If you think back to the classic games of the 90s,\h\h
many stand out. If you think back\h to the classic FPS games of the 90s,\h\h
many stand out. If you think back to the classic\h war based FPS games of the 90s, many stand out.\h\h
If you think back to the classic war based FPS\h tactical shooter games of the 90s, MANY stand out.
Oh sod it. This video is about Delta Force. ONE\h of the iconic war based FPS games from the 90s,\h\h
and probably the seminal game to\h define the tactical shooter genre.\h\h
Now war games are a bit of a grey area for me,\h given their divisive topic, but Delta Force was\h\h
a crucial and important stepping stone in the\h world of gaming, and we’re going to explore why.
I should probably tell you at this point, that\h this video is actually sponsored by Delta Force,\h\h
but not these old games; the new game, which we’ll\h get to later. BUT Let’s start from the beginning.
In 1985, Novalogic was formed by John A.\h Garcia. Based in Calabasas, California.\h\h
Garcia had already amassed a wealth\h of knowledge from working at Datasoft,\h\h
who produced a wave of titles\h for the computers of that era.
Their early titles stuck to the\h formula that Datalogic had binged on;\h\h
porting games to home computers and between\h formats, mainly Taito’s titles. If a game\h\h
had already proved to be popular, then\h it was a safe bet to port it elsewhere.\h\h
However, with Novalogic, Garcia wanted\h to ultimately do something different,\h\h
something more impressive, and that’s\h where the VoxelSpace Engine came into play.
In 1995 Kyle Freeman was a developer at\h Novalogic, and he had an idea. It was an\h\h
idea based upon the MRI and CT medical imaging\h scanners he had been working with previously.\h\h
You see, scanners like these use voxels to\h produce their images. It’s quite clever.
A voxel represents a value\h on a three dimensional grid.\h\h
This is a bit like a pixel on a two dimensional\h bitmap image, just with an extra value.\h\h
Now, the computer doesn’t need to map\h the location of every individual voxel,\h\h
mainly because it can infer the position of many\h based on their position relative to other voxels.
Comanche was Novalogic’s first game to\h use the VoxelSpace engine, and indeed,\h\h
it was the first commercial flight simulation\h based on voxel technology at all. This allowed\h\h
for an incredibly detailed terrain compared\h to the vector graphics at the time. Remember,\h\h
this came out in 1992, it\h was really incredible stuff.,
I remember playing it, and it absolutely\h blowing my tiny mind, especially as it\h\h
was doing all this on a 486DX2/50,\h seemingly without breaking a sweat.\h\h
Sure, things were a bit\h jagged in places, but come on,\h\h
these voxels needed to be fairly chunky to\h even stand a chance of rendering back then.
By 1998 VoxelSpace had been refined and\h improved, to the point where it could\h\h
take on an FPS. But not any old FPS, this\h was an FPS that required precision, and it\h\h
required distance, and therefore, it required\h much smaller voxels than we’d been used to.
This was also an FPS game breaking into a\h world that was ripe with ground breaking\h\h
games. The year prior, we’d had titles such\h as Turok, Doom64, Blood, GoldenEye, Hexen II,\h\h
Dark Forces II, Quake 2. And in 1998, even\h more impressive games such as Tom Clancy’s\h\h
Rainbow 6 and Half Life were emerging, but Delta\h Force differed, and it differed in many ways.
**Overview of DeltaForce**
So, here’s the DeltaForce box. Big box version\h of course, and other than looking intensely WAR,\h\h
the blurb tells you exactly what\h this is about in a nutshell….
“Target. 2 Clicks Out. Lock N’\h Load. Let’s Look Alive Gentlemen”
Distance. It’s about distance,\h and this was imperative,\h\h
especially when you look into the\h features that made Delta Force unique.
If you look at games like Doom, and\h pretty much anything previously,\h\h
most of the weapons utilise raycasting, or\h hitscan bullets. That means that when you aim\h\h
and fire. The bullet hits the opponent\h instantly. There is no actual bullet.\h\h
All that registers is if you hit or\h miss. Of course, there are exceptions,\h\h
even in Doom, the rockets for example are real\h projectiles and take time to hit your opponent.
What Delta Force did, was take this a\h step further and actually simulated the\h\h
weapon ballistics. This included the drop\h and time for bullets to reach targets,\h\h
meaning that when you’re sniping\h someone, you need to account for that.
The arcade game Sniper Scope, developed by\h Konami and released in 1999, would take this\h\h
a step further, implementing a whole sniper\h gun setup. I bloody loved this game as a kid.
