A Decent Concept?
For those of you who don’t know: most good PC
shooters are built from some variation of the Quake, Unreal or
Lithtech programs [engines]. (Lithtech was most recently used in
No One Lives Forever 2) Sometimes a development team will go off
on their own, and perhaps achieve some mild success, (the Project
IGI franchise is a good example of this) but most are quickly
forgotten.
I have never been a big fan of Novalogic’s
Delta Force series. The DF license is burned into my mind
with the kind of sub-par graphics and gameplay typical of a no-name
engine. All of this lame action was excused by many because of the
tactical simulation aspect, but I found it to be more boring than
the Rainbow Six series. (note to Clancy: a game engine that
old needs to be put out to pasture.) Regardless of its inadequacies,
DF has obviously had some kind of following because a third
sequel has recently hit store shelves – Delta Force: Black Hawk
Down.
Black Hawk Down was a great movie. There
is something compelling about watching soldiers of the worlds
largest and most disciplined military force go head-to-head with
third-world militia. Making movies and video games about recent
military encounters in which American boys lost their lives may be
in questionable taste… The insatiable appetite for this type of
real-life conflict will inevitably drive most of us to buy the DVD,
the T-shirt, the coffee mug and the [not] officially licensed video
game.
So let’s recap: A mediocre game franchise makes
a game based on recent and sensitive events in a very depressing
part of the world. In the end, though… it makes for one hell of a
cool game.
It’s Like War… With a Quicksave!
The missions on BHD may (or may not) be
based on missions fought during the Mogadishu conflict of the
1990’s… Let’s face it though, the actual events of the Black Hawk
Down incidents outlined in the movie of the same title would
make for a pretty lousy video game. The game developers spice it up
by breaking the action up into a bunch of bite size missions,
incorporating a limited number of gameplay elements. Eventually you
will encounter missions in which you are required to rescue the
crews from a downed Black Hawk helicopter, but it’s a very minute
part of a larger and more robust package.
One of the first things you’ll notice is the
‘on rails’ aspect of this game. About one-third of the gameplay will
take place at the trigger of a machine gun mounted on a Hummer, (the
military variety, not the dinky yellow deals all of the soccer moms
are sporting these days) or a Black Hawk chopper. Occasionally you
will use your rifle while riding on the skid of a ‘little bird’
helicopter. These portions of the game are (for the most part)
enjoyable, breaking up the action on the ground and providing for
some very cinematic trips above an active battleground. The only
serious flaw in these portions of gameplay is the presence of very
elusive enemy soldiers sporting rocket propelled grenades. The paths
of the RPGs are pre-scripted, which means the pattern of hits and
misses never changes – this leads to a series of trial-and-error
sessions, which end only when the location of every lethal RPG are
discovered and accurately neutralized.
When not at the helm of a vehicle-mounted
machine gun, the action switches to a no-nonsense FPS formula.
Weapon choices are remarkably varied for a military simulation (of
sorts), and include variants of the AR-15 design (with or without
M203 grenade launchers), Support fire weapons (notably the M249 SAW
and M60 machine gun), a silenced submachine gun, and several sniper
options (including the ridiculously powerful Barrett M82 .50
caliber). Basic sidearms and a shotgun make up the secondary weapon
selection, satchel charges, mines and LAW rockets make up special
ordinance. Flashbangs and frag grenades are standard issue and need
not be selected.
With such a plethora of realistic weapons, I
still found myself running out of ammo and wishing I could pick up
an AK-47. You can’t. This means that most players will likely load
up a previous saved game and set their rifle to semi-automatic to
conserve precious ammo. I realize that picking up the enemies’
weapons is not a standard practice of the U.S. military, but I’m
pretty sure our boys would resort to firing a Kalashnikov before
whipping out his combat knife to take on enemy infantry.
Urban combat is (somewhat) faithfully recreated
in BHD. Jumping out into an open street without first
clearing opposing forces on the surrounding buildings will result in
a quick death. Clearing rooms is difficult, but it becomes very
enjoyable once the player learns to use the right tools at the right
time. In sharp contrast, the open desert provides for some
interesting long-range combat.
