Delta Force could be the next big online shooter. The latest demo, released as part of Steam Next Fest, has already drawn upwards of 39,000 concurrent players, beating the likes of Battlefield V and Helldivers 2 in terms of daily player count. A reimagining of the classic FPS series from the early ‘00s (the campaign mode, when it launches, will be a remake of the Black Hawk Down game from 2003), Delta Force looks and sounds great, and has a lot of early potential. Based on a number of reports from players, however, cheaters are already starting to spoil the fun.
The first public playtest for Delta Force introduces the central multiplayer modes. Hazard Operations is an extraction-style match where small teams compete over collectible items. Havoc Warfare is the 64-player skirmish and the closest Delta Force gets to its nearest competitor Battlefield. So far, the FPS game has maintained a stable user base – every day of Steam Next Fest, more than 35,000 people have played Delta Force simultaneously. Likewise, a lot of the early responses on the game’s discussion boards are enthusiastic and favorable. A number of players, however, have voiced concerns about the presence of cheaters.
“People swimming on the ground, flying in the air, wall hacks, and of course aimbot, and the game hasn’t even been released yet,” one player writes on Steam. “Definitely wall hacking and cheating galore,” another says. “Just played two games back to back and both had aimbotters and wallhackers,” a third writes. “It’s frustrating.”
During the Delta Force alpha test in September, developer Team Jade imparted ten-year bans on the accounts of 3,665 cheaters. The developer also issued 11,584 ‘real-time anti-cheat’ actions and detected 49 different types of violations. As well as publishing partially obscured lists of the names of banned accounts, Team Jade says it will implement more robust anti-cheat measures.
“We will take more efficient and accurate measures against cheats,” the developer said after the alpha. “GTI Security [the anti-cheat platform used in Delta Force] may impose a hardware ban on cheaters. Meanwhile we will also crack down on behaviors such as teaming up with cheaters… and exploiting bugs for unjust benefits.”
Check out all the Delta Force operators, so you know who to pick before wading into the fight. We’ve also created the best Delta Force loadouts, to give you the best chance in the field.
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