History VideoGame / DeltaForce

* StartsStealthilyEndsLoudly: This was one of the earliest first person shooters where the enemy was starting guns blazing, instead patrolling around calmly. Silenced weapons allow for OptionalStealth, but eventually, the mission inevitably turns into a full on firefight.

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Whiskey One, the artillery officer that provides fire support in certain missions, is the only female NPC present.

* EmptyQuiver: The enemies in the Novoya Zemlya campaign eventually get their hands on nuclear weaponry and use them to make threats as a last resort; eliminating the nuclear threat forms the crux of the last few missions.

* ActionGirl: You get the option of making your player character female.

** In the earlier games, you can bring along additional ammo for your primary weapon at the cost of forgoing a secondary weapon. As the only ammo you get in these games tends to be whatever you have on you at the beginning, this can go quite a long way. Not to mention, the M4 is [[JackOfAllStats versatile enough]] that 90% of the time you won't need a secondary weapon anyway.

* AllUpToYou: The majority of the legwork is done by Bravo team, which consists solely of the player, while Alpha and Charlie are two man teams of AI squadmates provided as support. While they can assist with general pacification missions (if they're not running into walls or attempting to shoot through solid objects), the player is generally left to complete the objectives by themselves.

* CallSign: The player uses the callsign "Bravo", while squadmates are "Alpha" and "Charlie". MissionControl is "King Six", the extraction chopper is "Black Widow", while fire support is "Whiskey One".

* ArtificialStupidity: The AI of the squadmates is rather primitive, given the era. In the earliest version of the original game, they never even seemed to be armed. Special mention goes to vehicle convoys, who will not deviate from a set route; Taking out the lead vehicle will stop the entire convoy, leaving it ripe for the taking.

** An early mission in the first game provides a great example of this. The mission objective is to retrieve a codebook that will allow you to track down the first campaign's BigBad and to do so undetected. Being spotted by the enemy simply prompts MissionControl to radio to carry on with the mission anyway.

** ''Delta Force'' was one of the earliest games to depict the [=M4=] with a three round burst mode and a semi auto mode instead of just being a fully automatic weapon. The [=MP5=] and [=M249=] can also be toggled between full-auto and semi-auto (with the MP5 also having a three-round burst mode).

** The [=M249=] comes with a 200 round clip to put down just about anything in front of the barrel, and has enough firepower to take down armored vehicles. However, it doesn't come with a scope, and considering that most gunfights take place at ranges of about half a kilometer, you'll generally need one to actually hit something without getting shot down yourself; as such, it's rather situational. Same goes for the [=MP5SD=], which is useful for stealth missions for getting the drop on unaware enemies, but is pretty useless at range.
** The Barrett Light 50 has the opposite problem. While it comes with a scope and is powerful enough to take down vehicles, being an anti materiel rifle, it has a relatively small number of reserve magazines. Additionally, its slow rate of fire means that the player will be at a disadvantage during the inevitable close quarters mopup that tends to occur towards the end of most missions, forcing the player to either tread with extreme caution or switch to a sidearm.

* DeathFromAbove: The Laser Designator allows the player to call in artillery missions to destroy targets. In some missions, this is actually a requirement for completion, but it's unfortunately unusable most of the time.

* ShownTheirWork: ''Delta Force'' was one of the earliest games to depict the [=M4=] with a three round burst mode and a semi auto mode instead of just being a fully automatic weapon.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Depending on the game, you cannot take weapons or restock ammo from fallen enemies, though sometimes you can find ammo caches [[FridgeLogic for your own weapons within enemy bases]].

* AWinnerIsYou: The original game only gave a small debriefing text upon completion of a mission. The second game didn't even have that.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: The Xtreme series, which were generous of checkpoints, players can take multiple hits, and DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The series is named "Delta Force", and that's exactly who you're playing as and who's responsible for clearing up whatever threat is at hand.

* EveryBulletIsATracer: And they're ColorCodedForYourConvenience; Your own shots have blue tracers, while enemies fire red.
* EveryCarIsAPinto: Shooting most vehicles enough times will destroy them eventually, though with small arms, this can take a ''lot'' of bullets. Still, it's good to know if you with a helicopter bearing down on you if you've missed with it both the [=LAWs=] you brought with you.

** The [=M249=] comes with a 200 round clip to put down just about anything in front of the barrel, and has enough firepower to take down armored vehicles. However, it doesn't come with a scope, and considering that most gunfights take place at ranges of about half a kilometer, you'll generally need one to actually hit something without getting shot down yourself; as such, it's rather situational.