We plunged into the Battle of Mogadishu in the story DLC. In single player, it turns out to be a complete disaster, in co-op, a tightrope walk on the edge of frustration.
With Black Hawk Down, the third and final pillar of the new Delta Force has now been released: the story campaign is intended to complete the package of Warfare multiplayer (essentially a Battlefield Light) and Operations mode (essentially an Escape from Tarkov Light).
And like the rest of the package, Black Hawk Down is now Free2Play, contrary to all expectations and forecasts – the DLC is available for download at no extra cost, but requires the installation of the main game.
But that shouldn’t be the only surprise. Because if you expect a real single-player mode, you will be bitterly disappointed by Black Hawk Down.
What about the multiplayer test?
At the start of the open beta in December 2024, we tested the 64-player multiplayer mode – but have not yet given a final rating. Extraction mode has not been included in our test procedure so far.
This is not Iraq, it’s much more complicated here
Black Hawk Down tells the story of the classic film of the same name by Ridley Scott in seven chapters. Accordingly, the setting changes from the rather futuristic battlefields of the main game to Mogadishu in 1993. Here is a brief impression:
As in the original, a UN peacekeeping mission escalates and merciless fighting breaks out between Somali militia and a force made up of Army Rangers and Delta Force. The references to the movie are ubiquitous: places and operational procedures have been recreated one-to-one in some cases, and all cutscenes are precisely recreated scenes.
In contrast to the original Black Hawk Down game by NovaLogic, this is set in just one location: there are no missions involving vehicles in the Iraqi desert, sabotage missions in old Soviet bunkers or arrests of Colombian drug barons like in the original game.
Colonel, they’re shooting at us
Instead, we fight our way as an elite soldier through the dusty streets of the Somali capital and complete a linear sequence of mission objectives – although Delta Force occasionally offers us generous freedom of movement within the levels, at its core it is as scripted as a CoD campaign.
The same applies to the playing time: after about three to four hours, Black Hawk Down is theoretically over again. Or would be over if we didn’t bite the dust very regularly and have to start all over again due to the lack of checkpoints. And that happens often.
Because unlike in Call of Duty, two or three hits, regardless of caliber, are already directly fatal And that applies not only to the enemies, who appear in droves, but also to our character! So, due to the lack of an adjustable difficulty level, every gunfight could potentially be our last.
This automatically forces us to adopt a methodical and coordinated approach. Together with the relatively low movement speed, Black Hawk Down sometimes feels like a hardcore shooter and brings back memories of Six Days in Fallujah or Ready or Not.
Delta guys, you need to learn how to play as a team!
But while these titles always provide us with AI teammates when we play alone, in Black Hawk Down we become an involuntary one-man army
And that’s when Black Hawk Down becomes an absolute nightmare: While we desperately try to fend off the absurd masses of enemies, we slowly but surely run out of ammunition and bandages. Backing? Supplies? Air support? Giving orders to companions? None of that here.
Enemies are relentlessly storming towards us with AKs, dozens of grenades are exploding all around us, and we receive the order via radio to kindly protect the vehicle convoy of four jeeps. We do this all by ourselves, because the AI soldiers of the army are purely for show and are only good as cannon fodder. They even stubbornly stay outside the door when a building is to be stormed.
Not only does the credibility of the setting fly out the window, but so does all the fun: after spending several hours on the first two missions alone, we switched to co-op – because Black Hawk Down is obviously made for that only. If you want to be successful in single player, you need nerves of steel, reflexes like Shroud himself and you shouldn’t even start with logic.
We are an elite unit, not a pathetic bunch of reservists
Black Hawk Down only unfolds its true potential with a reasonably full squad of three or, ideally, four well-coordinated players. And suddenly a completely different mood arises!
Instead of desperately fighting for survival, we absorb the dense atmosphere of war: The era-appropriate weapons such as the Colt M16A2 or the M249 SAW (all authentic with rear and front sight, of course, red dots were not yet common), rattle fully and satisfyingly, the hit feedback is powerful and comprehensible and the animations are full of detail. The passage at the droning minigun of a Black Hawk is pure adrenaline.
