problem to solve, but it’s worth mentioning that Team Jade has taken this into consideration.
However, you will keep all your unlocks, purchases, skins, and the like when you switch from PC to console to mobile, with the same user account. This will truly be a shooter that you can pick up on the go and continue your progress anywhere, much like titles like Fortnite. I foresee the future of shooters going down this platform-agnostic path, with games like Delta Force: Hawk Ops at the fore if it lands as the team intends.
Delta Force: Hawk Ops’ microtransactions will be purely cosmetic, the team assures me, thankfully. The game will be free-to-play in multiplayer in all its modes, but Team Jade is also building a premium campaign mode, which is a completely remastered version of Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, inspired by the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu incident.
Can Delta Force: Hawk Ops compete with the heavies?
I’m a little intrigued as to what the final product of Delta Force: Hawk Ops will look like. It’s hard for me to ignore the fact that some of the environmental destruction and vehicular combat detailed in the game’s trailers wasn’t actually present or prevalent in the demo I played. There were also various bugs and stressors, including bulging collision boxes that prevented bullets from connecting with their targets, for example. I’m sure Team Jade will address these types of issues before the final release in the future, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
One thing I’m not worried about is Delta Force’s overarching gameplay loop, which felt incredibly satisfying from every angle. Intense shooting, satisfying effects, a wide variety of gadgets and strategies, in addition to an abundance of game modes, should give Delta Force: Hawk Ops the influence it needs to compete with the big boys. I can’t wait to see where it all goes.
