Delta Force: Hawk Ops Alpha Review - Apathetic Towards It

Another day, another new game trying to break out into the spotlight. A couple of weeks ago I watched a video about a new up and coming shooter called Delta Force: Hawk Ops, and from the screenshots, little bits of gameplay and teaser footage that video showed, I was interested and wanted to check it out. On their steam page you could request access for their alpha test and so I did. Now here we are, the alpha is live and after playing the game for about 6 hours between the two different multiplayer modes, this game is definitely trying its best to cater to the audiences that go beyond just the normal arcade arena shooter enjoyers. The campaign wasn’t available to play, so that’ll most likely be there for the full release. If you’re a fan of Battlefield and the larger maps, more players and longer matches, you’ll most likely enjoy that mode with some friends in a squad just messing around and having fun. And if you are a fan of Tarkov, the extraction mode hits enough neurons in my brain that makes it feel both enjoyable and familiar while being different enough to not feel like a clone or copy. It has plenty of the same mechanics and elements as Tarkov, but they have their own flair to them that make it feel distinct. Objectively, you can enjoy both modes and have fun. Subjectively however, something about Delta Force: Hawk Ops feels... uninspired. Let’s talk about it.

Starting with the big team battle mode or Havoc Warfare, I played on two different maps and while their designs are interesting and look good, I mean the entire game’s fidelity is very high, their layouts for the mode don’t feel as though they are going to win any awards. The maps fulfill their purpose but don’t really take any risks. One side attacks the objectives, while the other defends and holds off the attackers until they run out of respawn tickets. If the attackers get both objectives, they push up the map and try to get the next two. Rinse and repeat until they capture all of them and win. I will say playing as the attackers at the start of a match is rough because there is very little effective cover, and you are trying to just find moments where the defenders have a weak spot in their defense and you can break through. It requires a decent amount of teamwork and coordination to find or create these moments and using the kit of all the different heroes is important for making progress. Making an offensive push on an objective and having it work, or being able to defend one sight by yourself against multiple waves of players, feels incredible to achieve. Again, it’s got that classic Battlefield style of moments that can only happen with a ton of players on a large map with vehicles and objectives to complete. But as it stands right now, after only a handful of games, which do take a while to complete to be fair, the magic of those moments fizzles out pretty quick. I’ve always had this issue in these games: I’m not usually one to go for vehicles so I end up being a foot soldier most of the time. And while running around and fighting other players is cool, I feel as though I don’t have a sense of purpose after a while. With a rifle, it boils down to run, shoot, die, respawn, repeat. Speaking of, this game does what modern BF games do and make you sit there waiting to be revived or choosing to bleed out instead of just immediately starting the respawn timer while still having the chance to be revived. I hate that so much; just put me back into the menu where I can choose my spawn point, and if a teammate is kind enough to revive me which they normally aren’t, I’ll spawn in. The sitting around seeing people run by you is so draining. Even if you get into it and maybe roleplay a little bit, that extra time doing literally nothing sucks. Wish this game didn’t have it. But other than that, the multiplayer is what you would expect from something trying to get that battlefield experience out of a multiplayer shooter. How does the extraction mode hold up?

Better than DMZ that’s for damn sure. No slight at that mode, but if the only thing I lose upon death is my weapon, you’ve already failed to grasp what makes an extraction shooter or any extraction game so compelling and that desire of wanting to come back for more. Luckily, that isn’t a problem here. You kit up with armor, a helmet, chest rig, weapons, ammo, medication; everything you might need to survive a raid. Although one change I noticed early on, is that instead of needing extra magazines to reload, you only need ammo. Which does make the whole experience a tad easier so you don’t have to manage your magazines. Kind of reminds me of vanilla Stalker where you only have to carry around extra ammo to be lethal. You can complete quests for rewards, fight bosses on the map, extract from multiple different locations requiring certain specific items like money or being under a certain weight. And you even have a hideout style base where you can spend resources found in the world to upgrade modules for new effects. It’s got everything you would need for a successful mode. Using the heroes that are in the multiplayer mode with their abilities available is an interesting choice. Not sure if it’s good or bad because it’s too early to tell, but still allows for an extra layer of combat and strategy. There’s already plenty of attachments on offer that are unlocked the more you play and level up, and also a handful of helmets, armor, rigs, and backpacks to choose from. Looting feels good; plain and simple. It’s similar to Tarkov with how you search through compartments to find the items you want to take, and there’s a secure container to permanently hold onto a few items. The AI aren’t stupid, take cover, move around, and are decently geared. They will kill you if you ignore them. And PvP feels good also. In my time, I've killed maybe five or six players, including a three-man which was intense. But that leads me to probably my main gripe with the extraction mode and the gameplay of Delta Force in general; it feels like a budget modern COD game.

