14 DAY TRIAL // 
Graphics: 8 Audio: 8 Gameplay: 10 Concept: 9 General impression: 9
SOFTPEDIA MARK: 8.5
The first games from the SWAT series were emphasizing the strategic aspect, rather than the first person shooter aspect of the action. Only in 1999, starting with SWAT: Close Quarters Battle, the game was designed as a FPS. Unfortunately, it had a limited success, and even jeopardized the franchise's faith.
Five years after, Irrational Games and Vivendi Universal Games decided that it's time to bring back the series to life and launched SWAT 4, a tactical shooter. Having exciting missions, a multiplayer mode (present in all recently released titles) and an interesting commanding mechanism, SWAT 4 has all the chances to bring back the glory days of the series.
Real life tactics and strategy
The SWAT teams (Special Weapons and Tactics) come in when the police is unable to handle a situation; their mission is to solve a crisis situation with minimum human casualties (both terrorists and possible hostages).
The actions of a SWAT team are not always based on firepower and on the ability to shoot more and fast than the bad guys, but on the strategic approach of the objectives.
That's way SWAT 4 is a very realistic game, a feature contributed by all the elements of the game: from scenery, hostage and terrorist behavior to weapons' ballistics.
SWAT 4 doesn't have an epic line, which would have been welcomed (especially since in 2003 the movie with same name was released), but a collection of 14 single player missions whose difficulty level is increasing.
Nevertheless, because the missions' objectives are always different (from capturing a drug lord to releasing hostages from a building) and the enemies never behave the same, the game is captivating and spectacular.
And since we are talking about SWAT, in every mission you have to behave like a responsible police officer, who first tries to neutralize an enemy or to convince him to surrender without a fight and only afterwards resorts to deadly violence. The "shoot first and ask questions later" technique will have as a result a dramatic score decrease, and in case you shoot a civilian, even the mission's failure.
Obeying these rules of engagement will make the game more difficult; hence, you won't be able to enter a room, slam the door against the wall, shoot in all directions and maybe afterwards get a medal for killing everyone.
Since all the missions have a briefing, it is recommended to study all the details, from pictures of the terrorists to the ones of the hostages and/or the plans of the building or other available information, so that you know exactly what to do once you get there.
All for one, one for all: the SWAT team
In SWAT 4 you won't assume control of an ordinary member in the team, you will be the main character, the leader of an assault team made up of 4 members who will blindly obey your orders. The four fighters will be divided in two teams, Red and Blue, a feature which adds flexibility to your strategy. For example, a room with two entrances can be charged by both teams from different directions. To ease things, Irrational Games have included in the team members' equipment a video camera which allows you to see in any moment what the other team is doing.
A game where you have to rely on the team members' AI can be a failure if it's not well implemented. Fortunately, this doesn't apply to SWAT 4 and the only flaw is that sometimes your team members can react too slow or too fast and that gives the perpetrators enough time to reconsider their tactics.
However, once they have decided to move, your team members will carry out the orders correctly. The interface of the game allows you to give simple orders. For example, when you are in front of a closed door, you can access a menu by right clicking. You can choose commands like: ?Open and Clear" which mean the team members will open the door and enter, ?Open, Bang and Clear" which means that the team members will open the door, launch a flashbang grenade and neutralize threats.
The commands are simple and clear; it's obvious Irrational Games considered that a SWAT 4 player will give orders and watch their carrying on, intervening only if necessary, rather than involving personally in the game. To get accustomed to the interface, it is recommended to play the game's tutorial, because although things are pretty simple, later in the game when the reaction time is critical, you need to master the commands.
If sometimes your team members' AI has some flaws, the one of the enemies is much better and Irrational Games has introduced a behavior that changes according to abilities and morale. In the first missions you will deal with enemies who drop their weapons and surrender at the first ?Drop Your Weapons" yell; later in the game, you will face terrorists who won't be intimidated by the SWAT initials or by orders and who will attack you by surprise while you try to realize where you are and what you have to do.
The behavior of hostages also obeys random rules. Some of them will sit quietly waiting to be saved, but you might also be forced to immobilize them along with the perpetrators.
The art of assaulting
Regarding weapons, SWAT 4 has a lot of options: assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, but considering the damage has to be minimum, the most important weapons will be the non-lethal ones. In this category you will find a lot of gadgets: taser guns, pepper spray, and a modified paintball weapon that shoots pepper balls.
The bullet proof vests are effective, but because SWAT 4 is all about realism, if you get shot in the head, you die instantaneously. Smoke grenades and flashbangs are also very important to the game's strategy. To charge certain rooms, you will use a device called Optiwand which is an optic fiber video camera that allows you to see after a corner or behind a door.
You need to keep in mind that the mission has to be accomplished with more handcuffed terrorists than dead ones. SWAT 4 is restrictive and discouraging towards fire weapons and you might even find yourself in ridiculous situations, like if you shoot an enemy in the leg, a few minutes later he can die.
Most of the time, the action will take place inside of buildings; the details are excellent, even if the graphic engine is not exactly new. Furniture, food leftovers, debris, together with light effects and shadows add to a realistic atmosphere. Unfortunately, sometimes the game has frame rate problems; for example, if you are in a room filled with enemies, hostages, and the SWAT team has just released a smoke grenade, everything will move in slow motion. This happens on a 512 MB RAM of memory system; on 1 GB RAM things will improve but you might still experience some glitches.
SWAT 4 Multiplayer
Once you have accustomed with the tactics, the 14 single player missions will end up pretty quickly. But things become truly interesting in the multiplayer mode.
Instead of coordinating an AI controlled team, in the cooperative mode, you have the chance to play with your friends via LAN or Internet and you will find out that if your actions lack coordination, SWAT 4 can be very difficult. In the multiplayer mode, you can play all the missions from the singleplayer mode and each of the five team members can be controlled by the players. The game includes a mission editor which can be used to create new levels.
At first, you might find yourself in funny situations when three or four players try to enter the same door, especially since all team members can give orders. But after a few minutes of playing, the experience of charging a door of a room filled with terrorists can be exciting.
Besides cooperative mode, SWAT 4 also offers other multiplayer modes, one of the most interesting ones being Barricade which a sort of team deathmatch where two teams having 5 members compete against each other. Points will be granted if the enemies are arrested not killed.
In another mode, Rapid Deployment, the SWAT team has to locate and disarm some bombs in a given period of time.
The most spectacular mode is the VIP one, where a SWAT team has to escort one of its members across the level, while the opposing team tries to capture and hold hostage the VIP for 2 minutes. None of the teams wants the VIP dead and therefore the strategy will involve minimum shooting; this will make the 2 minutes very intense.
SWAT 4 - the best cop simulator
Although, using the same tactic: ?Enter the room, clear the threat, rescue civilians, arrest the bad guys" can render the game a little bit dull, SWAT 4 offers inciting moments both in single player and in multi player mode.
Despite some graphics problems, SWAT 4 manages to be the most realistic police simulator. Although the missions are similar, the enemies are never in the same place, and so, SWAT 4 can be replayed at least once.
The cooperative and VIP modes are much more exciting than the multiplayer modes of other games and they will certainly expand the game's life.
In conclusion, if you want to know how it feels like to be a SWAT fighter, this is the game you need.
Minimum requirements:
System: 1 GHz Pentium III/Celeron 1.2Ghz / Athlon 1.2 GHz RAM: 512 MB RAM Video memory: 32 MB VRAM HDD: 2000 MB
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