You call out enemy sniper positions to each other via voice chat, and medics share their supply of medkits if needed. This quickly creates an incredibly gripping sense of unity as you cautiously make your way through smoking ruins and confusing corrugated iron settlements.
At the same time, Black Hawk Down presents an atmospheric audiovisual picture: smoke rises ominously from blazing ruins, panicked radio messages mingle with machine-gun fire, and in night missions, tactical flashlights, tracer bullets, and magnesium grenades bathe the surroundings in ghostly light. Goosebumps!
“What happened to him?” “Missed the rope, sir,”
But even in co-op, cracks in the campaign’s design soon become apparent. Black Hawk Down is hard and challenging, but for the wrong reasons. Most of the time, the enemies behave extremely erratically and stupidly, but their sheer numbers make them a threat. In the very first mission alone, we blow more than 100 opponents out of the water single-handedly!
It gets even more frustrating when our opponents fire accurately through closed doors, spot us through walls and trigger the alarm, or simply spawn reinforcements in rooms that have already been cleared. Several times, we have meticulously searched a floor and were then attacked from behind in the stairwell – that costs a lot of atmosphere.
The placement of enemies is strictly defined, which means that if we try it multiple times, we will eventually just learn the positions of the AI by heart and thus trick the brutal difficulty level – certainly not in the sense of the inventor and absolutely poison for the replay value of the already short story.
Compared to games like Warhammer Darktide, Helldivers 2 or Left 4 Dead 2, where no mission is exactly the same, Black Hawk Down seems like an outdated relic from a time when we played shooters on rails.
Good imitation, I even recognize myself
The supposed tactical demands of Black Hawk Down also turn out to be largely a smokescreen. Instead, the developers have simply artificially increased the difficulty through questionable decisions. Here are a few questions that immediately come to mind:
- Why can opponents beat us up in a confined space, while we have no melee option at all (although there is a melee button in the main game)?
- Why are we presented with a diverse class system that ultimately only allows for minimal changes and includes a tiny selection of weapons?
- Why does the support class have to give away magazines from their own supply instead of drawing from a separate pool?
- Why can’t we pick up enemy weapons or rearm ourselves at US Army supply points despite our chronic lack of ammunition?
In terms of balance, Black Hawk Down is a disaster – whether in co-op or not. The fact that the system for inviting friends often doesn’t work despite the clear co-op focus and that performance can quickly falter even on monster PCs also speaks volumes.
Bottom line, the mission design is also relatively thin and, with its dramatic staging, it covers up the fact that there are only a few real opportunities for interaction, except for simply gunning down hordes of rebels.
Black Hawk Down doesn’t seem to have been thought through (and developed) to the end. With more time and resources, it might have become a worthy successor to the Delta Force games of yesteryear. As it is, it’s only enough as a small co-op snack for the particularly hardy.
Editor’s conclusion
There are many things I really like about Black Hawk Down. For example, the electrifying tension when I revive my buddy under time pressure while sniper bullets whiz around my ears and the mission timer shows 60 seconds remaining.
Or when I reload my M21 sniper rifle and my character realistically puts the not-quite-empty magazine back into the vest from a first-person view. The campaign is full of such small and large details and nerve-wracking moments.
Unfortunately, my nerves are also frayed when I have to completely restart this stupid Humvee mission for the seventh time because we overlooked a pickup truck with explosives at the last moment. Then Black Hawk Down feels old-fashioned – and not in a good way.
I will definitely not subject myself to the campaign again, either solo or in matchmaking with random people; in my opinion, you have to be masochistic to do that. However, I would definitely give it another go with a committed team that is determined to see it through.
Is this DLC an exciting challenge for ardent fans of merciless military shooters? Sure. Is it what most people would have hoped for in a new Delta Force campaign? Certainly not.