Delta Force’s simulation also\h ported across to the game’s AI,\h\h
in that, on the lower difficulty levels,\h\h
the worse their aim. The higher, the better\h they aim, and indeed lock onto your position.
So, how do the voxels play into\h this? Well, because voxels are\h\h
used to visualise the terrain, whilst\h polygons are used to render characters,\h\h
buildings and anything else which essentially\h sticks out, it allowed for draw distances and\h\h
detailed terrain unlike any seen in other\h first person shooters at the time. This\h\h
is what allowed for such satisfying and\h impressive sniper simulation, and general\h\h
combat as a whole. By this point Voxel Space\h was up to version 3 and it hadn’t stopped yet.
Interestingly, one thing that made\h Delta Force popular at this point,\h\h
in 1998, was it didn’t actually support 3D\h Accelerator cards. Anyone who had a PC back then,\h\h
will remember the bitter wars between\h manufacturers like Matrox and 3DFX,\h\h
which meant there wasn’t a lot of standardisation\h at this point. Plus, despite competition, 3D\h\h
Accelerator cards were bloomin’ expensive. So, if\h you had your Pentium Pro, and a bog standard card,\h\h
with Delta Force, it didn’t matter. Voxel\h Space would serve you well regardless.
The game also included the ability\h to customise your in-game avatar,\h\h
and choose from a male or female operator.\h Gameplay, your objective was typically to\h\h
eliminate hostile presences in various regions,\h or taking down a high profile target. Much like\h\h
later games including Left 4 Dead, all\h campaigns are available from the start.
**Overview of DeltaForce 2**
Which takes us to Delta Force 2.\h By which point it’s clear that\h\h
NovaLogic have coined the\h tag-line “The Art of War”,\h\h
which really does sum up what they’re trying\h to achieve. Whether you like that or not.
“You’re a member of the US\h Army’s best-kept secret;\h\h
The elite special operations\h unit, also known as Delta Force”
I mean, it’s clearly not\h that much of a secret lads.
By this point Voxel Space is\h Now Voxel Space 32. Quite a\h\h
leap in less than a year. But it’s kinda expected.\h\h
Voxel Space 32 featured 32 bit rendering,\h 16 million colour support and 360 degrees\h\h
of transformation. It’s not that\h much further on than Voxel Space 3,\h\h
but it sounds better so let’s go with it. Although\h not a requirement, it is designed specifically\h\h
for 32 bit graphics cards, which you’ll almost\h certainly need, otherwise it’ll run like this.\h\h
Yup, my Intel Celeron is really struggling\h here with those smaller voxels. Necessarily,\h\h
this is also the first point at which hardware\h acceleration was utilised and indeed this game\h\h
supports Direct3D, and featured stretched\h voxels, allowing the simulation of taller\h\h
landscape features, such as grass and shrubbery.\h Allowing you, or your opponents to hide.
Thanks to their online gaming platform NovaWorld\h with “Push to talk voice-over-net technology”,\h\h
it also sported a snazzy new multiplayer mode,\h allowing up to 50 players across modes like\h\h
Deathmatch and King of the Hill. There’s also a\h co-op mode which allowed four players to complete\h\h
the single player campaign. Which honestly, is my\h jam. That’s why I loved Aliens: Colonial Marines,\h\h
despite the bad rap it initially got. Honestly,\h go back and play it in co-op mode. It’s great.
Delta Force 2 also incorporated a mission editor,\h\h
which allows you to place objects all over\h these vast landscapes. Now this was fun.
**Overview of DeltaForce 3**
Now, at this point, you’re probably expecting\h DeltaForce 3. Which is what we have,\h\h
except that it’s called Delta\h Force Land Warrior. I have no\h\h
idea why. The previous games were\h also on land. But here were are.
Land Warrior packed in 30 missions,\h\h
whilst removing the mission select screen.\h This is a much more linear approach.
Now, Land Warrior arrived in November 2000\h for North America, and NovaLogic already\h\h
understood the world was changing. Whereas 3D\h acceleration was an expensive luxury before,\h\h
it was now everywhere, in part thanks to nVidia’s\h TNT2 chipset and the expansion of DirectX. This\h\h
pretty much superseded the market that 3DFX,\h Matrox and S3 were squabbling over. To that\h\h
end Land Warrior incorporated a hybrid engine that\h allowed these chipsets to accelerate the polygonal\h\h
aspects of the game, such as buildings,\h people and vehicles. Even in the hills,\h\h
you can see here, that those blocky elements\h have made way for triangles. Always with the\h\h
triangles. This new engine looked a lot\h better than its predecessor but still\h\h
allowed for impressive draw distances on the\h terrain, for that all important sniping. It\h\h
also allowed for more advanced levels, based\h underground and in expansive tunnel complexes.
