Team Jade and TiMi Studio Group have released a free downloadable co-op campaign for their 2024-launched multiplayer shooter Delta Force – the first new Delta Force game since 2004. Inspired by the Ridley Scott film Black Hawk Down, the add-on campaign is designed for a squad of four, but you can play solo if you’re up for a challenge. As of right now, it only works with mouse and keyboard, but they’re bringing controller support in a later update.
Released in 2001, the Black Hawk Down movie is an adaptation of Mark Bowden’s book about the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia – a clash between Somali National Alliance forces and United States troops, who had arrived in the country as part of a United Nations intervention during the Somali Civil War.
The game’s version of these events is broken into seven chapters, beginning with an attempt to abduct SNA lieutenants and escalating into efforts to escort rescue convoys to downed helicopter crews. It builds on input from one the movie’s production companies, Revolution Studio.
This isn’t the first time a Delta Force game has tried its hand at Black Hawk Down. 2003’s Delta Force: Black Hawk Down largely cut Scott out of the equation, taking inspiration directly from Bowden’s book. The battle remains legendary in the States – it’s been memorialised and revisited from different angles in several books and films. In 2013, pieces of the crashed US helicopters were recovered and turned into a museum exhibit. Now, the story is being adapted by a team from China.
The Somali Civil War, meanwhile, is still on-going. In a recent BBC article, published ahead of a new Netflix documentary, several Somali people recount the storming and bombing of their homes by US troops. Many of the survivors continue to call for reparations.