As a seasoned gamer who’s seen his fair share of FPS titles, I must say that Hawk Ops has piqued my interest with its unique blend of Battlefield and Tarkov elements. Having clocked in around 35 hours so far, I can see the potential this game holds, but it’s not without its quirks.
If you combine elements from Battlefield and Tarkov, what you’d end up with is Delta Force: Hawk Ops. This highly anticipated first-person shooter game has been causing quite a stir recently. At the moment, it’s only available in a closed alpha for PC users, but I’ve put in around 35 hours trying to figure out if Team Jade has a real gem on their hands between the two accessible modes.
So… Battlefield and Tarkov?
Currently in Hawk Ops, you’ll find two distinct gaming modes: Havoc Warfare – A/D (similar to Battlefield) and Tactical Turmoil (resembling Tarkov). Each mode offers unique progression paths and unlock options. What’s interesting is that once an Operator has been unlocked, they can be utilized in either of these modes. Operators are specialized characters representing the game’s four classes: Assault, Support, Engineer, and Recon, which definitely gives off a Battlefield feel.
Havoc Warfare offers two battlefields: Ascension and Cracked. In Ascension, assailants arrive at a coastal area via boat and progressively advance from the shoreline towards an elevated cliff that bears resemblance to Damavand Peak in Battlefield 3. Cracked presents a small desert-enclosed village where combat primarily unfolds within buildings, along streets, and through intricate alleyways.
In the Attack/Defense mode, attackers need to secure two targets within a sector to seize it, which forces defenders to retreat to the next sector. The goal is for attackers to control all sectors before they run out of attempts (tickets), at which point they emerge victorious. Conversely, defenders can claim victory by merely holding onto any objective within the final sector and depleting the attackers’ attempts.
In Tactical Turmoil, you engage in an action-packed extraction mission, where you can choose to go solo, pair up with another player, or team up with two others. Your goal is to fight against both AI and real opponents, gather loot, and then successfully escape through one of the designated extraction points. The game offers a progression system that allows you to expand your operational base, and a marketplace for trading items with other players. However, participating in this mode carries some risk; if you fail to complete a mission, you could lose all the equipment you were carrying.
Don’t we have Battlefield and Tarkov at home?
One key aspect to highlight about Hawk Ops is that its gunplay, graphics, and audio quality are exceptional, regardless of game mode. While Tarkov and Battlefield also offer similar features, Hawk Ops needed to excel in these areas to compete with genre mainstays. Fortunately, it manages to hold its own in these categories.
I find Tactical Turmoil appealing because it strikes a balance between complexity and accessibility. Unlike other extraction shooters like Tarkov, it doesn’t demand an intimidating learning curve. In fact, features like automatically loading magazines and detailed maps with markers for safes, missions, extractions, and more make it easier to get started. The game also has a squad system that can fill your team even when you don’t have friends who play. Despite its user-friendly aspects, Tactical Turmoil doesn’t skimp on the risk of losing gear or the depth of its medical system. This delicate blend of hardcore and inviting elements is truly impressive.
On a different note, Havoc Warfare is beginning to reveal some flaws for me. It continues to excel in terms of its impressive gunplay, graphics, and audio quality. However, it seems to stumble into the same issues that Battlefield often encounters, and even manages to trip up on certain pitfalls that Battlefield skillfully avoids.
Initially, the maps in Havoc Warfare are visually appealing but smaller than those in Battlefield. Although this size isn’t problematic for smaller teams, Havoc Warfare accommodates 64 players and multiple vehicles on a map that is likely only a quarter of the size of some Battlefield maps. This results in gameplay that becomes overwhelmingly chaotic, which can be entertaining initially, but eventually, it feels like you’re subjected to the chaos rather than controlling it through your strategies and abilities.
As a gamer, I find the confined maps in some games to be incredibly frustrating. They eliminate opportunities for flanking maneuvers and restrict vehicle play, forcing players into passive strategies out of fear of losing them. In Ascension, helicopter pilots often camp off the map, avoiding danger and frequently going out of sight. The moving borders just add to the problem, as the playable area shrinks as attackers progress. In Cracked, if I’m defending C1 in the final sector, an enemy standing across the street is technically out of bounds for me, making me feel like a fish trapped in a barrel. I get that defenders shouldn’t camp attackers, but the balance in these games seems to be missing entirely.
“Havoc Warfare stands out significantly from Battlefield (and Tactical Turmoil) with its exceptional weapon customization feature. The ability to construct your ideal weapon using numerous attachments and configurations, designed to fit your unique playstyle, is truly impressive. While other extraction shooters may offer similar features, Havoc Warfare excels in this area compared to Battlefield.”
The worst part
Everything I’ve critiqued thus far pales in comparison to the always-on, in-game, global text chat. This seemingly cannot be turned off, although you can switch it to squad only. Unfortunately, if you leave the main menu, it will be back on the global chat when you return. If you haven’t guessed the problem yet, it’s that you see the most disgusting things human beings can say in this chat, and there’s basically nothing you can do besides constantly change it from global to squad. Pick a topic people like to be horrible about, and anyone who has played a couple of hours of Hawk Ops has seen disgusting things said about that topic.
As a gamer myself, I can’t fathom such carelessness, not even for an early-access title like Hawk Ops. It’s unacceptable to launch a game without safeguarding players from inappropriate content. Basic decency should be the least we expect. Unfortunately, it seems they overlooked even the most glaring, offensive words in their censorship list. If there is one, they certainly missed the mark with the most egregious ones.
We’ll see how it goes
From a gameplay perspective, I’m encouraged by a lot of what I see from Hawk Ops, even if I do think that we’re firmly in the honeymoon phase of this experience, which will end. There are a lot of things that it does exceptionally well, and a lot that it needs to improve on when it comes to Havoc Warfare, but there’s something here. I’m just hoping that someone from Team Jade drops everything they’re doing and fixes the problem with global text chat yesterday.
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2024-08-16 01:27