Delta Force: Hawk Ops is the new ‘Battlefield’ game whose alpha test everyone is currently trying to get into

Following a bit of a delay, the Delta Force: Hawk Ops PC alpha test has officially kicked off in the West. An older version of the game has been playable for quite some time in Asia, but this is the first time Western players have been able to get their hands on it.

Well, those who have been lucky enough to get invited, anyway. That’s because, though this is a public test, it remains invite only. You can certainly throw your name in the hat, but you can’t quite guarantee getting access.

For the time being, at least, there are a few limited ways to get into the Hawk Ops alpha on PC, You can register your interest on the official website, or on Steam. While the game is/will be available on Steam, you can grab it directly from its site – assuming you get an invite.

The third way of gaining access is likely going to be how most players get to play, and that is chasing Drops on Twitch. A number of participating streamers are currently live, playing the game, and it’s responsible for pushing Hawk Ops to the front page of Twitch, with over 50,000 viewers at the time of this writing.

If you watch any of them for an hour or more, you’ll get a message on Twitch with your access key. To claim your key, you’ll also need to create a Level Infinite account, if you don’t already have one, and connect it to your Twitch account. You know the drill.

Unfortunately, those invites don’t appear to be going out as intended. A number of players have reported watching over 60 minutes of Drops-enabled livestreams without receiving a key. This may be a result of increased demand, as it’s often the case that invites are delayed for popular games.

So far, impressions from those who have been able to get in are fairly positive, with many praising the gunplay and movement, how satisfying the support callouts are (such as this devastating guided missile) and the, well, uncanny resemblance to Battlefield.

That said, Hawk Ops does have AI bots that aren’t clearly labelled as such, something a lot of hardcore players aren’t fans of. There’s also a bizarre limitation once you get into a match: you can’t edit your loadout mid-match – though you can save multiple loadouts pre-match.

It is worth keeping in mind, however, that Twitch Drops are going out in waves that take place over certain days. Check this blog post for more.