SWAT 4: Gold Edition

This game is incredible, even all these years later, and has elements that most AAA games don't bother to include despite their incredible graphics. If you like a shooter that makes you think, and doesn't incentivize killing above all else, then SWAT will be your favorite game. Every level has unique challenges, and because the enemies are randomly spawned and their behavior changes every time you play, you can play the same level a dozen times without getting bored. Every door requires a thoughtful way to enter that will spare the lives of your squad, and get most of the suspects to drop the weapon. The AI is clever and realistic; they won't throw their lives away, and they'll find places to hide and ambush you, or barring that will retreat to their friends. In some instances (this might have been a coincidence) I saw suspects hiding with a civilians to keep us from shooting them. I've loved playing this, and I'll play it many times more. Why did I take away a star, you ask? Because there are some game-breaking bugs/poor programming that will ruin my score, and I am powerless to do anything. For starters, at least a dozen times every game I have to issue an order two times or more. The squad will remain motionless after I issue an order, and it wouldn't bother me if it didn't happen constantly. Second, the squad member AI can be mindnumbingly stupid. One time a squad member was standing in a doorway as he was being shot, and did nothing to move. Another time a squad member deployed a flashbang by running to the spot where it was to be deployed, and then tossing it on the ground while standing there. Worse is when they throw it against the wall of the room where it was supposed to go inside. There is more, but this is the worst of it. It's sad that the developers took so much care with everything except this. But, it's years later, and it will never be officially fixed. Such a shame.

This is one of my favorite FPS games. I found it while looking for games similar to rainbow 6 vegas 2 which I played all the time as a kid. The controllable AI team is awesome, especially considering you can split them up into 2 groups. That coupled with the sniper views, less lethal weapons, and incentive to take enemies into custody instead of killing them when possible really makes for an incredible gaming experience. That being said, the AI team can get incredibly frustrating at times. There are times when you'll order your team to fall in 3 times before they actually start following you. And even after they start following you, sometimes they stop at random. I can't tell you how many times I've ordered the team to fall in, saw that they were following, and then moved forward with my sweeping of a building only to get shot by an enemy because they had stopped at the door for seemingly no reason and didn't have my back. These problems are certainly forgivable though, given the game is almost 20 years old. Excellent first person shooter. If you haven't played it, give it a try. You won't regret it.

Whew boy, I've been waiting for this game to come to GOG for years now. For those not in the know, this game fell into copyright hell after its production was discontinued. With only a digital download available for a brief amount of time, people wanting to try this game were either forced to pay steep prices for the increasingly rare physical copies or use less-than-legit means (ironically) of obtaining the game. The fact that this game finally came to GOG feels almost like a holiday for me: the game is finally accessible. As you can probably tell from the title, I love this game and I frequently compare other tactical shooters to it as a benchmark. That's not to say the game is perfect. It definitely shows it's age with the lack of iron-sight aiming, dull textures, and clumsy physics. The AI is also notorious for being infuriatingly stupid at times (for extra fun, take a shot every time you hear “you're standing in my spot sir” or when you're flashbanged by your own teammate). But, this game gets so many things right that you just don't see in modern titles anymore. This game expects you to, for the most part, play the role of a police officer. Unlike Insurgency or ARMA (or even Door Kickers), you're expected to try and save lives rather than eliminate everything in your path. That adds an entire extra layer of complexity on top of the standard tactical shooter. Your hands are tied by police procedure and you must follow it, such as announcing you're a police officer and using lethal force only when your life is clearly being threatened, in order to complete the missions successfully. As a result, this game is brutal. There are no quicksaves or checkpoints. If you die, you start from the beginning of the mission. That can be infuriating at times, but it forces you to be really careful about your approach to the missions and combat. For $10, this game is an absolute no brainier that any tactical shooter fan needs to try.

You may have heard of this game from Spoony, during his golden age. If you've not, look his LP up. I am not here to gush over this game, as everyone else has already said all that must be said. This game, masterpiece rather, costs a mere $10, and the only flaw I can think of that might not be often mentioned is that the text partially disappears when the game is set to a widescreen resolution.

Man i loved Swat 4 when i was younger, and seeing it being made avaible again after so many years is just so awesome. This game has mediocore story and the handling isn't the greates, but the atmosphere and "thrill" you feel while playing is totaly worth it. Ofc since this game is old you can't expect to much of graphic either.