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SWAT 4 
Release date: 5 Apr 2005
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SWAT 4 Preview
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The king is dead - long live the king! SWAT 4 is undoubtedly the new king of the tactical shooter genre, stomping all contenders into the ground with Godzilla-like ease. After the debacle that was Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, many gamers were worried that the tactical shooter was dead on the PC; SWAT: Urban Justice had been canned. Somehow, SWAT: Global Strike Team was released on consoles only, leading PC gamers to fear that another franchise created for the PC was being subverted. Thankfully, SWAT 4 looks set to render those fears irrelevant.
I'll start at the beginning – the announcement that Irrational was being handed the keys to the last, best hope of the tactical shooter. With a near perfect development history spanning many genres, and more recently, several important franchises, Irrational seemed to be an excellent choice to develop SWAT 4. And when the first screenshots emerged, any remaining doubts were quickly swept away. As more tales from the developers began to emerge regarding the AI, level design and controls, it became more and more clear that SWAT 4 was truly something to look forward to. And with the recent release of the single-player demo, I can announce that SWAT 4 is set to redefine what makes a shooter.
There seems to be a lot of these claims going around at the moment – HalfLife 2, Doom 3 and Far Cry all promised amazing graphics and SWAT 4 is easily their equal. Just as importantly, even when on maximum detail settings, with two picture-in-picture windows open and a mirrored surface on screen, SWAT 4 doesn't flinch and the visuals keep breezing by at an excellent frame rate. The AI is possibly the best in gaming. Your teammates' pathfinding skills are impeccable, characters getting hung up on doorways are a thing of the past, and teammates and enemies make use of cover. Variable AI states mean that each encounter is risky and should be approached carefully, although, occasionally, your teammates can be a little over-zealous with their use of lethal force. The AI of suspects and civilians is excellent, with them generally realizing when a situation is hopeless – five SWAT members with M4s aimed at them and their ears still ringing from a flashbang is a good start if you want to encourage that feeling.
As for replayability or "dynamic campaigns" or any other single-player buzzwords of the moment, SWAT 4 continues to excel. Each mission is randomly generated based on a certain set of parameters, so suspects and hostages won't be in the same place twice, nor will their AI act in the same way. Each mission will generally have a selection of entry points and what promises to be an excellent variety of weapons, including "less lethals," meaning that the player can take a great deal of the decision making into their own hands. Add to this an excellent and simple-to-use mission editor within the game - that's right: make missions without having to quit and launch another program - and SWAT 4's replay value is going through the roof.
Weapons within the game are well modelled, sound excellent, and feel "right." And with the introduction of weapons like Tasers and "less lethal" shotguns, there will probably be some hilarious moments when people just don't want to surrender. This becomes almost wrong at times, since your team, if ordered to do so, will Taser or shoot beanbag rounds into handcuffed suspects and civilians - god bless the LAPD. The MAC-10s, and other assorted "gangsta" weapons of your enemies, seem puny when you're behind a nice big gun and several layers of ballistic vest, but this is no excuse to be sloppy since even a graze on your arm will have severe consequences both in the mission and later during the debrief. If there is one complaint, it's that your fellow officers' "enthusiasm" for fully-automatic gunfire will occasionally lead to less-than-excellent mission reports on your file.
To balance your teammates' occasional, loveable foibles, they are an amazingly helpful and chatty bunch. In addition to instantly reporting any and all contacts and the state of rooms, doors and other situations, they contribute lovely one-liners in the appropriate circumstances, even going so far as to talk back to suspects who are getting mouthy. They'll tell you if you are getting in their way and chastise you when you make a bad decision or, worse, clip them with stray fire.
Gameplay is from a first-person view, with the option of controlling your teammates through a mouse-based GUI or a numbered menu system (which, though it was excellent in SWAT 3, feels like it's been hamstrung here). The mouse-based GUI, though initially fiddly begins to feel natural and easy to use. Judicious use of slow, methodical tactics is the name of the game here. Using fibre-optics to check doors and corners, employing your flashbangs and stingballs only when absolutely necessary (you have a very limited supply) and in the full version, wedging doors shut and using CS gas, pepper spray, and all sorts of other fun law-enforcement materials promises to only expand on this gameplay gem.
SWAT 4 should be sought out and played as soon as possible, because this game is absolutely gorgeous. It plays like a gun-bunny's dream, and even the single level demo is nearly infinitely replayable. Though it probably won't be for everybody - the gameplay, though rewarding, can be challenging, especially for an action oriented player - it is safe to say that April and SWAT 4's release just cannot come soon enough.
Preview by Anders Russell on 4 Mar 2005
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