SWAT 4 Video Game Review (About In Description)
0Irrational is right on target with their newest addition to the SWAT franchise.
Special Weapons and Tactics units are the high end of the badass scale when it comes to the police force. As the title of the group implies, they're the special forces of the police, deployed in hostile situations where regular police tactics simply won't work. They're highly trained in close combat and non-lethal submission of armed subjects. They have the weapons to kill, but prefer less lethal tactics to avoid unnecessary death of suspects or civilians stuck in the middle. SWAT teams often enter unfamiliar territory without confirmation of enemy numbers or armament, making for extremely dangerous situations. Irrational's new addition to the venerable SWAT franchise does a brilliant job of picking up on all of the things that make SWAT work so exciting from the outside perspective. They've created some amazing levels that force team tactics along a super fun multiplayer experience for a few reasons. Friendly AI can be a problem from time to time in the single player game, but this is definitely one tactical shooter that I won't hesitate to recommend.
Graphically, SWAT 4 is very good. It can almost hold its own with nearly any of the big shooters out there at the moment, not because of any particularly great technical achievment (it doesn't have that), but because the art team and level designers put an excessive amount of detail into all of the environments. Irrational was going for realistic "lived in" spaces and they did that perfectly. These environments are filled with all sorts of odd items that you would expect to see in each of these locations. They didn't stop with the stacked crates or simple cubicles here; these areas were brought to life with extra bits of paper, trash, food, puddles, lamps, construction materials, furniture... you name it. It may seem like stuff you've seen before, but you've never seen it such a large variety of objects in such quantities.
There are some less than spectacular things like clipping, mirrors that look more like monitors showing a feed rather than a true reflection, enemy models really that aren't brilliant (big frog hands as Tal says), and animations that miss their targets, but overall, this is a great visual look. Many of the environments are creepy and dark which help build tension as well. All these things not only massage the eyes with kindness but also help create more exciting gameplay. When you walk into a room that seems to have a real purpose (outside of providing an interesting game environment) things get really tense. Cans and chairs begin to look like heads and bodies, office cubicles are just tall enough so you can't see around them and create a ton of hidden nooks and corners, and doorways sprout in all directions. Extra care has to be taken to cover all vulnerable angles. Frankly, I can't imagine actually going into areas like this in real life with no more information than a map scrawled on a napkin and a "there are at least five heavily armed terrorists inside" without actually crapping myself.
When you deal with AI that will actively run away and even try to surround you in flanking maneuvers, things get even better. I can't say that the AI in SWAT 4 is the best I've ever seen, but they certainly like to take cover, hide, and wait for you to do something incredibly stupid. The best thing about the enemy AI is that all of them have sliding scales of both skill and morale. When you get a highly skilled enemy with fanatic level morale, chances are, blood is going to be spilled by somebody. They'll wait, run for cover, and pop you when you think the area is clear.
Because the game is a realistic tactical shooter, you're going to find that getting shot is a really bad idea. Even heavy body armor seems to provide limited cover. I suppose you get shot enough with anything and you'll go down. My main problem with enemy AI is that they seem to be incredible shots much of the time. I've been picked off by a low level thug in one shot with heavy armor on (meaning I was popped in the brain).
Friendly AI in the single player game unfortunately has more problems than enemy AI. I've found that it works well most of the time, but occasionally, it seems to have a complete lapse in attention or judgment. Some orders will be completely ignored while others will be carried out immediately. Sometimes the team will bust into a room on command and take down everybody with enough efficiency to be impressive while other times they'll run straight past an enemy looking to cover a certain area of the room only to get shot in the back of the head.
The biggest problem with the AI is the inconsistency with which they enter a room on breach. In the couple of hours I had with SWAT members training press in real life tactics a while back, they had us move into a room inches apart from each other through the door so that all guns would be entering and covering all points of the room