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| SWAT 4 is the fourth game in the SWAT
series which has established the Simulation First Person
Shooter genre. This game improves on its predecessors
with stunning new graphics, a new physics system, reworked
game play, and even more authentic SWAT action. It all
comes together extremely well, earning its place in
the acclaimed SWAT series. |
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April, 2005
Irrational Games
Sierra
PC
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SWAT 4 doesn't have much of an overall storyline that spans
the whole game; instead it has an individual story for each
new mission. In the game you are the commander of a new SWAT
unit that is being deployed in the field. You go about many
missions; each has its own back-story that tends to be pretty
generic but interesting in their own right. At the start of
each mission you receive a 911 call, which is very neat with
decent voice acting. An exhaustingly detailed briefing follows,
which is also spoken well. The game would truly shine if it
established an overall storyline that tied all the missions
together. Although the lack is not a total loss, it would
make you feel that there is reason for all the shooting and
arresting that you proceed to do in the game.
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The developers of SWAT 4 have completely overhauled the graphics
from SWAT 3, which is to be expected because game 3 in the
series came out back in 2002. Like SWAT 3, SWAT 4 competes
for graphical supremacy with the best games on the market.
With gorgeous character models, detailed textures, realistic
and smoothly textured guns, true to life animations and well
implemented dynamic lighting and special effects, SWAT 4 has
nothing short of graphical excellence, and will entice any
eye candy seeking junkie.
The game contains one element that you might not realize is
there, but its presence very subtly makes the environments
and situations feel that much more realistic. This element
is the extensive, unique texturing displayed throughout the
game. The wall textures alone are some of the best I’ve
seen, even surpassing the Half-Life 2 and its hyped Source
graphics engine at times. The wall textures have details,
with streaks protruding in vein-like patterns. Grime and rust
are shown in all glory on gas tanks and metal trash dumps.
It is very refreshing not to see the same texture repeated
throughout the game, especially a texture that is flat and
bears no detail of any kind. This game’s texture variety
and detail separates the environments (mostly urban) from
other games. Kudos go to the SWAT 4 development team.
Dynamic lighting is becoming a standard nowadays but many
games do not use the technique to its full extent. When the
lighting is well implemented it can enhance the level of realism
through its ability to completely change the player’s
perspective of an area, especially those indoors or in confined
spaces. (Did I mention that SWAT 4 missions take place almost
always within these parameters?) Dynamic lighting can also
affect the different objects, whether they are inanimate objects
or animate characters. The light casts a shadow that directly
correlates to the position and orientation of the object in
relation to the light’s position. For example, dynamic
lighting reflects off a polished gun depending on its orientation
towards the light; this surpasses the old static lighting
that use to be the norm in gaming.
Dynamic lighting is a very powerful technique that developers
can now utilize thanks to the increasingly powerful and affordable
systems that are making their way into gamers’ households.
Landscapes
The landscapes give you a very brief glimpse at the exterior
surroundings of your mission. You are usually deployed outside,
but there isn’t much exploring to do there because the
landscape is usually blocked. What you can see is usually
drab and boring. The good stuff starts when you walk into
the building where your objectives are located.
Buildings
As I mentioned earlier, the building textures in this game
are fabulous and the dynamic lighting is well implemented.
You get to explore a very well thought out building design
that tests your skills as a SWAT team leader. Some of the
buildings look very run-down, such as in the first mission
where you are deployed in a Chinese restaurant. The building
interiors are very well done, and usually give you some impression
of the locale. I wish I could have seen more open sections
of buildings, because doing so could add to the depth of SWAT
4’s gameplay.
Vehicles
The vehicles in the game look fine but they are very scarce.
You see your SWAT van in most missions but the only time you
see a lot of vehicles is in the garage mission. The cars are
well-textured and smooth, and they reflect light very well.
Their realism is convincing until you look at the tires, which
are not modeled well -- they look out of place and stick out
like a sore thumb. Because you don’t see many vehicles
this flaw doesn’t really detract from the overall vehicle
graphics much.
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| SWAT4 vehicle model.
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MetaVR
vehicle model from the 3D
model libraries.
