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SWAT 4 (c) Vivendi Universal Games

Published: Monday, March 21st, 2005 at 01:22 AM
Written By: Lawrence Wong

Sierra’s SWAT franchise began its life as a CD-ROM movie game. For those of you who don’t know, these games had action that was taped and depending on what choice you took, it’d play back a certain segment to show you. It’s a bit like a movie-version of the old Choose your own Adventure books. Then when that fad gave way, SWAT 2 became something like a real time strategy game. It was billed as a training tool for SWAT. I played that too but thought the game had few rough edges. SWAT didn’t really achieve legendary status until SWAT 3 and the follow up Elite Edition, which at the time was competing with Rainbow Six. SWAT 3 was unique in that the first person shooter experience really placed you in the shoes of a SWAT police officer. Even before you could speak to games, you’d be so emotionally charged you can easily find yourself yelling and screaming for perps to drop their weapons. That, however, was nearly five years ago.

SWAT 4, now handled by developer Irrational, is shaping up to be very much the same. The first thing you’ll notice with SWAT 4 is its attention to realism. There are no generic weapons (unlike Sierra’s console release, SWAT: Global Strike Team) and all of the gear is authentic SWAT with configurations that can be made to preserve life - such as shotgun shells full of beads or the ability to switch from JHP and FMJ ammunition. New to SWAT 4 is also the very popular Taser stun gun. If you don’t know what Taser is, it’s a weapon that’s been rocking Wall Street as well as modern law enforcement. It fires electrodes that tack on to someone and incapacitates them with electric shock. To us sci-fi game playing types it doesn’t sound like a big deal but to see it officially included in the game, along with the other authentic gear shows Irrational’s commitment to providing a complete SWAT experience.

The graphics in SWAT 4 also mirror this attention to authenticity. Your element is divided into five people: one commander, and two red/blue squads of two. Tell your element to stack up against a door and they will automatically get into position. Tell a two-man squad to stack up against the door and they will dynamically adjust to compensate.

Each mission begins with a taped 911 call, which is a very nice touch. You’re also given a briefing by your seniors before going in and an estimated layout of the place you’re going into. These are actually important as they give you clues on how to approach the situation. Whether you go in hard or subtly is the difference between dead hostages and officers and everyone walking out of the scene alive. SWAT, after all, is about the preservation of life.

To this end, there is no planning stage as there is in Rainbow titles. Instead, you come up with the plans on the spot. So if you see a locked door, you can order your element to breach, bang and clear, bang and clear or just clear. You can also opt to play it safe and use a wand to see if someone’s on the other side or disable the lock to sneak into the next area. Veterans of the SWAT franchise will be happy to know that nearly all of their old commands are here, including tear gas and flashbang options. SWAT 4 has also added the option for you to use concussion grenades (stingers) in the game too.

Missions will range between the classic “bring order to chaos” to serving arrest warrants and hostage rescues. SWAT 4 will also include a Quick Mission option that allows you to use the existing maps and customize its objectives. Like Unreal Tournament, you can set the amount of hostiles, although very complex missions may not be possible in this Quick Mission mode.

Irrational is known as a developer of rich character-driven games. A resume consisting of Freedom Force and System Shock 2 certainly reflect that. Unfortunately, the methodical nature of SWAT 4 will make it hard for them to include any substantial amount of fiction. Too much fiction and it would erode the realism of the game’s premise. However, Irrational has snuck in some of their trademark by giving the individual officer some extra lines. For example, when passing through an auto body repair bay, one of them remarks how it looks like their old man’s shop. This approach will likely make the game less textbook than its predecessors.

Playing the small sections I did with SWAT 4, I came away very impressed. Irrational has the game down just right. It really feels like a SWAT game. Fans of the SWAT franchise will love how they’ve kept everything from the radio chatter to the commands and even the slow plodding walking speed of your characters the same as before. Only now, with the aid of technology, the environments look better, the animation is more realistic and the AI will behave more sophisticated. SWAT 4 is slated to appear on PC beginning of April.