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It's been a week since Black Hawk Down went live, and since then, I've dedicated around 11 hours to completing this campaign. Although this DLC can be enjoyed on its own, its similarities and references to the 2001 movie it so faithfully reimagines make it more lively. Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down was released more than two decades ago, so I decided to rewatch it for the third time just before the campaign dropped. And boy, did that decision pay off.
This campaign took me on a journey through the hostile streets of Mogadishu in a way that felt familiar. Even though I knew what was going to happen throughout every chapter, the way Team Jade presented all the objectives and the iconic scenes still gave me goosebumps.
The Black Hawk Down campaign fell short in a few aspects and broke my immersion severely. However, considering that this entire DLC was free, I decided to take a step back and examine these flaws as if they were the final coat of polish missing from a freshly painted car.
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Black Hawk Down recaptures the essence of its namesake movie
Delta Force Black Hawk Down focuses on the events that transpired when Team Delta, along with several other US and UN military forces, took General Aidid's consultants hostage but lost two Black Hawk helicopters to the hostile militia in the area.
The story showcases the valor of all the troops who were ready to do whatever it took to rescue their allies. This campaign gives a tiny glimpse of the massive hurdles and innumerable hostile forces that stood between Team Delta and survival.
Being familiar with the scenes of the Ridley Scott movie, I could enjoy all the dialogue and the characters' familiar faces. It made me feel as if I was living a version of the movie as a Team Delta member myself. It felt as if Lt. McKnight was communicating with me, as if SGT. Eversmann was requesting my help, as if COL. Harrell was giving me directions and guiding me through the battlefield.
Black Hawk Down's map was small in scale but lively in nature
The campaign is a visual spectacle, and several subtle design choices made the maps feel alive. Although the entire playable map is not large in any way and has quite a few repeated areas, they didn't fail to impart a sense of hostility at every corner.
The map had subtle nods to the movie at every major juncture the chapters headed toward. From the white informant's vehicle parked in front of a building close to the Olympic Hotel to the crossroad where Super Six-One crashed surrounded by several high-rise buildings, every chapter vividly re-enacted the precarious conditions and iconic settings Team Delta had to face.
My one primary complaint with the maps is that they aren't on par with the scale I experienced in 2003's Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. Not only did the missions in the old title include events that transpired much before the hostage capture and helicopter crashes, it also included an overdramatized ending that included the capture of General Aidid.
Most those missions are missing in this DLC campaign. At this point, this is just me nitpicking since the campaign was already stated to be a reboot of the movie alone. However, seeing the passion that fuels Team Jade, I feel as if a remaster of the 2003 title would also have lived up to the expectations that were set by this campaign.
Also read: How long is the Delta Force Black Hawk Down campaign?
Black Hawk Down character classes were somewhat unconventional
When I first set foot in the new campaign, I was greeted with a simplistic character selection screen that was followed by a gear selection menu. Although there are four different classes of characters, they don't feel unique as per their traits. What distinguished them for me was the choice of certain weapons and attachments. This was something new to me since I am used to playing the multiplayer mode in Delta Force, where each class just has its own specific traits.
However, I never found myself at a loss for proper gear in any of the roles, thanks to the flexible loadouts. What set the classes apart were the unique weapon choices that my duo and I found interesting. For example, the support class offered the LMG with 1000 bullets, while the SMG and Shotgun were available to the Medic only.
Before each and every mission, I found myself gauging the kind of obstacles I was going to face and the estimated time that my team and I would be deployed in that situation. Even after considering these main factors, I always kept my gun in semi-automatic mode to conserve ammo and took every corner and approach slowly to conserve my med packs.
Period-accurate weapons and limited resources enhance Black Hawk Down's experience
Using a rifle in semi-automatic mode gave me quite an immersive feeling, like I was a member of Team Delta on deployment. I thoroughly enjoyed having limited resources as it promoted strict teamwork. I also often found myself using the in-game mic to communicate with my teammates on how we should approach an objective and when we should redistribute our resources.
One of the best things about Black Hawk Down is the way characters exchange ammunition and med packs. The animation feels highly realistic and period-accurate for what it accomplishes. It feels quite intentional because the resources you offer your teammates don't just spawn out of thin air.
You intentionally part with a bit of your own ammo or medpacks to assist your teammates. Throughout the chapters, I found myself repeating to my teammates, "No one gets left behind."
Also read: Delta Force campaign leaderboard challenge: all rewards and how to obtain
Black Hawk Down has great visual fidelity but leaves more to desire
I loved the graphical fidelity Team Jade offered with this campaign. The environment textures, particle effects, bloom effects, god rays, etc. made me stand still for a while and gawk at the absolute beauty in front of me. The flashlight created dynamic shadows as I cleared out every corner of a building. The marvelous lumen effects and global illuminations felt so immersive that I was forced to play the game with my room lights off during night missions.
