You are a member of Delta Force, a United States Special Forces unit responsible for some of the most challenging and dangerous anti-terrorist missions on the face of the Earth. Choose from five different Delta Force members, and select a field of expertise, whether it is an explosives expert, or front line gunner. Delta Force: Land Warrior contains 30 single player missions, each with its own unique and expansive environments, with different objectives and challenges to overcome. NovaLogic really puts you into the environment, with an exceptional introduction movie, which puts the player into a movie-type scenario. The manual included is vast, and offers a lot of incite and description into the different types of play, as well as the different weapons and characters available. To get the player into the game, the manual actually reads "Field Manual" on the cover, and has a "Destruction Notice" in the bottom corner. Although this may not seem like a lot, it adds to the realism and enjoyment the game.
Before heading out onto the battlefield, you will want to suit up with weapons and armour. NovaLogic has excelled in this area of play. A large selection of weapons is available, from the standard silenced pistol, to the MM1-Automatic Grenade Launcher. Players are able to select weapons in multiple categories to prepare for the upcoming battle. Select from carrying extra ammunition, or heading out wearing a thin layer of armour, whatever you feel will help you survive. Now, you are ready to begin your first mission.
It is wise to take the training mission before fighting, as there are many different maneuvers and combat tactics that are taught in this mission. Once we started the missions, the first thing we realized were that the levels are expansive and massive in size. They include several very open areas, where it's easy to snipe enemies off in the distance. Night missions play a more tactical area of expertise, as players will have to rely on stealth to avoid mass confrontation. As mentioned earlier, the levels are huge, and mainly consist of outdoor environments. Unlike most first person shooters, such as Rainbow Six, the majority of Delta Force: Land Warrior is played outside, with a small mix of indoors fighting action.
The graphics in Delta Force: Land Warrior are not jaw dropping, but do have a certain visual appeal to them. Although greatly improved over previous Delta Force games, more detail and polygons are needed to improve the look of characters. The terrains are very impressive, with little buildings for shelter, as well as trees and rivers to swim through. The textures are impressive, but can appear a little "washed-out" at times. Throw a grenade, and the explosion will amaze you. The flame graphics are outstanding, and very realistic. Objects are detailed pretty well, but more detail could have been added to improve their appearance. Many little details, such as water plumes when shots are fired into water and other small touches help to improve the visuals of this title.
The sound in Delta Force: Land Warrior is extraordinary. You are constantly in communication with a "spotter" of sorts, assisting you in successfully completing your mission. Your team will constantly yell between each other, and inform you of their current situations. Often, players will hear the enemy yelling between each other, informing everyone of their presence. Should you manage to wound an enemy, they will sometimes lie there for awhile moaning and groaning from their wounds, eventually dying afterwards. This puts the player in a more interactive and realistic environment, and proves to be worth the trouble of implementation. The gunshot and explosion sound effects are well done as well. The sound of the gunshot is different for each gun, and it is possible to tell which gun a player is using by the sound of his shot. NovaLogic has excelled in the field of sound effects. Its unfortunate that the same cannot be said about the enemy artificial intelligence.
Delta Force: Land Warrior heavily lacks in its AI. This is by far, the weakest aspect of the title. The AI is, just plainly put, "dumb". Your allies and partners act and interact well with each other and their surroundings, but the enemies are pathetic in their attempts to survive. They have very slow reaction times, and are usually easy to snipe off from a distance. It's actually possible to take out a whole brigade of soldiers in a few shots, with little trouble. With NovaLogic releasing patches, we really hope this will be addressed. On the other hand, players who rarely play the single player games and hop right into the multiplayer aspect, will be happy to know about the excellent multiplayer feature of Delta Force: Land Warrior.
NovaLogic has obviously invested a lot of time and effort into their multiplayer system, as it is very well designed, and can easily hold the current number of players, with plenty of room for expansion. Known as NovaWorld, players can sign on after registering, a quick and easy procedure. Once there, choose to join a NovaWorld game where statistics are logged and scored, and the games are played on high-speed servers with up to 50 players simultaneously. If NovaWorld is full for some reason, hop over to the public arena and join a publicly hosted game. It's as easy to join in as NovaWorld, usually just not as fast. Multiplayer features several different modes, including Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Attack and Defend, Search and Destroy, and Flagball. With this wide variety of game types, as well as a huge variety of levels, multiplayer is very addicting and players will keep returning for more. With the ability to create levels, and use them in multiplayer games, the ability to navigate and learn terrain quickly will prove to be an invaluable asset.
Included with Delta Force: Land Warrior is a level editor, which allows players to create new levels for single and multiplayer action. Select the size for the level, and create a texture and terrain, or import one from the prebuilt library. You can easily place buildings and people, as well as create vehicles or command objectives. Once done creating these levels, they can be easily exported into Delta Force with the click of a mouse. This terrain editor is excellent for creating new adventures and challenges, and proves to be an excellent edition to Delta Force: Land Warrior.
Overall, Delta Force: Land Warrior is an excellent edition to any fan of the genre. Although single player is weak, multiplayer is extraordinary and will keep players addicted for many hours.