Let me forewarn you, if your looking for a game that you can justrun right through with guns blazing this game surely isn't for you.This game takes time and patience to play. I hope no one comes out withcheats or a trainer for this as it would really take the whole elementout of the game.
Installed the game and ran it. During the opening sequence I wasgreeted by some background noise of a police radio squaking in thebackground. That just sets the tone of the game right there. a
I liked right away how you could equip each of your team memberswith different REALISTIC weapons. There is an assortment of weaponsfrom lethal M4's down to the infamous Taser. There are plenty of extraslike lock picks, C2, flex cuffs, mirrors etc. Everything a modern daySWAT team would use. Speaking of modern day SWAT teams, the L.A.P.D wasan advisor on this game, so you know you're going to get as much trueto life experience as a game can handle.
Let's get into some details of the game since this is where the bread and butter are.
Game Play/Controls:
For starters SWAT4 uses the standard W,A,S,D keyboard layout incooperation with the mouse. However, there are plenty of other keyboardshortcuts that you better get familiar with.
I am so very happy with the way Sierra made controlling your team.It is a fine example of a variety of complex commands made simple touse.
For starters, you can order your team to 'fall in'. They'll allacknowledge you and move in behind you making you the guy on point. Soyou walk your team up to a closed door. Point your cursor to the doorand right click. Up comes a nice big list of commands you can orderyour SWAT team to do. You can have them pick the lock and open thedoor, breach the door with some C2 and then clear it, or my favorite:Breach it, Bang it and clear it.
I was impressed with the way the team stacks on the door correctly.They breached that door and as soon as that door went flying open, oneof my team members threw a flash bang and ducked back. He didn't sitthere with his head or body exposed watching the flash bang bounce downthe stairs. As soon as it went off, BOOM, you can hear: "MOVE!, MOVE!,GO!, GO!" Talk about excitement.
Ok, keep in mind, that's just opening a simple door! Next you walkup to a corner. You can have one of your team members take out anexpandable mirror and check around the corner for any hostiles. So Ienter this room and all is quiet. I decided to clear the next area withmy 'move and clear' command. Off the team goes. All of a sudden,CONTACT!!! and tons of yelling along with gunfire. My team observed asuspect and started taking fire. Did they wait for me to give a commandto open fire? Nope. Just like a real team, they did what they wouldhave done in real life and returned fire. Suspect down. Sweeeeeet.
So I'm moving through this building, heart pumping with adrenalinelike I'm the team leader. Each room and corner holds and unknown whichthe team and I must prepare for. Clear another room and surprise, it'snot a suspect but a civilian. Luckily the team recognized that anddidn't make Swiss cheese out of him. A quick radio into HQ and I letthem know that we have a civilian inside.
Now I decide to switch it up and be point man for a bit. I'd liketo get a piece of the action too. I order my guys to 'fall in' and theypromptly do so. Since I carry the same ordinance as my team, I open thedoor and bang it. Gunfire erupts. A suspect comes out from hiding andopens fire on me. I return fire with my M4 which fires a .223 round.Double tap right in the chest and he goes down. None of this energymeter bs. These are real guns firing real rounds. Well, real guns inthe game world..:)
There's evidence collection, securing of prisoners and more. Gameplay is what SWAT 4 is all about and they did a fantastic job with thecontrols as well as realism.
Sound:
What a treat here as well! I wasn't expecting much as I wasguessing the game was going to focus totally on movement and controls.
There was nice quiet background music while you are walking around.As soon as your team enters some action, the music cranks up and hasalmost a rock n' roll/heavy metal sound to it. Genuinely perfectaddition to SWAT4.
All other object noise like gun fire and flash bangs going off weredone in a superb fashion. No copycatting of other games was done hereat all. Your ears will be in for a treat when playing this. Try turningup the volume some when you're playing and watch when those flash bangsgo off or you start taking some fire. Talk about pucker factor!
Graphics:
Graphics aren't the high point of this game, but there done farabove average. Nothing to get all excited about like when HL2 came out,but nonetheless very well done as well.
I didn't notice any glitches in the game which was good otherwisethat would have really taken away from the overall experience. Some ofthe inanimate objects looked kind of flat and plain.
I wish more detail would have been put into the interaction ofbackground objects. For example, if I shoot a gas can with my M4, itisn't really going to scoot along the top of a counter now is it? Ahwell, it's a game and it can't be perfect.
Still a way above average job on the graphics.
Overall:
For any FPS lover or someone who likes more than just your run through each level killing as much as you can, this is for you.
SWAT 4 isn't perfect. There are a couple of things wrong. Flexcuffs are usually a plenty and after handcuffing about 4 people somehow, my team ran out of them. I was a little perplexed by that. As wellas when they entered a room with multiple doorways, they seemed to havea tendency to focus on one door way instead of the different membersdividing their attention and watching the uncleared areas.
The create your own mission is a nice plus. You can set how manybad guys there are as well as what your goals are. Because of this,SWAT 4 will provide hours of entertainment for you. This adefinite buy as you'll come back to it over and over and challengeyourself.
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