A well crafted mixture of core tactics and fresh ideas.
At a first glance, Swat 4 can easily be misinterpreted as your typical, tense Tom Clancy tactical shooter such as the games from the Rainbow Six series, which was one of the few franchises to pioneer the sub-genre. This is easy to forgive. The game is a first person shooter where issuing commands to squad-mates is necessary for success, shooting requires precision and trudging around without assessing an area will definitely end in a swift demise. Fortunately SWAT 4 adds enough variation to become a memorable experience. It may also seem strange that I am writing about the fourth game in a franchise as opposed to the original, but that's because the series has had quite a drastic change in design over the years. The number is redundant, though, as this game stands out high and large among its predecessors. If it wasn't for a few poor design decisions, I would consider the game to be one of my favourite shooters of all time.
So, looking at the history of the franchise, it's evident that SWAT 4 is a much different game than some of the previous iterations. The first game was released in 1995 as a subtitle for the fifth Police Quest game and was a first person graphic adventure game. The next game was Police Quest: SWAT 2. It was an isometric strategy game similar to UFO : Enemy Unknown. It wasn't until the third game, SWAT 3 : Close Quarters Battle that the SWAT franchise removed the unnecessary "Police Quest" title from it. Developed in 1999 by Sierra Entertainment, it's a game that clearly took notes from "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" which was released a year before SWAT 3's release. It was the design decision to encourage non lethal tactics that allowed SWAT 3 to stand out from it's close quarter competitor. Clearly a lot of the systems implemented in it were carried over to SWAT 4, but ultimately SWAT 4 feels like the most distinct game from the franchise. While SWAT 3's tone was quite similar to Rainbow Six, SWAT 4 was a lot more disturbing. That's because the developer that took the reins of the SWAT franchise was none other than Irrational Games (widely renowned by most as the developers of games like System Shock 2 and Bioshock, a successor of sorts to System Shock 2). What do these very similar games have in common with a very different first-person shooter such as SWAT 4? They all magnificently display a daunting and dismal setting. For the majority of the game, the large open areas of most tactical shooters such as Delta Force and Ghost Recon have been replaced with narrow corridors. The somewhat bright visuals of SWAT 3 has been dimmed for a more oppressive feel. The missions pertaining to ambassadors and political affairs have been cast aside for missions that are more unnerving. One involves investigating a kidnapping in a quiet suburban home, another involved searching a dilapidated apartment for a group of cultists. Crimes that seem more probable to see at home than political attacks.
I don't want to give too much away regarding the missions, because the horror elements in which the game dips into enhance the experience so much, and that's not just because I love horror. Each area is filled with such great detail. Each mission feels diverse enough yet maintains a sense of mystery throughout. It's truly a different experience than your typical tactical game, as not only do you fear dying but you also fear what you may uncover in the dark areas you explore. Along with the graphically pleasant environments, the character models of the SWAT members also look quite alright considering the game is almost a decade old. Unfortunately the character models for the civilians look quite dated even by comparison, but they aren't awful. Along with the nice visual detail, the sound design is equally as impressive. Fellow members of the force talk to you via radio, and their distorted voices sounds quite creepying, the crack of guns really gives you a sense of power from them, and while the music isn't particularly entertaining to listen to it only begins to play when situations become dangerous to really increase the tension. While these factors may not appeal to hardcore fans of tactical shooters I feel that they can attract gamers such as myself who are not just playing the game for a challenging experience.
While I may not be the biggest fan of tactical shooters for a few reasons, I believe that this game has a lot to offer for people that are. One of the things that is obviously necessary for a tactical shooter to succeed is good artificial intelligence. SWAT 4's execution in feeling distraught is further improved by the dynamic artificial intelligence. Non Player Characters will spawn in different areas every time you play and will react differently when you approach them. Some civilians will cower in fear and some will not co-operate. Some will direct you towards a suspect's location and others will stay quite while one is nearby. Some suspect's will give up immediately, some will pretend to do so. Some will run away and others may take civilians as hostages. It's this unpredictability that makes the game a cautious play, yet rewards your patience and thoughtful assessments of situations. Although the SWAT member's artificial intelligence is quite good, co-operative multiplayer is a much more entertaining experience. Although Gamespy closed the master server, you can download a patch to play online.
Another factor that I feel is required in a tactical shooter is good strategy. This is also shown in SWAT 4 thanks to its nice balance in weapon/tool customization, a simple yet effectively integrated command interface and its many design decisions to prevent players from straying from the strategy of the game. You have a few submachine guns, shotguns and pistols to equip to your character and fellow squad members, but the most interesting items at your disposal are the non lethal weapons. A stun gun or and a less lethal shotgun can be used, which feel a lot more necessary. On normal difficulty, you are deducted marks for killing any non player characters, and if you don't get specific score at the end of the mission you have to replay and get that mark to progress. Unlike lethal weapons you're not going to worry about killing someone with stun gun, but there's also a lack of power in an enemy encounter as they are less likely to surrender. This nicely balances the choice of weaponry and prevents the lethal weapons from becoming a pointless addition to the campaign. In preparation for these enemy encounters, the tools and commands are required to succeed. Luckily, these things are easy to use and using these mechanics to prepare for a shootout is just as fun as experiencing the fight. Being required to play like this as opposed to it being an optional strategy may seem like a turn off to some, but slow movement, quick deaths and being forced to start the mission again when killed encourages players to fulfill its tactics, and I can appreciate a developer's lack of compromise when it comes to this. It avoids the temptation of an easy way out.
Some of these design choices also become faults for the game unfortunately. Sometimes areas are too large and have too many enemies. This makes thoughtful and tactical gameplay less effective and can often lead to cheap deaths. Most games that force you to restart the mission have specific enemy placement, and rewards the player for remembering where they reside. SWAT 4's random enemy placement means that you can success can be slightly affected by luck. It's an extremely frustrating experience, but if the enemies were generated at the exact same spots it would take away a lot of the tension. Also, it's clear that Irrational wanted the missions to be interesting to replay. There aren't a lot of missions in the game either, and some really aren't as memorable as others. Another complaint I have with this is that you could play the first mission over and over again and get the game's core gameplay experience. No new tools or items are rewarded, and the lack of variety in terms of gameplay gives less of an incentive to play through the more frustrating missions.
Despite these frustrations, SWAT 4 is an excellent example as to why tactical shooters are so interesting. While streamlining certain mechanics, the tension is frequent throughout. It captures exactly what a tactical shooter should implement while also placing a very unique take on the sub-genre.