Even so, I have a few complaints here, which are far from nitpicking. Hanging fabrics moving in the wind felt like they were running at five frames per second. The movement was fluid, but the terrible animation frame rate gave me an ick. Additionally, the missing textures on certain doors made them look flat and stick out like sore thumbs. I have the game installed on a decent SSD, so I don't expect to encounter missing textures at all.
Black Hawk Down's difficulty is extremely controversial
I would first like to distinguish myself as a player who thoroughly enjoyed the extreme difficulty. Having spent the entire previous year devoting my leisure hours to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree and Dark Souls Remastered, this campaign scratched that souls-like itch in a shooter I never would've imagined possible.
What is stirring this controversy among the player base is the sheer number of hostile units we encounter in each chapter, all of them spawning in the same spot. While I agree that the number of enemy militia I had to take out was absurdly high, I would much rather have it stay this way, even if I present this point as a complaint. After all, Team Delta was deployed in a far-away country, outnumbered by the locals.
As for the enemies spawning in the exact same spot, I don't remember complaining about this in the earliest Delta Force games, where I could entirely script my playthrough. It is the same here in Black Hawk Down. Something I enjoyed about the enemy movements was that if I chose to ignore some militia, some of them would come back to flank me. Having to worry about my back and asking a teammate to cover for me was thoroughly exciting.
One of the main reasons Delta Force Black Hawk Down can be a bit of a pain for casual/arcade-shooter players is the injury system. If a hostile shoots your leg while you're out in the open, consider yourself dead since your injured leg will hinder your movement. This campaign uses the injury system we can find in the Operations mode, which helps Team Jade control the DLC's pace to some extent.
The ruthless hostiles hiding in corners waiting to ambush you, launching RPGs in your vicinity, and throwing grenades in your hiding spots just make the experience vivid and hardcore. I started PC gaming with Delta Force 1, and FPS was my first game genre. I have enough trust that my aim is true, and one bullet in the head is all I need to take someone out. This is primarily one of the main reasons I, as an FPS veteran, enjoyed having to sweat so much in order to finish a mission.
Black Hawk Down requires quite a bit of work in the optimization department
This DLC campaign was designed to be a visual spectacle, which made Team Jade resort to Unreal Engine 5. However, the game's multiplayer modes run in Unreal Engine 4. This made me wonder how the developers will handle deploying two separate engines for one game before the campaign's release.
What eventually came out was a main menu and chapter selection screen that opens in the base game (UE4), while the character and gear selection menu is handled by a completely separate and new game instance (UE5). What created additional problems is the fact that the base game continuously runs in the background while this new UE5 game instance is up and running.
The way this should've been handled would be to give the campaign a separate launch option in the Delta Force game launcher. While the seamless switching between the three primary game modes would be hampered by this, I would much rather have a separate UE5 game instance than run both and unfairly stress my CPU.
Even with all these problems, Delta Force Black Hawk Down ran fairly well on my system, which has the following specifications:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700x3D (4.1Ghz with -10 Curve on 8C|16T)
- GPU: AMD RX 7700 XT (3000Mhz core and 2514Mhz memory)
- Memory: G.Skill 32GB DDR4 (3200MT/s CL16)
- Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB M.2 NVME (Gen.4)
Even though this isn't a top-end system by any means, I was able to run Delta Force Black Hawk Down at 100 fps average with all settings on Ultra, no anti-aliasing, no upscaling, and no frame generation at 1080p. However, I'm convinced I can squeeze out quite a few more frames, thanks to my X3D chip, once the campaign gets a solo launch option.
In conclusion
Overall, there were many areas where Black Hawk Down exceeded my expectations, and there were several segments where I was let down. However, I am an avid fan of the franchise. When I first found out about Team Jade's plan to reboot this iconic title, it gave me a lot of hope. While I will say I would've enjoyed a few changes here and there, this new DLC campaign in its current state doesn't give me much room to complain.
Receiving an entire reboot of the 2001 namesake movie for free was something I didn't expect. The multiplayer is already completely free, which made me feel like a premium campaign made using Unreal Engine 5 would make me open my wallet to spend $24.99 at the very least. If that were the case, I would have stressed more on the primary flaws that kept this DLC far from being perfect.
However, getting this kind of effort from the developers at Team Jade and not being able to pay them for their work feels somewhat unfair. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy free stuff just as much as the next guy. However, being a huge fan of the movie, the experience I received playing the game for 11 hours is something I would've never imagined I would be receiving for free.
As I slowly pen down my first game review, I get flashbacks of all the moments across various chapters that gave me goosebumps and made me feel like a prestigious part of Team Delta. Every human has some flaws; it's what gives them certain characteristics and personalities. While that definitely isn't the case for a game, I'm more than willing to recommend Black Hawk Down to FPS veterans, even in its current somewhat flawed state. Especially if they've watched the movie.
Delta Force Black Hawk Down
Reviewed on: Windows PC (Steam commercial copy)
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, App Store, Google Play Store
Developer(s): Team Jade
Publisher(s): TiMi Studio Group
Release Date: February 21, 2025
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