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SWAT 4

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SWAT 4
Box art for SWAT4
Developer(s)Irrational Games
Publisher(s)Vivendi Universal
Designer(s)William Gardner, Paul Hellquist, Ian Vogel
EngineUnreal Engine 2.0
Platform(s)PC
ReleaseApril 5, 2005
Genre(s)First-person shooter
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

SWAT 4 is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Irrational Games and released by Vivendi Universal on April 5, 2005. It was built on Irrational Games's Vengeance engine powered by Unreal engine technology. SWAT 4 puts the player into the role of a SWAT team leader where he commands four other team members to resolve various situations, such as hostage standoffs or apprehensions of dangerous subjects.

Gameplay

Single player

SWAT 4 features a single-player campaign where the player has to take his SWAT team through a number of missions. The missions are not related and there is no overarching storyline. The game aims to have gameplay similar to the real SWAT team experience, for example, it encourages the use of non-lethal weapons to subdue and arrest the suspects rather than shooting them dead. On the higher difficulty levels, it is impossible to progress to the next mission if the current one is not done well, such as suspects getting killed instead of arrested or other team members getting shot.

The player is the leader in a five-man SWAT team, which consists of him and four other men that can be split into two teams of two (called red and blue). The player does not assume direct control over the other officers, however, he can issue them orders such as guard an opening, entering and clearing a room (while at the same time using assorted grenades), handcuff suspects, and so on.

All missions start with a pre-mission briefing which describes the situation and gives whatever details are available on the subjects and/or hostage(s) or other civilians. The briefing also identifies mission goals, which typically are to secure (arrest or kill) all suspects and rescue the hostages or other civilians. Mission objectives are not limited to these, however. After the briefing, the player can choose equipment for himself and the other four officers, for some missions choose an entry point, and then the mission starts.

Usually the player then tries to resolve the situation in such a way as to arrest all the suspects, rescue all the civilians, and secure all the weapons - if that is done and no one is injured in the process, the mission is completed with a perfect score. The missions have very different suspects. Some are poorly armed and unarmored, and these are easy to arrest with the use of no or only non-lethal weaponry. Suspects in the later missions, however, include ones with fully automatic weapons such as AK-47s, gasmasks and full body armor. If it is not possible to arrest a suspect, then the team is forced to kill or "neutralize" the suspect.

SWAT 4 also has the concept of authorized and unauthorized use of weapons. Most situations require the officers to give the suspect a warning and ask him to surrender. Shooting without warning is considered unauthorized use of weapons and has a significant point penalty for the mission. Shooting without warning is allowed if the suspect is pointing his weapon at a hostage or a SWAT team member of if he opens fire first. Suspect reactions to warnings differ - some may attempt to hide and set up and ambush, others will flee and some will open fire. If a hostage is killed, it results in immediate mission failure.

Mission sequence

  • Mission 1: SWAT Training
  • Mission 2: Food Wall Restaurant
  • Mission 3: Fairfax Residence
  • Mission 4: Qwik Fuel Convenience Store
  • Mission 5: A-Bomb Nightclub
  • Mission 6: Victory Imports Auto Center
  • Mission 7: Red Library Offices
  • Mission 8: Northside Vending and Amusements
  • Mission 9: Duplessis Diamond Wholesale Center
  • Mission 10: Children of Taronne Tenement
  • Mission 11: St. Michaels Medical Center
  • Mission 12: The Wolcott Projects
  • Mission 13: Old Granite Hotel
  • Mission 14: Mt. Threshold Research Center

The SWAT team has various equipment, selected before the mission, available for use. Each officer can carry a primary and a secondary weapon, a number of grenades, an optiwand (a technically advanced version of a mirror on a stick) that makes it possible to see behind corners and doors, a toolkit that can unlock doors or defuse bombs, door wedges that can block a door completely, pepper spray, and either C2 explosives or a breaching shotgun for breaching locked doors. One officer can't carry all of these, so the player has to choose which equipment to use and which to leave out for a specific mission. Primary weapons can be powerful lethal guns (such as the M4A1 carbine or a pump-action shotgun) or non-lethal - a shotgun loaded with beanbags or a special paintball gun loaded with OC paintballs. Secondary weapons are either handguns or a taser.

Of special importance are various grenades. Having the team run into a room with suspects will usually result in failure, so the grenades have to be used to render the suspects less capable of attacking. There are three types of grenades: flashbang - blinds suspects for a while, can also blind you-, CS gas grenades - renders the suspects helpless for a while, less useful outdoors or in ventilated rooms, useless versus people with gasmasks (thus also has no effect on SWAT officers) - and stinger grenades - explode with small bits of plastic, the grenade makes everyone near the explosion dizzy. Using grenades as well as pepper spray or tasers can help to make subjects compliant - that is, make them surrender.

Also, it should be noted that characters in SWAT 4 can not take a lot of damage. Even though the SWAT officers are equipped with armor, they can be easily incapacitated. As in reality, if an officer is shot in the head by a suspect, they are automatically incapacitated. If the player is incapacitated, the mission ends. Officers that are wounded but not dead suffer penalties based on where they're wounded - a shot to the legs makes them much slower, a shot to the arms reduces precision dramatically, and so on.

File:Swat4-screen2.jpg
The SWAT team preparing to enter and clear a room

Multiplayer

SWAT 4 also features several multiplayer game modes, all of which are team-based: SWAT versus Suspects. The multiplayer modes are:

  • Barricaded Suspects. Teams gain points by arresting or killing members of the other team. The team which hits the score limit first or has the highest score when the round time ends wins.
  • VIP Escort. A random member of the SWAT team is selected to be the VIP. The suspects must arrest the VIP, hold him for two minutes and then execute him. The SWAT team must escort the VIP to an extraction point on the map. If the suspects kill the VIP without holding him for two minutes, SWAT wins. If a SWAT team member kills the VIP, suspects win.
  • Rapid Deployment. 3 to 5 bombs are placed throughout the map. The SWAT team must locate and disable them all within a time limit, if they fail to do so, suspects win.
  • Co-op. This allows the player to play through the single-player missions with up to four other people taking the place of computer-controlled SWAT officers.

Weapons list

The weapons available in SWAT 4 are:

File:Swat4-screen1.jpg
The player can select equipment for each of the SWAT team officers

Also, for all the guns, it is possible to choose between standard hollow point ammunition and full metal jacket ammo, which provides better penetration and is advised against armored targets.

Trivia

  • SWAT 4 is the first game in the SWAT series that takes place in a location other than Los Angeles, California. It is not officially licensed by the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT Team like previous SWAT games. The game is set in the fictional city of "Fairview, New York" but clues within the game (such as the color scheme, precinct numbers, and patch on some police cars) remind the player of New York City.
  • SWAT 4 received some scrutiny from gamers for having in-game advertising in its most recent patch. [1] Due to this, gaming site Gamespot gave it the 2005 award for "Most Despicable Product Placement".
  • Sonny Bonds, who appeared in the original Police Quest games, appears in this game.

Critic scores

SWAT 4 has been generally well received by computer game reviewers. Following is an a small list of some of the reviews.

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