Hot! > Pop!...

I love SWAT 4, I loved Doorkickers, so this sounds cool... but the decision to only have these icons instead of people on the screen seems... highly questionable to say the least. Can't say I like it.

Another couch co-op game? Sold.

Hubby and I do need to get back to finishing Jydge though.

I had the same initial impression that the icons are going to hurt interest / sales, because it just doesn't look good - even if the rooms / buildings are rendered normally.

But the more I think about it... there are some advantages. There's no confusion about what tools you have at your disposal and who the enemies are, making it more of a pure tactical experience. And to the extent that there are "hitboxes", having a standard circular icon makes it quite explicit.

Either way, it does certain look promising from a gameplay perspective.

Why the hell are the characters shown as icons? Not only does this make the game seem extremely cold and detached, but it also hints at a developer who's too crap to animate characters on screen.

The way I see it, there are three options.

a) it's supposed to make it look more "tactical", or maybe "realistic"?
b) it's a gimmick to prevent the game from looking like a total Doorkickers rip-off
c) the developer is too crap to animate characters on screen

*picks option d) All of the above.* ;)

I can understand why people debating about the icon. There's a line where certain style can be considered lazy or not fitting to the game style. To be honest I'm on the "We need someone to render the person" side because it just felt way too oversimplified with the Icon and broken sense of immersion. Why not a person with small icon of their weapon near them?

Also regarding icon, I'm fine with Icons as long it fit the overall feel of the game. I mean I'm a hardcore Panzer General fan.

not my kind of game but i love the name of it
prrrrrrobably not worth getting just for that

The icon thing would be somewhat acceptable if the game were the first of it's kind. But with Frozen Synapse, Doorkickers and whatnot it's just ridiculous.