Delta Force 2

"Horribly dated."

Ever since my newfound love for First Person Shooters arose, I haven't been to stingy when it comes to what gets installed on my computer. I purchased this game bargain value, so I didn't really care what curve balls it threw at me. As long as it had acceptable playing mechanics that I can just sit down and fiddle with for a few minutes, it would have been a great ten dollars spent.

This game gave me something I'm too familiar with PC gaming-- stealth. The new look and feel intrigued me. I especially liked the first mission; the environments were spanning; the snow gently blanketing the already covered arctic ground, the mountains surrounding you and your foes in one huge battleground of small hills. It was truly a site to see and experience.

Basically, all thirty of these ''Quick Missions'' include environments such as that. Different climates such as deserts and forests pop up, yes, but the overall idea is basically the same for all. This just might be DF2's first mistake. All missions are horribly bland after about the tenth, and the small sub-missions you set out to do (such as assassinating a certain individual, or escorting an important witness) are not worth wading through thirty missions for.

Before each mission, you are even able to totally customize your gear. Add in a bulletproof vest. Don't like the pistol or rifle they gave you as default? Choose a more high-power gun. It's something I haven't seen too much in gaming.

Though the game does feature a wide arsenal of weaponry, the main firearm you are going to be using throughout most of the game is some sort of sniper rifle. There are also close-up combat weapons such as Pistols, Machine Guns, and even knives for when the occasion arises. But if you're smart, you are going to want to stay a good distance away from any enemies. Not only is the AI incredibly stupid (which I'll explain later), it’s ruthless when it comes to attacking in mass forces.

Like I said, AI is stupid. I'm not quite sure what NovaLogic was aiming for when it came to intelligence, but it appears that they never once contemplated a sturdy AI system. Seriously, when you're shooting sniper bullets at some unsuspecting terrorists, they wake up and, honest to god, run around in circles until you finally put a bullet in their head. The only time they seem to fire is when you're standing up, and they're even easier to sharp shoot out when they're in that laughable aiming position.

Since the games overall general idea is sniper rifle bullet barrages, I'm sure that anyone could have programmed a helpful tracer bullets system. No. While running round in circles trying to dodge bullets while you're trying to spot where those bloody terrorists are shooting from, you see barely visible flickers of yellow lines zooming about around you. After you finally get the foe in your crosshairs, a guy that came from an area you thought you exterminated comes and pistols you. Frustrating.

Not all the game is poorly programmed; the HUD (or Heads up Display) is necessary and helpful when you are lost in the huge worlds. A small, helpful (and impressive looking) mini-map locked in the corner, and transmission displays telling you where to go next in these huge levels.

I guess the first thing that bugged me was the horrendously constructed online game play. I don't know where it started; the poor menu presentation, or the when the game drops you into a German server where constant lag is ramped, and you see clear-as-day hackers fly off into the sky with their invisible jetpacks.

The back of the videogame box rarely fools me; I know my system requirements when I see them. And when I saw that a 32-bit 3D Hardware Accelerator card was recommended, I thought I was going in a world of high-resolution textures, quick and fluid character animations, and gorgeous surroundings detailed right down to the last swaying weed. I was suckered over, badly. When playing the game, I was literally laughing in my seat seeing how much the game managed to not take advantage of my '32-bit 3D Hardware Accelerator card.' Basically everything is just poor in color palette and grainy in looks. Supposedly, by pressing 'H', the game transfers into ''Turbo Mode'' on the fly. Turbo consists of turning the grass, snow, or sand around you into a bug smudgy mess. Buildings or anything in the distance have no noticeable changes.

Despite the visuals being disappointing, DF2 fares well audio wise. Music is practically non-existent, except for the pseudo US NAVYs theme chiming while you're navigating through the menus. Though the gun shots are uninspired and don't even sound like their true counter-parts, it really would have no effect even if the shots were dynamic or not in sound after you've noticed the game's down-falls.

Delta Force 2 was a game I enjoyed for the first few missions, but once you pick up on the flawed game mechanics, and all around repetitiveness of doing all the missions, I just couldn't see myself sitting and playing this game for a large amount of time. -Shin (8/20/02)

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/03, Updated 06/05/03