Delta Force: Hawk Ops is what Battlefield 2042 wishes it was, but it's still not perfect

There’s no point beating around the bush - the Battlefield games are not what they once were. The glory days of Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 are long since behind us, with much of the original DICE team moving on to other teams and projects, like Embark’s THE FINALS.

EA is still keeping the series alive, and a recent earnings call implies that it’s not out for the count yet. But while 2042 has its loyalists (including our very own EIC), there’s no doubt that the series has fallen from once great heights, and there’s certainly a gap in the market for team-based, all-out warfare FPS games.

Enter Delta Force: Hawk Ops, a rekindling of an early 2000s shooter that predates both Battlefield and Call of Duty. Developed by Team Jade and published by TiMi Studio Group (a subsidiary of Tencent), this modern take on the series has just entered its closed alpha test, and while the similarities to DICE’s franchise are obvious, it might just be the closest we’ve gotten to a fully-realised Battlefield game in over a decade.

What’s mine is yours

Let’s start with what Hawk Ops borrows from Battlefield because if I’m being honest, it’s a whole lot - squint your eyes at the game’s UI, and you’d be forgiven for mistaking it completely.

In the Havoc Warfare mode, two teams attack or defend a set of objective points that are captured by having soldiers within a capture zone. If the attackers manage to take them, then the frontline moves forward to another set, until the attacking team manages to capture the entire battlefield. Alternatively, the attackers lose if the defenders can whittle down their respawn tickets.

This is a carbon copy of Breakthrough, a mode that debuted in Battlefield 2042, but has evolved from the likes of Rush (a series staple). It even has the same number of players involved - two teams of 32. The mode is set across expansive maps, filled with verticality, intricate terrain, and even destructible buildings.

Throw in a bunch of vehicles, including tanks, LAVs, and helicopters with air-to-ground missiles, and the whole scene starts to become extremely Battlefield-esque. It’s even set in a similar time period of 2035, a short hop, skip, and jump away from 2042, and with similar post-present technology.

Delta Force also has its own set of Operators. Instead of traditional classes, Hawk Ops joins the hero shooter bandwagon in having multiple soldier characters, each with unique abilities. One assault-focused character boosts himself up with adrenaline for faster movement speed. Another support hero whips out a healing gun that can auto-target teammates and heal from afar. A recon character has a combat bow with sonar arrows, perfect for singling out enemies to your team.

Anything you can do, I can do better

While it’s clear where Team Jade has drawn its inspiration from, I doubt there’ll be many Battlefield fans complaining at such blatant borrowing - outside of EA boardrooms, that is. For the most part, Delta Force pulls off its imitation extremely well, and better than some of DICE’s most recent efforts in a lot of areas.

If we take the gunplay, for example, it feels almost like a cross between Call of Duty and Battlefield. It’s weighty but with a hint of arcade-ness about it, and taking down enemies feels incredibly satisfying for it. A touch of visual recoil adds an element of realism to it all, but with accurate tracers showing exactly where the bullet projectiles land, it makes the combat extremely readable.

Compliments have to be extended to the map design, too. The two that are currently available in the closed beta are sublime and call back to classics from the glory days of Battlefield. My personal favourite has attackers landing on a beach D-Day style, and advancing up the coastline to take control of an outpost.

As the frontline moves back, we eventually move to an indoor base situated inside a massive mountain, which adds an extreme level of verticality to the gameplay. This is also where we reach a couple of choke points, which are reminiscent of the likes of Operation Metro and Operation Locker. Although explosion spam is a little obnoxious here, plenty of flanking routes keep the action from being a total mess.

Several times during my play sessions of Delta Force: Hawk Ops, I found myself harking back to my childhood, with countless evenings spent playing Battlefield 3 and 4. This game gives you similar loadout options, and the map design allows for those risky flanking manoeuvres that feel otherworldly when you manage to pull off, and you know the team is advancing because of your squad’s actions.

Halfway there

It’s safe to say that, if you’re hankering for a Battlefield replacement, Delta Force: Hawk Ops is certainly worth a look-in. However, there are several areas where it’s still lagging far behind the competition.

For one, I’m still not convinced about this whole ‘Operator’ movement. I totally understand that it’s a method for introducing new seasonal content, and potentially a way to flog cosmetic skins. But from a gameplay perspective, it’s nowhere near as synergising as having a well-designed, balanced class system.

As it stands, most of the Operators are one-man bands, perfectly capable of functioning as lone-wolf players. This leads to squads rarely operating as a single unit - because they simply don’t need to. I think the gameplay would be far more satisfying if we went back to basics and had an Assault player to deal the bulk of the damage, a Support player to provide the Ammo, a Recon player to provide intel, and a Support to keep everyone alive. Having the option to request ammo and health from players, like Battlefield Hardline had, would also go a long way here.

Then there’s the sound design, which currently feels a little soulless in Delta Force. Weapon fire doesn’t have that oomph that it should, and you never truly feel immersed in the theatre of war. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison, as DICE has won every award under the sun for its impeccable work in the audio space. But compare and contrast the two, and it’s clear that Battlefield still comes out on top here.

Outside of that, there are the little things that come with being a veteran studio in the world of FPS. You can’t currently customise your loadouts once you’re in a match, only flick between your presets - a feature that feels rooted in the early days of Call of Duty. The in-game chat also instantly gets disabled the second a match ends, leaving no time for those “GGs” that solidify the community spirit that used to bring Battlefield fans together.

Of course, Delta Force is currently in its alpha stage and isn’t due to launch properly until 2025. There’s still plenty of time for Team Jade to bake some of these features into the final build.

Let’s also bring the whole thing into perspective - Delta Force: Hawk Ops will launch as a completely free-to-play game, complete with this Battlefield-esque multiplayer mode, plus an extraction shooter attached, and a single-player campaign based on Black Hawk Down. For a game that’s free at the point of entry, that’s a lot of content for no asking price. It remains to be seen how Team Jade intends to monetise this project.

If, like me, you’ve lamented the downhill trajectory of Battlefield over the years, you certainly owe it to yourself to give Delta Force a go. It might not be perfect, but it’s most certainly the closest anyone has come to recreating the rose-tinted highs of my childhood’s favourite game.

EA? Your move.