Delta Force: Black Hawk Down to invade PS2

Developer Rebellion has disclosed details regarding the PlayStation 2 version of Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. Although the new version will be based on the PC offering, the game is "totally redesigned for the PS2," according to a statement released today, and will be released during Q2 of 2005.

British developer Rebellion is spiffing up the gameplay and adding several new multiplayer features, such as an online game allowing up to 32 players at a time. It will also offer 16 single-player missions with a progression of unique character skills, such as movement speed, accuracy, and reload speed, according to NovaLogic.

Black Hawk Down is based on the Operation Restore Hope and Task Force Ranger campaigns executed by US forces in 1993 in Somalia. The game takes players through a hilly countryside populated by snipers and in the labyrinthine streets of Mogadishu, where soldiers must learn to tell friend from foe. They can choose to join the Delta Force, US Army Rangers, or 10th Mountain Division to hunt Somali warlords through the course of the game.

Delta Force offers players 28 different kinds of weapons and equipment, plus voice-recognition software that lets them bark orders at their computer-based teammates. There are a total of 10 co-op missions, a two-player split-screen co-op, and seven multiplayer games, including team deathmatch, deathmatch, capture the flag, team king of the hill, tag, attack and defend, and flag ball.

Operatives from the US Special Forces, two of whom served in Somalia in 1993, contributed to the heavily researched background of the game. NovaLogic will donate a portion of the proceeds from sales of the PS2 game to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides college scholarship grants, financial aid, and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel who have been killed in the line of duty.