SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition

SWAT 3 was a rarity when it was released back then: it was one of the few shooters (along with the early Rainbow Six games) that forced players to carefully advance through each corridor and doorway, or else your squad won't survive intact. What could be a frustrating objective, becomes incredibly fun, since your teammates does their job incredibly well, and you really feel like you are commanding an "elite squad". During each mission you and your squad must rescue hostages, handcuff criminals, and only kill when necessary (unlike every other shooter of its time). There is a bomb disarm mission, and while it can frustrate you, it's the only one of its kind. What makes the game memorable is how everything you and your squad do must follow the conduct rules: Each time you interact with someone (be it handcuffing, hitting or killing him/her) you must notify your commander; killing an innocent means immediate failure; every weapon must be collected; doors must be lockpicked; you must ask even armed criminals for compliance; a flashbang or smoke grenade thrown in the right place can avoid deaths and so on. And your AI teammates do their part beautifully, rarely being shot down by anyone, an ability that they somehow lost in the next game... SWAT 3 is an incredible demonstration of how playing the responsible, calculating guy can be fun, and while SWAT 4 improved in almost every aspect (especially the interface), it's AI was so worse (just ask Spoony) that SWAT 3 still has the best balance between the fun of just finishing the game and the challenge of getting medals and a better leadership score.

A great game, although it is starting to show its age now, the ai still outdoes even modern games. Lot of good times with this, too bad the won servers have since passed into history.

I prefer Swat 4 but this still holds up on its own very easily. If you can forgive some slightly more janky aspects of the game it will still be just as good if not better.

It's a good game. I still have my original CDs for all the SWAT games. They fall short of Jagged Alliance and the Rainbow 6 series in depth and content. The only reason to buy these is you have the original disks is the DRM. The reason to not buy them if you have the original CDs is you can't add MODs to these GOG versions. I've had no success.

This was one of my favorite games in high school, along with Half-Life/Counterstrike & Rainbow Six. Absolute nostalgia and a fantastic game.