Delta Force: Black Hawk Down Team Sabre PC Review Wichita KS

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It has been almost a year now since the latest installment into the Delta Force series, and when you consider that Team Sabre, the game in review today, is just an add-on pack, that is a pretty long time indeed. For many gamers, this is not yet a proven series despite the fact it has been going for a few years, unfortunately it just hasn't established enough of a fan base to create a considerable presence. However, Novalogic are slowly getting there, but is Team Sabre finally the game the series has been waiting for?

New withTeam Sabre are Iran and Columbia campaigns, most of which consist ofcliche missions- that is, Iran and oil rigs/field, and Columbia with drug lords. This is a fitting aspect though, as the game is obviously not trying to edge in on the Raven Shield market, it is very much an arcade style shooter mixed with some strategy. The missions seem to cover a fair amount of variation when it comes to objectives and scenery, although there are only 10 new single player missions in total, which I expect more from a free download rather than a retail add-on pack. On the other hand, there are also some new weapons, namely the H&K G3A3, H&K G36E and the H&K PSG1 Sniper rifle, as well as 30 new multiplayer maps, which just about sums up everything you can expect from Team Sabre.

The main issue with Team Sabre isn't what it didn't add, it is what it didn't fix from the original Black Hawk Down. For example, again we see very incapable teammate A.I., which is almost toopainful to watch at times. When I was behind a hill near an Iranian force's base, not only would my teammates attempt to shoot an enemy on the other side of the hill completely out of sight, resulting in a lot of bullets in the sand, but they wouldn't stop shooting even if a civilian, another computer controlled teammate or myself went in front of them; they continue to dispense ammo at something that is completely blocked and shouldn't even be visible. And that's just the start, just about everything regarding the AI is lacking. This is not acceptable for a team based FPS game these days, and should have been fixed in time for Team Sabre.

Another problem which branches off from the lackluster AI is the fact a lot of missions tend to end abruptly due to "Too many teammates lost", or similar. In all fairness, an SAS assault team isn't going to pack up and go home 15 feet away from their last objective because a teammate was fatally shot, makingthis dreaded message most annoying. On top of this, a lot of the time it is completely out of your control, due to the bad AI this game really forces you to do everything, and sometimes babysitting two overgrown toddlers in assault gear is the last thing on your mind while fighting off baddies in a Columbian jungle. And worse yet, since you only have 3 in game saves available to use, you will often find yourself continuously restarting missions ages away from completion. When you think about it, all these problems stemfrom the poor AI.