Delta Force Paintball > Reviews > Paintball Fun- Shoot Your Friends!

Author's product rating:   

Durability	Excellent
Ease of use	Easy
How does it compare to similar products?	Excellent
Value for money	Average

Advantages:	Great fun, good for team buidling/stag/hen parties
Disadvantages:	Can be expensive, paintballs hurt, can be dirty

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Delta Force operate one of the largest paintball theme parks outside the United States, establishing themselves in 1989. They have 20 paintballing sites all over the UK, with more sites planned. Delta Force state they have hosted paintballing events for royalty, and have entertained well known people such as: Shane Richie, Mark Owen, Jamie Theakston, Harry Hill, Hugh Laurie, Don Joly, Damon Hill, Ainsley Harriet, and the entire Chelsea Premiership Football Club. BBC1 and Channel 4 both selected their UK paintballing sites for filming TV shows in 2002.

I spent a day recently paintballing at the Newcastle site near Cramlington. All the groups involved in the day were expected to be on site by 0915, where initially you fill out a form providing details, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to find several women taking part in the games. You are provided with overalls, good quality eye and face protection and ammunition holders. A word of advice, wear old footwear and clothing, unlike me who decided to use his own expensive work boots and ended up almost knee deep in mud! Even if you have a small group you can still participate, the organisers will join you up with another group to give you a better game. Throughout the day you are provided with free tea and coffee, you can also purchase snacks, drinks, burgers and bacon sandwiches.

You are expected to purchase extra ammunition and bombs as the day goes on, which greatly increases the cost of the day! Our group paid £5 per person initially, at the end of the day I had spent an extra £40 on ammunition alone. It costs £30 for a bag of 500 paintballs, which I'm told is usually an average amount to use for the day, unless you're trigger happy like me. In addition you can buy items like smoke bombs which are very effective at clearing people out of buildings as the smell is truly awful, you can also buy paint bombs, these look like grenades which explode with a tremendous bang and spray paint everywhere, your ears certainly ring when these go off near you.

Once you are 'geared' up the Delta Force marshals come around the groups placing different coloured tape around your left arm to distinguish which team you are in. Once this was done everyone was called around a stage to listen to a safety brief provided by a CD over a tannoy, once completed a marshal went over some aspects of the safety brief to ensure everyone understood what was happening and what was expected. I thought this was very well done, it was obvious that health and safety was an important issue and anyone found breaching these rules would be removed from the site. Next it was time to collect our weapons, load up and begin our games.

There were seven game areas in total, each area was played twice, both defending and attacking, therefore at the end of the day we had played 14 games. The game areas included scenarios such as defending and attacking a wooden fort, a pyramid game where both teams had to try and seize a 'gold' treasure which was hidden inside the pyramid and a Vietnam village game. All the games where refereed by at least one Delta Force marshal who kept an eye on things.

I found the whole day hugely enjoyable and professionally run. The equipment provided was of good quality and gave good protection. Those of you of a nervous disposition, don't like getting hurt or dirty then this is not for you, if you want a trip back to your childhood running around at playing at soldiers then book up now. Things like bombs going off and people jumping at you will certainly have your heart racing, the paintballs fly at 100mph (So the marshal said anyway) and do hurt! I'm covered in little round bruises from where I was shot (Mostly in the back from running away I'm ashamed to add) and if it's been raining well all I can say is take a change of clothes and shoes. The only major problem I had on the day was a slight eye injury I picked up after a 'freak' shot hit my goggles right on the air vents and some small pieces went into my eye, on asking for eye wash I was told to rinse my eyes in the sink in the toilets as they did not have any. I would have thought this type of first aid equipment would have been widely available on site for such an accident. Other than that I had a fantastic day and can't wait to do it again!