The Delta Force series is now a distinguished part of gaming history for a number of reasons. One, it's very rare for a first person shooter to give rise to so many sequels (five with the coming release of Black Hawk Down) and for them all to do reasonably well, some even very well. Two, the military FPS would not have developed as fast if it was not for the massive fan base that this series has generated and the feedback to developers from these fans. Three, how many games do you know can still make decent sales figures even years after their release, all of which use an outdated graphics engine? There are of course many more reasons why Novalogic should go straight to heaven for giving us Delta Force, but one of the biggest all time reasons is that they re-release them at low, low prices, so when I saw Land Warrior for a tenner I thought it was a great bargain.

In the series, Land Warrior comes in at number three and was a big relief to fans of Delta Force. Delta Force one was brilliant and when it was announced that number two was on its way fans cheered. Number two arrived, had poor graphics even when compared to the first title, the sound was shoddy, missions were a mix of laughably easy and basically simple and the AI of the opposing forces where nothing short of a joke. So people and especially fans were a little nervous about number three. Land Warrior though was like a ray of sunshine through the fog of war and quickly became and still is the most popular of the Delta Force series.

The premise for this incarnation of DF is the same as the previous ones; you're a top-level soldier in Delta Force and your mission is to stop bad people doing bad things in generally nice places. A large proportion of the missions are operations against terrorist organisations, usually involving hostage rescues, staging post strikes or raids against terrorist arms caches. There is a storyline behind the game and the missions do lead nicely into each other but it is still nothing too far removed from either of the first two titles, so what makes DFLW so much better than the rest? The answer: the way in which it is done. This time around the changes made to the game platform make this superior to everything that has come before.

The gameplay was taken apart and put back together after listening to the gamers on Novalogic's own web servers, Novaworld. From what they were told they put together a package that delivered what gamers wanted. To that end, the game changed so combat missions for single player are now a mixture of long-range sniping and close quarter battles (CQB). These are the two elements that make DF great, at long range the missions can be completed to a large extent by sniper actions. This is so much fun to do that you will scarcely mind the long periods of time it can sometimes take to get yourself into position for a good field of fire. When things get close up the action of the game progresses at a fearsomely fast rate as it takes only one shot to kill a bad guy and only a couple to kill you. This means that whether you go around the levels cautiously or like Arnie, you will get the most out of CQB moments.

The levels were given an overhaul too. In previous games the levels had largely been generic out of doors locations with a texture map to suit the country the mission was set in, whether desert, jungle, or other. Not much has changed other than the alteration of the level design to include areas of certain constructions that look familiar and believable. Old South American ruins, the great pyramids of Egypt and simple huts and dwellings have been added to create more realistic, real world locations for the missions. One mission I recently encountered was a hostage rescue at a Japanese retreat. It became worthy of note because not only were the buildings styled in a believably correct way, but the surrounding grounds to the buildings were landscaped and laid out in such a way that it became apparent time and effort had been spent to create this effect and immerse the player that little bit deeper.

The weapons have had an overhaul too. Though the selection is much the same, there are a few new weapons that cater for the new style of gameplay, giving both a range to snipe with but also a rate of fire that made CQB possible. There are also a couple of underwater weapons, as in this version our solider can swim. The support weapons of rocket launcher, claymore, satchel charge and two types of grenade are also available. In short, there are weapons for every occasion and of course a better selection of weapons means the choice of mission approaches increases, not to mention the forethought of the limited ammo supply.

The AI for DFLW is different things to different people, for those who had played the previous games it was nothing new, just a little more refined, but for the FPS addict it was woefully slow to react. For the novice it was perfect, being neither to ruthless nor to stupid, but all said that it lacked something. Regardless, it is a massive improvement over DF2 so almost everyone was happy not to criticise it too much. The depth of the game as far as longevity goes is also an improvement as it lasts considerably longer than either of its two predecessors. But the biggest change for the best over previous games is possibly the ability to save during a mission. No more getting to the last person on the map just to get killed and have to go back and start all over again, all thanks to the miracle of the quick save and load.

Graphically this game is much more advanced and refined than the two previous, despite the continued use of voxel technology. The whole look and feel of the game is beyond comparison to the very first DF and in another league to the second. The texture mapping is much finer and more detailed, there is a more tangible quality, the rolling landscapes are far more picturesque and naturally formed, which provides more possibilities for mission approaches. Most levels that are to be fought in the open are also a paradise for snipers, with many high locations that have good fields of fire and the improvements in the graphics make long-range work easier and more fluid.

The sound for the game is still nothing out of the ordinary considering the number of FPS games around, but there is nothing bad that can be said about it. Gunfire is crisp and clear and any explosion has the right degree of thump to it. Speech is sometimes a little unclear but that can be forgiven, as the gist of what was said is always more than apparent. The soundtrack to the game, what little there is, perfectly fits the action and is properly underused for anything other than background to the menu screens. This game comes into its own because of the multi player environment available. As I mentioned earlier, Novalogic have their own web based games servers under the name Novaworld. Once selected, it takes around one to two minutes tops to have selected a name and password (all that's needed to set up an account) and be browsing through the lists of games hosted by them. If you play one of the official Novaworld games then you can make use of persistent statistics, a feature that will track and record the progress of your character based on your performance within games. The better you do, the higher the rank you can achieve.

Outside of these games there are of course the selections of public and private games that can be accessed. The nature of the online games is also varied to more than the usual Deathmatch style games. Team Deathmatch is an obvious variant to standard Deathmatch, Capture the Flag is now also a popular and well known multiplayer variant but one of the best games available has got to be the Team King of the Hill selection. Two teams fight it out over a map to take control of a region called the zone for ten minutes straight. The first team to manage this for a continuous ten minutes wins. But should your last remaining player in the zone get removed at, say, nine and half minutes, then the counter will be reset to zero and you have to start again. If no team manages this then the team with the best average wins the round. The number of maps that are available for all the different variations of DFLW are staggering, as is the number of players that populate them, but it is the best way to experience DFLW and the best gaming it has to offer. For a service given for free with the game and an account set up process that takes less than a few minutes, it has to be the gold star winning addition to the overall package.

This game is a year or so old now and there are many more FPS games out there including another DF game with one more on the way, but even after all this time Delta Force: Land Warrior continues to be the top of the pile and at only £10 a bargain that should not be overlooked. The sheer enjoyment that comes from the multiplayer aspect of the game, let alone the single player, makes this a worthwhile buy; everything else is a bonus. The technology is a bit dated, its not the best looking game on the market, there are better games for single player, there are more immersing games available and there are certainly more realistic games around too, but there are few that keep me coming back night after night for over a month to play online.