Delta Force: Black Hawk Down Multiplayer Hands On
Enjoy deathmatch with 49 of your closest friends.
by David Clayman
March 17, 2005 - In the past year Xbox Live has made strides towards constructing the ultimate online gaming experience. But one area in which it still lags behind the PC is in the shear number of people who can get together on one map. Halo 2 brought us the big team battles that maxed out at 16 players, but even then we're only talking about eight people on a team. Star Wars: Battlefront had promised 32 players online, but the realistic limits of the game put the maximum number of players around 20. Enter Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, a best-selling PC game now optimized for the Xbox and featuring multiplayer games for up to 50 players at once. This isn't just another hollow promise or a number that will be whittled down by the release date. We know this because recently we sat down for a 46 person deathmatch with the good folks at Novalogic, Climax, and Vivendi. It isn't often that a developer has to literarily assemble an army in order to show off a new feature.
Technically Speaking
So how did NovaLogic manage this feat? As an experienced PC developer they know a thing or two about hosting huge groups. With a little help from Microsoft and Climax they are able to serve the largest games themselves. Players will be able to personally host games with up to 32 players, but anything above that number eats up too much bandwidth for any home connection. NovaLogic has coordinated with the Xbox Live team to house dedicated game servers along with a separate set of servers that allow it to talk to Xbox Live. There are servers in LA, NY, London, and Germany to host these matches, with plans for expansion depending on how many people jump onto the game. One of the deathmatches I participated in was hosted from the UK, but it might as well have been a network game. There were no indications of lag or lockups.
They say that communication is the key to a successful relationship, and in Black Hawk Down it is definitely the key to doling out a successful ass-kicking. Players automatically have voice communication with the eight players closest to them and the people on their friends list. There is also an in-game menu that allows players to turn on and off who they want to hear. With such large teams this system organizes what could have been an aural catastrophe. As a bonus, players can also verbally taunt their opponents after a kill by standing over the body and firing off some zingers.
Due to the number of people involved in a game the environments have to be larger than in the standard online game. Since the PC maps were designed around 50-player games, they translate perfectly to the large engagements that will take place on Live. Speaking of maps, there are plenty of environments in Black Hawk Down. There are twenty different maps for deathmatch alone, and different choices for each type of game. NovaLogic stated that they have such a huge number of worthy maps from the PC version that it would be possible to release a downloadable map a week for years.
An Army of Many
The first thing gamers need to know about multiplayer are the three different character classes. The class is linked to a player's profile so people will most likely stick with one type of combat. You can either play as a gunner, sniper, medic, or CQB, which stands for Close Quarters Battle. Playing as a medic in a team deathmatch may seem futile but Black Hawk Down awards bonus points to the medic for healing someone and to the injured character being healed. The point structure also affects head shots, knife kills, double kills, and sniper kills.
The game modes available to us right now include all of the staples of online combat, plus some extras. Right now we have Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Capture the Flag, Multiple Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy, and Attack and Defend. Live includes Quick Match, Optimatch, a Friends List, a Recent Players List, a Teams List, and Leader Boards. When creating a match you can change the number of players (from 2 to 32), the time limit, and score limit. There is also an entire sub-menu of options that allows gamers to customize allowed weapons, tracer fire, friendly fire, map cycling, and the option to switch between a standard hosted game and a dedicated server.
The Team Deathmatch I played took place in a huge urban setting filled with multiple turrets and on-rails helicopters and jeeps. At one point in the match, I climbed to the roof of a building just to reach a decent vantage point and observe the massive amount action taking place around me. The DM maps are filled with player spawn points that can be hijacked by the opposing team by simply occupying the spawn area. This way, if a team works together they can advance across the larger maps by capturing spawn points one at a time and eventually cornering the opposing forces. When players spawn they also remain invisible and invulnerable for a short time to protect them from spawn campers.
Offline Multiplayer
Black Hawk Down hasn't forgotten about the gamers who prefer to sit next to the people they game with. The game includes a System Link option and four-player split-screen mode with the same settings as Live games. There are also eight missions from the single-player game that can be played in an offline co-op mode with up to four people.
The semi-tactical aspects of the game give the co-op missions some weight. There is no respawning in co-op mode and if the majority of players are killed the match is over. This means it is necessary to coordinate positioning with team members as you enter a hostile building or run down an alleyway and make sure everyone is watching each other's back. Be sure to check out our media page for videos of multiplayer and co-op mode in action.
The real hook of this game is its ability to handle 50 player online matches. But whether you enjoy online or offline play, the game is fully loaded with multiplayer options. Delta Force Black Hawk Down is scheduled to be released mid-May. Check back soon for a preview of the single-player campaign mode and a more in-depth look at the gameplay.
bring on the racial slurs...
