I will admit here that I never played SWAT 4 "back in the day" but after hearing so many good things in the last few years I jumped at this re-release. Sadly I did not get the experience I expected finally playing SWAT 4. (TLDR AT BOTTOM) -The game isn't smart enough to know when killing a bad guy is arguably justified. An enemy can shoot at you, then break into a run but if you kill him after he enters the running animation the game WILL punish your final rating score. Apparently killing retreating enemies is not justified use of force, but in real life I highly doubt a member of SWAT would be convicted for that. What if the hostile was retreating to a room full of hostages that he would start shooting? What if he was retreating to a fortified position? The game doesn't care and if you kill a running enemy (even one running at you less than 5 meters) you will be punished. If using non lethal means and and an enemy REFUSES to give up, you've shot him with beanbags, pepper spray and hes still holding an AK and in a dazed animation, shooting to wound will get you a docked score. You can't melee in the base game or throw him to the ground like a real SWAT officer would do. Shooting an enemy before you politely ask them to surrender is also frowned upon, even when a split second hesitation would leave you dead and the mission failed. The game doesn't care how your squad kills so just have them do everything, oh wait... -Squad AI is atrociously bad. AI so bad it should be illegal. Your squad will ask you to leave if you are in their "spot". They aren't smart enough to take another position in the door stack. Your squad will deploy grenades in door jams, run out from cover to throw a grenade (and get shot and die), not automatically secure guns and arrest the bad guys (leaving them to pick up the guns they dropped and wipe your squad in a few seconds), call a room clear but not see enemies hiding behind objects. If you are in another room as your squad and ask them to regroup on you, your squad will take the shortest route to get to you, running through UNCLEARED ROOMS FULL OF MEN WITH AK 47S (and ignoring them) to get to you. If your squad is stacked up on a locked door and you are on the other side of it and tell them to pick the lock THEY WILL RUN ALL THE WAY AROUND to pick it from your side. Small rooms like bathrooms and rooms that are "L" shaped are deathtraps for your squad. Each individual squad member will clear the first area of the room while ignoring the rest of it, soon enough your squad will be wiped. There is also no way to pinpoint where you want your squad to deploy, telling them to hold position in a parking garage for instance and they will stand in the open instead of finding a car to crouch behind for instance. SWAT tactics in real life obviously require maximum amount of training and communication, and if a game can't simulate this because of technology limitations it shouldn't have been made. This is like a flight simulator that can't simulate lift and drag. TLDR: SWAT simulator that fails to bring a realistic or fun experience due to issues with Squad A and how the game recognizes your actions.
