There are jack o' lanterns lining the back entryway, cockroaches scuttling around piles of garbage bags, and masks and mannequin parts littered around the basement area. This mission takes place in a house straight out of Silence of the Lambs. The same went for the second mission, but the lack of action was less noticeable, as I was busy checking out the intricate details of the second map. Even on the Hard difficulty, the first mission seemed too easy, as there were only three suspects to apprehend. I had hoped for some immediate action, but since I wanted to observe the AI's interaction I opted to send them ahead of me and merely served as cleanup crew to zip-tie hostages and suspects. The scene for the first mission was a Chinese restaurant, and the mission was to apprehend the restaurant owner, a visiting thug, and a weapon that the restaurant owner was reportedly modifying. There were numerous times that I had to abort the Training mission and start over because I got distracted and didn't hear what the Training officer was expecting.Īfter the Training mission I moved onto the Single Player campaign to test out how well my AI team functioned. A word of advice, though: listen carefully to the instructions given by the Training officer, because I couldn't find a way to have him repeat what he wanted me to do. You can also issue commands through the viewport - however, a command cannot be issued on a door unless the player points the viewport at the door itself. For example, you have the ability to split the four man AI squad into two groups and view the remote squad from their viewport, which is a helmet-mounted camera. Although the gadgets may look self-explanatory, there are certain nuances that might not be immediately evident on your own. SWAT 4 has some neat gadgets, and the Training mission is a good place to familiarize yourself with them. But since I knew I wanted to play through the Single Player campaigns, I started out with the Training mission.
Normally, when I play an FPS, I jump right into a Multiplayer server and learn as I go along.
The series returns to PC with SWAT 4, which was developed by Irrational Games, a studio known for its refined craftsmanship of earlier sequels such as Tribes: Vengeance and System Shock 2. VU Games' Sierra-brand SWAT series began on home computers, but moved to consoles with the 2003 release of SWAT: Global Strike Team. Each time a level is played, the computer places criminal suspects and potential civilian hostages randomly around the map, so missions pose new dangers and solutions each time they are attempted. The game's selection of authentically designed weapons includes several non-lethal choices, such as tear gas and flashbang grenades as in real life, the ultimate goal of the police team is not to maim or kill the suspects, but to apprehend them before they can cause any harm to innocent bystanders (or themselves). SWAT 4 is a 3D action game that puts players in command of a squad of special weapons and tactics police, and challenges them to solve tense, dangerous situations with discretion and responsibility befitting an elite officer of the law.