Delta Force: Xtreme 2 (PC)

Reviewed by

Daniel Shannon

on 06/10/2009

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The single-player game consists of two campaigns that pit you against the culturally diverse members of the aforementioned international narco-terrorist network. The story that binds them together is barely coherent and revealed almost entirely in the pre-level mission briefings. Meanwhile, the enemies themselves seem similarly confused--you'll occasionally see them decked out in desert gear in the middle of a snowy map. Furthermore, the artificial intelligence, although preternaturally effective at long range, is a pushover up close and can be amazingly stupid in certain situations. For instance, if you shoot the driver of a vehicle, the passenger will calmly remain in his seat, apparently unaware of the certain death waiting nearby. Your AI squadmates aren't much better, given that they prefer to cower in the relative safety of a building while you single-handedly battle tanks and accomplish every mission objective.

Xtreme enough for you?

The single-player game inexplicably uses a checkpoint save system, which thankfully becomes a bit less annoying when you realize that enemies tend to stay dead when you respawn. Even worse, you can't scavenge weapons from enemy corpses, so if you want a different weapon, such as a rocket launcher, to take out a helicopter or an armored personnel carrier, you have to die and change your weapons loadout to get it. Several times the game leaves you wondering what to do at the end of a mission. For instance, in the "oil leak" mission, you must kill every enemy on the map, but once that's accomplished, you'll be stuck until you realize that you have to destroy every unoccupied enemy truck as well. The final campaign mission is appropriately massive, but command's declaration that "the fate of the world" rests on you blowing up a fuel depot in North Africa is decidedly unconvincing.

While the real life Delta Force only recruits the best of the best, DFX2 seems content with mediocrity. It just doesn't excel at anything, and given the multitude of exceptional shooters on the PC, there is no reason to recommend it, even with its budget price tag. Unless you are a diehard fan of the series and just can't wait for next year's Delta Force: Angel Falls, you'd be better off spending your money elsewhere.