This is going to sound stupid, but hear me out: look at the game, I mean really look at it. It looks familiar, right? It feels very reminiscent of Call of Duty post 2019. The way the gun moves on the screen, the reloading animations, the way your character aims down the weapon. We’ve played this before. I am NOT claiming that Delta Force stole from COD, not at all. This well is so dry you can’t really steal anything anymore. But it doesn’t have its own identity in that regard. No fancy or unique animations for each weapon, everything feels very stale and safe. That’s probably the best word to describe Delta Force: safe. It’s not bad, and I cannot stress that enough. It’s going to be free to play once it fully launches, and I am impressed at how polished the game is and the entire package as a whole: a campaign, big team battle mode, and an extraction mode. That’s a 60 or nowadays, $70 title right there by any other company. But maybe my brain is just broken. After my time in the game, until it’s out in 1.0, with all the modes, maps, features and the like in the game that they want for a day one release, I am kind of okay not playing it anymore. It’s so difficult to explain and articulate why I feel this way; the game is good. It has room to fill a niche that is being asked for by fans of shooter games. So why do I have this almost hostile stance against it? I think it boils down to the oversaturation of this market in general, but also the surface level presentation of the games world and characters.

The world while feeling alive and interesting with a cast of playable and non-playable characters that try to get you involved and to care in their plight feels kind of try hard if that makes any sense. Don’t get me wrong, the designs for the playable characters are cool, they feel unique to one another, are modern and have their own flares and personalities attached to them. But at the same time, they also feel like designs we have seen before in other games in one way or another. And I don’t find myself connecting with any of them sadly. Again, they’re not bad, but the characters kind of suffer from the same problem other parts of the game do: trying to get you to care further than a surface level. This game definitely goes out of its way to try to get you to care, and it’s commendable. Maybe I’m not being fair enough and am jaded from many different games in the past trying to do the same thing, or maybe I’m just being a butt head. In fact, I know I am being an asshole, but I can’t help how I feel. And what I felt after my time playing the game, was... nothing. No emotion, no desire to keep going and level up further in either mode. I really hope someone can understand where I am coming from and empathize with my plight and this game. For me, right now it’s hard to get invested to what is being presented. Maybe the campaign will help flush the operators out, maybe the full release with everything unlocked will also help, but right now. After my couple of play sessions, I’m good with this game.

I’m sorry. I want to apologize for sounding so negative about this game; this is so unlike me; I always want to give games a fair chance and see what it’s trying to achieve, what it wants the players to engage with, and how that can be extrapolated to an audience who haven’t played the game before. Delta Force: Hawk Ops is not bad by any means, and my intention isn't to shit on the game or the developers who have worked hard to create it. Please if you like what you are watching, request access to the alpha on steam, and hopefully you can get in and play. Or wait for the 1.0 release if you aren’t into early builds of games. But again, my visceral feeling towards Delta Force: Hawk Ops is I will pass for now. I’m hoping the full release will just have more content in terms of operators, guns, maps for both multiplayer modes, and maybe that will reinvigorate my desire to jump back in and grind the game out. But with the Tarkov wipe on the horizon as well as another alpha playtest I am actually extremely excited to hopefully get access to and play, I hope this game takes its time and releases when it’s ready. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. If you have played Delta Force, let me know your thoughts in the comments down below and be sure to subscribe for more videos that aren’t so negative towards a new and upcoming title with a lot of potential for when it goes 1.0. I hope to see you in future ones.