Delta Force: Xtreme 2

People derided novalogic for their quaint insistence on using voxel-based engines back in the day, but I always thought the end result was rather cosy and cute.

It was like walking through a world made of LEGO bricks. And of course, those cute little volumetric pixels were useful back then for rendering long, dense grass. Besides, voxel sounds better than pixel, like it was dreamt up by a SHODAN-esque supercomputer in a lab somewhere. Pixel sounds like a term for pixie poop.

The lack of voxels is perhaps to blame for this husk of a game. Perhaps when NovaLogic decided to tear the voxels from the Delta Force franchise, its soul was torn away with them. Whatever the cause, this void is noticeable and all that remains is a thin, bitter shell of stilted gameplay, poor visuals, simple AI, a single-player mode that now feels rather aimless, and a multiplayer that very few people seem to be bothering with.

Weighing it up fairly and without a burning hatred for those who took away our beloved voxels, there are a few pleasing features, of course. There's a decent selection of weapons and vehicles, a co-op mode for the multiplayer, and the occasional mission featuring a 'jump from the helicopter' deployment. However all of these things become nothing more than candles guttering out at the bottom of a deep, dark cave when placed into the greater context of NPCs and vehicles getting stuck, helicopter crews inexplicably skydiving at the start of missions, and a general lack of polish that makes me wonder if NovaLogic even care about the games they make any more.