I never thought I’d see Solid Snake or Lara Croft in Delta Force. After all, our favorite Tomb Raider has already answered the Call of Duty in the past. I want to know exactly how Team Jade approaches its crossovers, and what it plans to do next. To get those answers, I spoke to Delta Force’s game director, publicly known as Shadow, about the secret sauce for a satisfying collaboration.
In the build-up to Delta Force’s recent update, Season Echo, you’ll have seen plenty of teasers for its Tomb Raider content. We’re not talking about themed cosmetics or a few nods to Lara Croft: you can play as her. It seems like an unlikely partnership, but Shadow tells me there’s more synergy to it than meets the eye. “When we choose collaboration partners, the first thing we look at is not simply how big the franchise is. What matters more is whether that franchise can naturally fit into Delta Force’s tactical context,” he explains.
Lara Croft is more than just a female Indiana Jones, after all. She’s a highly intelligent adventurer, exuding James Bond-like charm, while reserving a wealth of combat expertise behind her allure. But beyond her arrival, Shadow says that “we usually begin by identifying the points of connection between the franchise and Delta Force […] we want to respect the parts of each partner franchise that players already know and love, while also making sure that when it appears in Delta Force, it still feels natural, reasonable, and high-quality.”
Shadow tells me that for a collaboration to work in Team Jade’s FPS game, it needs to be something “players can accept, enjoy, and continue to recognize as quality over time.” Not every crossover tackles that approach, in my opinion. The addition of Saw to Delta Force isn’t a natural fit, for example. However, Team Jade has massive admiration for the franchises it wants to align with. On that note, I ask Shadow whether there are any dream crossovers the studio is targeting for the future.
I can’t quite coax any specifics out of him, but he enthusiastically shares that “the team has a lot of ideas internally! We are players ourselves, so we often talk about exciting titles and collaboration possibilities. But before anything is officially announced, we cannot reveal specific partners in advance.” However, Shadow teases how Team Jade will choose what’s next in the world of Delta Force.
“What I can share is that the franchises we pay attention to are usually connected to themes such as tactics, adventure, survival, stealth, or strong character identity. They are more likely to connect naturally with Delta Force’s world, gameplay experience, and player expectations,” he adds. Before our chat ends, he notes that he wants crossovers to be “more than just short-term exposure or a topic of conversation. Ideally, they should also expand players’ imagination of what Delta Force can be.”
Before we find out what’s coming, you grab some Delta Force codes or check out the rest of our Delta Force interview, where we dig into the game’s success against rivals like CODM.
