SWAT 4: Gold Edition

SWAT 4 was, for much of my gaming life, a sort of White Whale. Born in the 90s, I grew up just a few years too late to appreciate a lot of classic games as they came out; if the game came out between 1990 and 2004, there's a very high chance I didn't get to play it in its heyday. MechWarrior 2, System Shock and System Shock 2, X-Wing and TIE Fighter... the list goes on and on. Enter GOG. First System Shock, then X-Wing, and now... SWAT 4. As an FPS player, I cut my teeth on Halo CE for the Xbox and James Bond Nightfire for the Gamecube. However, eventually I discovered the original Ghost Recon and fell instantly in love. Ever since then, I've sought out squad-based tactics games of that sort, but SWAT 4, widely regarded as the Holy Grail of the genre, eluded me until now. Now, after a dozen hours of playtime, I feel ready to provide a newcomer's insight, free of nostalgia. SWAT 4 is not quite like any game I've ever played before. Certainly, the squad-based first person shooting gameplay is very similar to Rainbow Six, with its tight urban areas and door-breaching, but SWAT adds extra layers of complexity that Rainbow Six never had. As a police officer, your rules of engagement are much stricter than an elite special forces soldier - you must give criminals a chance to surrender, and any use of lethal force is highly scrutinized. The people you face are not, at least initially, terrorists - they're civilian criminals committing largely mundane crimes. However, SWAT 4 is not content to stay within the safe confines of regular, routine police-work. On many occasions the designers were clearly allowed to have fun, having you go after a suspected serial killer on one occasion and break into a cult's compound on another. In these levels in particular, the skill of the designers in environmental storytelling is on full display, allowing you, the man (or woman) in the field, to discover the truth for yourself. SWAT 4 richly deserves its reputation as a classic.

SWAT 4 is a very fun game to play. It plays well, runs well, and looks good for a 12 year old game. It takes a little time to fully understand the difference between this and a military shooter. But when you finally grasp the command elements and tactical nature of the game it really comes into its own. The nature of the game being a police shooter and not a military shooter is fantastic for the tension the game provides. Unlike a military shooter, you have to check the inside of the room, look for hostages and suspects, consider collateral damage, and attempt a non-lethal approach. This can lead to incredible situations where you're staring down a bad guy, both of you with your fingers on the trigger, as you and your squadmates shout for them to drop their weapons. You get closer to firing, but finally the guy relents and drops his gun, which you pick up and then restrain him. Getting through a mission unscathed and without having to fire your weapon once is a fantastic feeling. The game also has plenty of non-lethal options, from pepper-spray paintball guns to tazers and non-lethal shotgun rounds for players looking to go that route. All of this stuff is great, but what keeps this from being a perfect 5 stars is some of the "older" things it has. For example the AI is definitely 12 years old. Your teammates can whip around and instantly cap a fleeing badguy 50 yards away, but the next room just blindly stand in place as another bad guy' blasts them with a shotgun, taking your entire team down in a few seconds. The game also lacks any kind of mid-mission save function, which means if you're in the middle of a mission and life calls and you need to quit, you're stuck doing the entire thing again when you start back up. This also means if you get 90% the way through a mission and then suddenly fail the mission (like a civilian gets shot or a bad guy gets a lucky shot on you) you're going all the way back to the start, which is very frustrating.

SWAT is a tactical shooter much like Rainbow Six 3. You're a leader who commands four units to deal with hostage situations through increasingly difficult missions. At the start of each mission you're given briefing, blueprint of the place with a choice of entry point, and options to change weapons. For each mission you must neutralize the threat and rescue hostages. After each mission you're given a score out of a 100. You must get 50 or more to advance to the next mission. In order to get higher score you must arrest suspects instead of killing them. You also must report dead suspects and grab their weapons. Here is what SWAT 4 does well: * Balance - The devs did increadibly well balancing lethal and non-lethal pathways. If you chose to use lethal weapons, you'll likely decrease your score or get penalty for shooting without the bad guy point his or her weapon at you. If you get less than 50, you'll not advance to the next mission. However, using lethal weapons are faster and it keeps your guards alive. Non-lethal weapons put your squadmates into danger, but will likely make the suspect to comply. Overall non-lethal weapons are less effective with longer reload speeds and low magazine size. * Enviornment Storytelling - At the start of every mission you're given briefts that detail the situation. Although that does bring a lot of storytelling bits into context, it's the scenery that tells you the story and creates an atmosphere unique to each level. * Graphics & Sound - This game was created in 2005 and it still holds up in ultra settings. The lighting and shadows are very well done and placed. The texture detail is ahead of its time allowing you to pick up subtle details. I highly recommend modding this game to play on 1080p widescreen. Character models have smooth animations. The audio is very crisp and the music adds ambiance to the scene. The voice acting from the 911 calls to squad mate's voices are professionally done. * Rewarding Gameplay - Each mission has a map that isn't procedurally generated. However, the locations of hostages and suspects are. I like this because it doesn't make the game too easy. It keeps you on your feet at all times and second guessing every move. At the same time, it makes the experience fun, addictive, and fustration free. You may spend an hour raiding a building only to be shot by a suspect camping in the corner. It doesn't induce rage quit. Instead you learn from your experience, don't make the same mistake, and move on to another run. The sense of pride of completeting a mission is rewards all on its own. * Tense and Adrenaline Rush - If you're the type of person who loves to get a rush playing a stressful game, then this is definitely for you. Here is a common scenario: you and your squadmates corner a suspect. The suspect slowly puts his weapon the ground. In a split second, he shoots your partner so you shoot back. Unlike most modern FPS, the shooting aspect is more realistic and requires slow methodical thinking. Every shot requires a calculated decision and suspects wil put you under immense pressure to act quickly. There are very few things that could be improved: * Team AI. The team AI, rightfully, will only shoot a suspect who are not point a gun. But when that suspect decides to point the gun, they have fifty-fifty shot of making it alive. In many cases, you want a trigger happy squad mate even if it reduces your score. I think adding personalities to each character will improve the game more. Personalities such as pacifist, defensive, and aggressive. * Synchronizing Actions - Squads matest are split into 2.

Bought this game on a sale for half price, Downloaded the game with the GOG launcher , only took a few minutes , then linked me and my friends pc's to fake a LAN connection because the online doesn't really work on this old game anymore. All and all it was worth the Price i paid, Gameplay is fun but challenging , even for the 2 of us, ill be getting more of my friends to buy this game ASAP while its still on sale. With the multiplayer CO-OP its 1-5 players and should give hours of fun. I cannot speak for the single-player Experience.

I bought this game immediately back when it originaly released in 2005 and played it regularly through the years but when I saw it on GOG I had to buy it once more. If you are looking for a slower paced tactical shooter you should really try this even now in 2018 because the gameplay is excellent and graphics surprisingly hold up very well which just goes to show that this game as a package was well ahead of it's time in 2005.