**Overview of Other DeltaForce Games**
For me, these are the main DeltaForce games.\h A slew of expansion packs and sequels would\h\h
arrive, but none really achieved the same\h breakthrough excitement of the original games.
Wouldn’t it be nice if a new DeltaForce\h game was developed, based on the original\h\h
formula. The original foundations, but\h modernised for our current hardware….?
Which brings me to the latest instalment;\h “Delta Force: Hawk Ops” is a cross platform,\h\h
multiplayer online first-person shooter\h game developed by Tencent TiMi Studios.\h\h
The game’s worldview is based on the original\h 1998 game, with gameplay evolved from the popular\h\h
“Escape from Tarkov” style of survival\h and extraction mode. The game combines\h\h
various gameplay elements, including tactical\h operator shooting based on professional roles,\h\h
PVEVP survival and extraction, and large-scale\h player battles in open maps and battlegrounds.
It was recently unveiled at Gamescom 2023 in\h Cologne, which I sadly didn’t get to go to this\h\h
year, but last year I went, and it was an amazing\h experience. But in my opinion, it looks great.\h\h
It’s going to be available on PC and mobile\h first, followed by consoles at a later date.
The\h\h
story this time round is simple: A former Delta\h\h
Force commander leads an elite task\h force team to investigate a missing\h\h
CEO and revolutionary group. Revealing the\h scandal and conspiracy of tech extremists.
There are 3 modes to play through. Extraction\h mode is based around teamwork and strategy,\h\h
including PvPvE missions. There’s also\h Great Battlefield mode which puts players\h\h
in an all out war, and there’s Black Hawk\h Down mode; the single player experience,\h\h
where you’ll be immersed in toe infamous\h Mogadishu battle from the game’s movie namesake.
Launching with at least four operator\h classes, including Assault, Engineer,\h\h
Support and Recon, there’s enough\h to keep everyone enthralled here.
**Overview of new gameplay based on trailer**
**Similarities between earlier games mentioned**
Check the link down below for the official website\h\h
of this new Delta Force game\h and pre-register right now!
Frankly, the only thing I’m\h disappointed about with the\h\h
new game is that it doesn’t make use\h of the Voxel Space engine anymore.\h\h
No unfortunately Voxel Space is now a\h relic of the past, and in many ways,\h\h
the reason that the original Delta Force never\h retained the lofty heights of the first few games.
Remember, our discussion on 3D acceleration? Well,\h\h
the early 00’s were a technologically swift\h place to be. That’s why all this retro tech\h\h
is so damn exciting. But let’s look at some of the\h FPS games that actually came out in the year 2000;
Deus Ex, Perfect Dark, Soldier of\h Fortune, Daikatana. What do these\h\h
games all have in common? Well, they all\h utilise graphic accelerator cards. Now\h\h
although Delta Force had started to do the same,\h the fundamentals of the game were still based\h\h
on Voxels. Something that accelerator cards\h just weren’t geared up to handle. This meant\h\h
that the fundamentals of Delta Force were\h left in their wake, and really superseded.
It’s probably why the last significant\h Delta Force game was released in 2009,\h\h
and it’s probably why there’s\h been a 14 year gap to the new one.
But what Novalogic brought to the table was\h revolutionary. By adding tactical elements,\h\h
expansive landscapes combing tunnels\h and open space, sniper scope abilities,\h\h
advanced mission scenarios and then bundling\h it all up with multiplayer modes allowing huge\h\h
battles, DeltaForce and indeed, the\h Voxel Space engine ran it’s course,\h\h
just in time for everyone else to catch up, both\h in hardware and imagination and do the same.
For those reasons the Delta Force games were a\h true necessity for the evolution of FPS games,\h\h
helping define the tactical shooter genre,\h\h
and it’s great to see that\h finally, they’re back with us.
Oh, also, it’s worth checking out the\h original Novalogic website, because boy,\h\h
that thing is still up and it’s still running.\h You can also revisit the original games on Steam\h\h
for a bargain price, so you can get the full\h backstory before launching into the new outing.
Until next time, I’ve been\h Nostalgia Nerd Toodleoo!