In the past, I’ve seen a huge number of otherwise excellent titles become marred by “the little things”. It could be incredibly idiotic AI, or a lack of co-op support in the multiplayer modes (thanks for Halo, Gearbox Software). It might be a poor graphics engine incapable of running at decent speeds, or a poor storyline. In the case of Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, and it’s residual recently-released expansion, Team Sabre, the main irritating drive behind this otherwise decent title is none other than the game’s difficulty. Yes, the game is actually quite well executed in general, but that means nothing if the user is constantly wanting to quit rather than try to tackle the same enemy stronghold for the umpteenth time. Difficulty is an issue that can drag any game down, and needs to be carefully balanced to ensure the game remains fun without being too easy.

But since starting off a review with a rant generally isn’t considered proper form, let’s get the basics out of the way. Delta Force – Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre (I’m just going to call it ‘Team Sabre” from here on in if nobody objects) is an expansion pack to Novalogic’s militaristic FPS title from last year. The original game took place in Somalia, where a variety of warlords were vying for control of the area. The player took control of a Delta Force operative and participated in a number of operations designed to wear down the terrorists and bring peace to the war-torn sector, and with the huge desert towns, nicely scripted missions (some involving vehicles), and large amounts of military lingo constantly flying around everywhere, the game almost felt like a first person version of Command & Conquer: Generals. Team Sabre takes the player back into the action, but this time he’s shipped out to Columbia and Iran in two completely new campaigns in the fight against drug lords and renegade generals. The expansion also offers a new selection of weapons (including the venerable G36 and PSG-1), new vehicles to interact with (all pre-scripted, of course, as the “vision” behind the game doesn’t focus on drivable vehicles), new terrain, and even some new multiplayer environments. So does this expansion offer enough gameplay to reel fans back in for more action? Erm, not quite, though for a $20 value (original game is also required) you can’t go too wrong.

Team Sabre’s singleplayer element revolves around the two new campaigns. There are five missions taking place in the thick jungles of Columbia, and six more in Iran. Yes, these missions are varied, have a bunch of different objectives, and are rife with a number of scripted sequences, but they’re also poorly designed. As mentioned earlier, objectives for these missions range from destroying drug-runner boards to complex multi-pronged assaults on cities and fortifications, but nearly all of the missions in Team Sabre are incredibly difficult and require an excess of luck and skill to get through. Players are commonly tasked with trying to vainly find and shoot enemies that are impossible to see (Columbia missions in particular are covered with dense foliage, though the AI doesn’t seem affected by this in the slightest), as well as tackle targets that are able to fire back and kill them instantly (RPG-equipped soldiers and mounted 50-calibre machineguns in particular). These two elements combine to lead to a frustrating experience by themselves, but an astonishingly terrible flaw in the game design drops the game from “frustrating” to “I can’t return and exchange this title because I just chucked the contents of the box out the window and burned my computer to rid it of the evil”. I’m referring to none other than the save system. The original Delta Force: Black Hawk Down had a system that gave the player a limited number of manual saves per mission, and no more. Commonly this was a quantity of one or two, though they increased towards the end. This issue wasn’t TOO terrible, as DF:BHD was a fairly easy-going game, even on the harder difficulty levels. The problem lies in that Team Sabre is MUCH more difficult to play, but has not made any changes to this stupid save system to compensate.

What does this all mean? It means that the immersion and entertainment value of this product is shattered when I’m forced to endure the same fifteen minutes of chopper insertion, infiltration, and enemy spotting/shooting simply because I didn’t examine a distant pixel close enough, rounded a corner, and got instantly killed by some moron manning a turret – and I couldn’t save, because I was either already out of manual saves, or too paranoid to use any because I thought I might need them later. Okay, okay, I can understand the argument about this making the game more immersive somehow, but what the developers obviously didn’t understand is that playing parts of a mission over and over again is not fun. Let me try and drive this home again; it is not fun. Last time I checked, “not fun” completely contradicts the point of a game in the first place, so I have to wonder what kind of crack Ritual Entertainment was snorting while making this expansion. Even if the difficulty were toned down, I would still be complaining about this, as I’m a strong opposer of games that do not stock a manual save function. The game doesn’t even have any kind of auto-save or checkpoint system, so there’s absolutely NOTHING to prevent players from having to do an entire mission over again if they don’t employ the problematic save system.

I know this sounds like a minor detail, but it turns out to be a flaw that essentially ruins Team Sabre as an enjoyable expansion pack. I’ve already said that the missions are very difficult (mainly due to the insta-death crap enemies can dish out – which really shouldn’t be that hard to deal with, as I played Operation: Flashpoint to death upon its release). The new missions are quite interesting to play, but ultimately I was turned off from the title simply because of my gross distaste for doing things over and over again. I hated constantly getting somewhere and dying or failing for a mysterious reason. And for god’s sake, the mission design is so linear that you can’t even try and take an alternate approach to a situation – one time I tried to crest a hillside that was only SLIGHTLY off my mission route to get a better view on an annoyingly difficult situation, and ended up failing instantly because I had apparently “gone AWOL’. Yes sir, Captain Sir, I’ll just wander right into that RPG soldier I can’t see, sir!”

I’m not going to bother really commenting on the graphics and sound departments, because this game uses essentially the exact same engine as the original game does – it’s just some new missions. The new terrain presented at least looks nice enough and the detail is passable (though nothing revolutionary), but the character models and overall animations look rather quirky close-up, and the weapon models aren’t too detailed (though the shader implementation is nice, and it’s cool seeing a vague reflection of the terrain on a scoped weapon when not zooming in). Other than that, it’s pretty standard-fare stuff. The new weapons presented in the game are decent, but I didn’t play with them too extensively (I was too busy getting pissed off with the difficulty).

I’m going to wrap up this brief article by putting the following message on the table. To developers: making your game incredibly difficult, and then denying your users the honor of being able to save in the middle of a lengthy mission themselves whenever they want will ruin your game. After blowing through a number of the Columbia and Iran campaign missions, I just gave up and stopped playing because the tedium was wearing me thin. I shouldn’t have to force myself to play a game in the vain hope it will get better later on. The original Black Hawk Down might not have been an overwhelmingly stellar game, but at least it was lengthy and fun to play. My experience with Team Sabre leaves me with one lingering word: irritation. Stay away unless you have lots of patience. Sorry, but that’s all I have to say on this game – I refuse to subject myself to further frustration when I could be doing something more productive with my time, such as driving a nail into my forehead. Yes, that’s right, you can quote this article as concluding that Delta Force – Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre is “less fun than driving a nail into your forehead”. Go learn some game design, Ritual – when your audience starts constantly thinking “this isn’t fun” and “god am I pissed off” instead of “should I shoot Charlie in the face, or the groin?”, something is seriously wrong with your title.