Click the image to see a close-up. |
Characters
Since you are always stuck with your SWAT teammates in the
gameplay you would assume that they would receive special
treatment. And you would be right. The SWAT character models
look awesome, flat out graphical bliss! Their uniforms are
very detailed, with various equipment pouches protruding from
the uniform, which by itself is also very well done. The characters
are so smooth that you wonder how many polygons they are made
with.
The appearance of a SWAT member changes based on his equipment.
If a SWAT member has three fragmentation grenades and two
flash-bangs you will see the objects hooked onto his belt.
If he throws a grenade, it will no longer be displayed on
his belt. Side arms can be seen in holsters on the leg of
the uniform and breaching shotguns or certain other gadgets
are carried on the back of the unit.
The civilians and enemies also are well detailed and smooth,
though not quite to the level of the SWAT members. Also, they
are not unique; I saw the same model multiple times in a mission.
I guess that identical twins and/or triplets are becoming
more common.
Far Horizon
Since the gameplay takes place primarily inside buildings,
there is never an opportunity to really gauge the far horizon.
I've never noticed a far horizon problem in a building, which
is to be expected.
Audio
Audio in SWAT 4 is up to par but not exceptional. The gunshots
sound good, the voices are usually well done, except for the
voices of the Civilians and Enemies who speak the same phrases
over and over. You even hear the SWAT members say, “I’ve
heard that one before buddy,” when cuffing a civilian
or enemy. Well, the man is right; he has heard that one before,
many times. Even worse, the repeated phrases aren’t
acted out very well, and sound odd in some situations, sounding
silly or stereotypical. However the game’s voice acting
does redeem itself at the briefings and with the 911 calls
in which the voice acting is superb. Each SWAT member has
a distinctly different voice, which enforces the individuality
of each character. You will hear them making jokes or one
liners, reporting status, yelling at enemies or responding
to your orders. The player’s character’s orders
are done well and to add a layer of realism, the command is
not always the same phrasing. For example, ordering a clear
could be: “Clear that room squad” or “Secure
that area team”. This makes the leader sound less like
a robot who always says the same thing.
A cool effect used for immersive sound is centered on explosions.
When you are near an explosion, such as a grenade or something
else similar, you hear a ringing noise and the sound is distorted.
This would be similar to a real life situation after such
a powerful explosion that happens near you. This is just a
neat effect that I felt needed proper recognition.
In general, the sound in the game is exceptional in some instances
and lackluster in others.
The audio is as immersive as the graphics that are present
in the game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. The best audio components
(although overall every component is top notch) are the voiceovers
and the ambient noises. The voiceovers are heard from the
various members of the Third Echelon team during the briefings.
For each mission, each of the four team members reads a couple
paragraphs aloud. All the acting here is very believable and
I was never once pulled out of the situation, as occurs often
with games that have poor acting.
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After you create your profile, SWAT 4 launches you into a
training mission, and you are shown the ropes of being a SWAT
Team Commander. You learn your skills through your higher-up
who teaches you the basics of every element of the game, which
is good because you’ll need almost all of the skills
you learn. After you learn how to shoot, throw grenades, command
teams, and utilize SWAT procedures, you are thrown into your
first assignment.
The missions require a fair bit of thought before you are
deployed, if you are to succeed. Running in with no strategy
and without using your team and the tactics that are your
disposal will almost certainly lead to defeat. With that in
mind you can look at the map of the area, the briefing, and
various other resources to get a feel for the environment
you are entering, not to mention learning what your objectives
or targets are because once you’re in the mission you
are on your own. You also get to choose not only your weapons
but everyone’s on your squad as well. The list of weapons
is extensive and authentic; each weapon has a little description
with its history and info about it. I liked the shotgun variety.
Throughout the level you order your teams around using
a simple context sensitive menu that you activate with the
right mouse button (by default). Based on what your crosshairs
are positioned on, the menu will give you options on how
to order your team to approach the situation. For example,
if you are looking at a door and display the menu, it gives
you numerous ways of opening the door and clearing the room
on the other side. When you release the right mouse button,
your squad follows your orders and proceeds with the specified
task. It is very neat to watch the team members use real
SWAT maneuvers to go about accomplishing the mission. I
even found myself using them for the whole mission and not
even using my weapon.
