Forget railguns and red armour; a sniper rifle and a hat with some twigs in it is all you'll need in Novalogic's latest offering.
Ben Morris

Hailed as the thinking man's Quake when it first appeared, Delta Force was a masterpiece of sneaky sniper techniques and a sublime multiplayer experience. Less than a year on and its sequel has emerged to continue where the original left off.

The basic premise of Delta Force 2 is much the same as before. As a highly trained member of Delta Force, you are sent on a series of missions all over the world combating drug smuggling and terrorism. Now because terrorists aren't strictly the friendliest people, this is generally achieved by popping a cap in their collective arses, preferably from as long a distance as possible.

The variety of missions is quite diverse and your approach to each will change depending on whether it takes place on a snow capped mountain or a tropical lagoon in the South Pacific. Unlike the original game, the sun doesn't always shine on mission day and various weather conditions can help or hinder your cause. Snow and rain don't really make much difference but a strong wind can make long range sniping tricky. Perhaps the most interesting effect is fog. Cutting down visibility to a few metres leaves the sniper's choice of weapons looking pretty useless. Silenced weapons really come into their own here and you can even find uses for the much-maligned suppressed machine gun.