The long-awaited Black Hawk Down campaign has finally been released for Delta Force, and despite initial concerns and red flags, it’s now available as a free-to-play DLC. This review examines why it’s currently sitting at a mostly negative 35% rating on Steam, and whether those criticisms are justified based on several hours of gameplay experience.
Visual Quality vs. Performance
One of the most striking aspects of Black Hawk Down is its visual fidelity. Built on Unreal Engine 5 (unlike the base multiplayer game which uses Unreal Engine 4), it’s described as “one of the best looking shooters” in recent memory. The environments feature impressive details like debris, rebar, and construction clutter that create realistic and immersive settings. Night missions with flashlights are particularly atmospheric.
However, this visual quality comes at a significant performance cost. Even on high-end hardware (RTX 4080, 64GB RAM, 12900K), the game suffers from wildly inconsistent frame rates, sometimes dipping to 20 FPS. As with many Unreal Engine 5 titles, performance optimization appears inadequate, making the experience potentially unplayable on lower-end systems.
Technical Implementation Issues
The DLC’s implementation is bizarrely convoluted. Players must:
- Boot up the base Delta Force game
- Form a squad
- Select a mission
- Hit start, which then launches a separate Black Hawk Down application
This clunky launcher-within-a-launcher approach has been widely criticized and contributes to performance problems.
Missing Core Features
Despite being visually advanced, the campaign lacks fundamental FPS mechanics:
- No melee attacks (despite being available in the base multiplayer)
- Unable to pick up enemy weapons
- Cannot scavenge ammo from dead enemies
- No offline play option
These omissions make the game feel dated and frustrating, especially when enemies can perform melee attacks on players who have no counter options.
Hardcore Gameplay Design
The campaign is intentionally hardcore, featuring:
- No checkpoints (mission failures mean starting over)
- Limited ammunition with no resupplies
- Team-based class system requiring coordination
- Necessity for proper resource management
While these design choices create tension and encourage teamwork, they also make the game nearly impossible for solo players, as enemy encounters are clearly balanced for a full squad of four.
Bugs and Enemy Spawning Issues
Multiple bugs were encountered during gameplay, including:
- Players getting stuck in the environment
- Weird spectating issues
- Various other technical glitches
Enemy spawning logic is particularly problematic, with enemies sometimes materializing directly behind players in cleared rooms or spawning on top of the squad when one player triggers a spawn point.
Conclusion
Delta Force: Blackhawk Down offers some genuinely enjoyable moments when played with friends, featuring high-quality cinematics and visually impressive environments. However, its technical issues, missing features, and implementation problems indicate a rushed release.
The reviewer suggests that with post-launch support to address performance problems and add quality-of-life improvements, the campaign could reach its potential. Since it’s free, it’s worth trying with a group of friends, but players should set appropriate expectations.
The final recommendation: “Get three other friends together, everybody download it and jump in, and just go in knowing that it’s not perfect.” If approached with zero expectations, players might find an enjoyable, if flawed, cooperative shooting experience.