You can add another layer of depth to the game by controlling
of not just one team but rather two squad teams. You can split
the teams up to work separate tasks or order them to do things
cooperatively. For example you could make them breach from
different doors to the same room in order to confuse and disorient
the enemies, making it easier to eliminate or subdue them.
You can also just use the two teams as one unit if you prefer.
There is actually one other squad that works with you from
a distance as snipers. This team, called Sierra, will notify
you of enemy movement and tell you if they have a shot, in
which case you can press a button and actually take the shot
yourself remotely, which is very cool. In a similar fashion,
you can look at the scene through your squad leader’s
eyes by pressing a button as well. In these instances, whether
sniping or watching, a little window pops up taking up some
of your screen, but not obscuring your line of vision. It
is a very good strategy to keep tabs on the squad leader and
the snipers as the mission proceeds.
One major drawback to this game is simply its repetitive nature.
After the first few missions you might get a little bored
by the procedure of ordering your squads around. It can seem
a little tedious and time consuming for those of us who love
diving into the action ourselves. You will also begin to notice
that you are always being asked to do one of the same few
tasks. Rescue the hostage, eliminate the enemy, and find such
and such become very familiar. A little variety in your tasks
would help a great deal.
Finally, there is the scoring system. At the end of the level
you are shown all the stats on how you performed in the mission,
such as how many kills you had, or how many enemies you subdued.
The stats also show your completed objectives, how many successful
events you reported (such as a downed suspect), and the time
you took to complete the mission. Situations such as having
a squad mate incapacitated or injured, completing the mission
in a long period of time, killing enemies, or unauthorized
use of force hurt your score. All factors are tallied and
you get a ranking from 1 (worst) to100 (best). To move on
to the next mission you must have a score that is higher than
what is required for the difficulty level that you selected.
For example, an easy difficulty level would require a much
lower minimum score than that of a harder difficulty level.
This system is not very suitable for people who want a big
challenge or a just want to be able to beat the mission. Sure
you can strive for more points, but why not make the actual
mission itself harder? This could be accomplished easily by
ramping up enemy AI and skill with the difficulty level or
adding extra objectives or enemies. With this scheme the game
would still be able to use the scoring system but maybe it
would just for the purpose of bragging rights. I hope the
next game improves on the difficulty system.
Gameplay-wise though, SWAT 4 is rock solid.
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CONTROL SCHEME |
SCORE: 8.0 |
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SWAT 4 uses the familiar WASD control scheme, which entails
using the keys WASD as the movement keys, (like the arrow
keys on your keyboard only more conveniently located) and
using the mouse to control where your character looks. All
the commands can be mapped to any key or mouse button available
to you, which makes it easy to control the game in a way that
is most comfortable to you. It’s the standard PC control
scheme here; unbeatable, and though it's not new or innovative,
you can’t hold that against SWAT 4. |
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SWAT 4 has a campaign that is reasonably long. The only incentive
I could see to play the campaign again would be to experience
the change in enemy locations each time which makes each play
through less predictable, or to obtain higher scores. But
because of its repetitive nature, I can’t envision many
people playing a campaign more than one time through.
The game also has a multiplayer mode. In this mode, you choose
your gear and then are assigned to either the SWAT team or
Suspect team who fight for control of a VIP (also controlled
by a player) in the VIP mode. You can also choose various
other modes to play in. The multiplayer mode may compel you
to play for a while after the completion of the single player
mode but I doubt you’ll be hooked by the multiplayer
mode for long.
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BUGS AND GLITCHES |
SCORE: 7.0 |
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The only problem I encountered using SWAT 4 was that the game
crashed whenever I tried to quit to Windows, which caused
my very capable gaming machine to freeze. This situation was
quite a hassle until I looked for a solution online. After
I downloaded the latest patch, the problem never happened
again. Although it was annoying, it wasn’t something
that should keep you from buying this game. |
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SWAT 4 is a fun and very compelling game, which has remarkable
graphics. On the down-side, it is plagued by repetitive gameplay,
which in turn limits its attractiveness and longevity. With
that said, SWAT 4 best quality is its spot-on digital recreation
of SWAT situations, procedures, weaponry, and tactics.
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