All is not all peaches and cream in virtual
Somalia. There are some balancing issues that become evident after
only a few minutes of gameplay, namely the remarkably stupid AI.
Enemy soldiers will often stand around doing nothing in a firefight,
and will occasionally just decide to run circles around an intended
target. Friendly AI is equally stupid, but considerably more
frustrating. It really sucks when you fail a mission while ten steps
shy of your extraction LZ because your support team decides to gun
down a gaggle of civilians to kill one enemy (who was oblivious to
your presence anyway). Your buddies also have a tendency to wait
directly behind you while you single-handedly take on mobs of armed
Somalis, only to run out in front of your line of fire as you clean
up the last enemy… again causing you to fail the mission.
One other strange issue is the fact that a
‘technical’ (pickup trucks with mounted machine guns) will blow up
by simply shooing the driver. Given the complete lack of any kind of
effective armor, the enemy forces are often reduced to groups of
fish in barrels, with the occasional (and instantly lethal) RPG
thrown in for good measure.
The saved game system uses a quicksave button
only, tied to a limited number of saves, the number of saves is
determined by the difficulty of the level in question. One curious
aspect of the save system is the complete lack of a load/save menu
option. I could only get the saved games to appear after starting
fresh on a given level and jumping up and down on a pile of my own
frag grenades. There appears to be a button to access these saved
games before starting a specific level, but it always seems to be
grayed out. It’s a minor gripe, but noteworthy – as those without
NASA grade supercomputers are in for some pretty long load times.
Gorgeous Gore
A new age of graphics technology is upon us,
and DF:BHD is no slouch. Players with a 64meg DX8 compatible
video card (or better) are in for a real treat. For starters;
friendly player models are highly detailed, right down to rolling
eyeballs and realistic ‘combat glide’ animations. Textures on most
environmental surfaces are also very detailed, and the geometric
complexity is on par with the current generation of popular FPS
engines.
Water effects are impressive to say the least.
Real-time reflections are stunning at times, and cause little or no
discernable framerate hit by themselves. The skewed vision of
objects beyond the surface (while underwater) is equally impressive.
The surface of the water is well animated, and lacks the common
‘tiled’ look from high in the air. Chopper wake on the surface of
the water is the best I’ve seen thus far.
Lens flares are done nicely and the night
vision effect is great, if your video card supports the necessary
features, otherwise you’ll be treated to a pixel-fest. (woohoo!)
This game is a prime example of how utilizing new graphics
technology can serve to isolate those who have not recently upgraded
their hardware.
Lens flare and realistic water aside, all of
this graphical splendor does not come without a price. Those of you
with older technology will enjoy a muddy slideshow, last years top
of the line will just barely be able to cut the mustard at higher
detail levels. This can be a serious drag, as killing friendly
soldiers or too many Somali civilians will result in a mission
failure, and possible targets will often need to be engaged from a
distance. Suffice it to say, if your resolution is low and textures
are dumbed down, distinguishing a dirty Somali from a dirty Somali
with a rifle can be tricky.
The problem of target identification is
countered by the excellent animations found throughout this game.
Militiamen will fire their rifles from the hip, or at arms-length
like you’d expect from a gang of glorified thugs with little
military training. Civilians will cower and throw rocks at you…
thankfully the rocks do no real damage, as gunning down too many of
these geniuses will result in a mission failure (I know that one
first hand).
Audio
Guns sound good, voice acting is decent, and
explosions give a satisfying thud. There really isn’t anything going
on here that you wouldn’t expect from a war game… with the exception
of some really awful pseudo-metal guitar riffs at tense moments.
Final Digs
Kudos to Novalogic for abandoning their
‘tactical’ ideas in favor of a solid, good looking shooter. There
are some balance issues to contend with, but in the end none of that
really matters. The gritty feeling portrayed throughout the game is
genuine, and the action is intense. While Novalogic could have
slapped the Black Hawk Down name on a cheesy Quake 2
mod and sold a bazillion copies, they decided to take the high road
and produce a quality game.
