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"Swat 4... (Serious Jizzums)"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'SWAT 4'.
Sun 10/04/05 at 01:51
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Picked it up this morning as my bank account was a little more fri*ged than I originally thought :) (got it from Gamestation Bullet, cheers)...

Firstly I will get all the major jizzums out of the way and will give an overview of pretty much what to expect.

The premise of the game for those who don't know is as such. You control a 5 man squad (you are only fully in control of a the leading office) which consist of a 2 man red team and a 2 man blue team, you can command each individually or you can issue commands to the whole squad. Each mission is totally unique and there is by no means any story linking them up, any crappy cut-scenes, no over the top FMV's etc, you get the picture. Before each missions you get a really in-depth briefing, some of them you get to listen to the 911 calls and you can study the floor plans which is really helpful as due to the random NPC's/enemy placements you can't memorise where they are laid out and rather than having set patterns it appears they are completely random each time, an example of this was the first mission was when I started firing bean-bags at a chef having a cig round the back of a restaurant, this set the dogs off and the element of surprise was screwed, the time before that there was no one there and the time before that the restaurant manager was taking some bags outside, really unpredictable.

Equipment selection is really important as well as the M4-A1 is really difficult to control when set to automatic mode so in close quaters it is really worth picking up a tactical shotgun or none leathal shotgun. Outside of the rifles, hand guns you can take pepper spray, breaching shotguns for locked doors and even door wedges to stop people from making a run out a door you don't want to cover with one of your squads, the attention to detail and attention to realism is absolutely incredible. The pepper spray is really funny as it sounds as though they are in serious pain so it's worth taking to use on all the suspects that are really hard to get under control. Snipers aren't selectable and are in place automatically in crucial positions but you are in full control of when they shoot as you have to enter a viewing window and actually aim/pull the trigger yourself. Those who have played Rainbow Six Raven Shield/3 will be aware of the Zulu command, this is slightly different as you can actually enter a seperate window, travel to a different door yet still see the door through their visor and pick the command you want them to use, works a lot better for me.

Ordering your team about is a piece of pish, you have four button layouts to choose from as to how you want it setup, I chose right lick to bring up the menu, another right click to select and left click to exit, that is how easy it is to bring up the available actions for your selected team for the object you are pointing at, aside from that everything is context sensitive. Your action button will enable any action brought up on screen at that current time and if you don't have any context options it acts as your Swat shout which is used when chargring towards the enemies/after breaching a room, depending on how scared they are some drop the floor straight away, others will take cover or make a run to get out of that room, for this reason I always take a none-leathal weapon with me. The none-lethal shotgun is excellent as it fires bean bags which is enough to make them drop most of the time and if that doesn't one of your other guys will shout as a last resort. This isn't the type of game like Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox where you can shoot anyone down at any stage, you get punished for not following the police/Swat code and shooting lethal rounds is a last resort, thankfully you are in full control of which each member of your team uses for all their equipment, unless it is a really tough mission (like a bank robbery) then I usually only let 2 of the members take lethal rifles.

The environments are unbelievable, they look real and as pretty much every review has pointed out, they feel like people have actually lived in them etc. The Hitman games have a similar feel to them but this takes it to a totally new level (mainly because of the sweet visuals which push it a hell of a lot further than Swat 3). The first mission takes place in a restaurant where-by a Columbian Hitman is meeting the owner of the restaurant to get his weapon modded for a new hit. The restaurant looks superb and the owner lives in a flat upstairs which has so many little neat touches (and a few cliches like a Chinese guy having a kung-fu DVD collection and a calendar of mid 20's American sweet hearts laying in the buff, as well as rats running around etc, never played a game with environments so vibrant with real life references in such amazing detail, not even Half-Life 2 felt this real.

A few extras worth pointing out... The training mission covers everything, play that and you will pick it up straight away - it does sound hella lot more complicated than it is in practice, the interface simplifies it in a really good way. AA and AF will have to be activated outside of the game but everything else is completely customisable from the visuals to key bindings. The missions work on a scoring system where you have to hit that score before the next mission will be available to you. Elite requires 95/100, Hard 75/100 right down to Easy which just requires you complete the mission. You are punished for opening fire in a public place, taking damage, shooting compliant enemies and are rewarded for cuffing/arresting as many as you come across, reporting them back to HQ and in general following the real life Swat code and if you think you can get away with tricking the system it really doesn't work (tried it myself :D). The AI is incredible, really clever, if you stick a door wedge under a door and they try to leave that way they will sometimes kick the door and swear in desperation, your Swat team don't crack jokes as such but they make some really funny but really believable comments. All the missions are apparently based on real life Swat situations, right down to the locations.

Overall so far it has serious jizzum value, excellent fun to play, look superb, sounds superb and it has gone straight up into the number one tactical shooter slot as far as I am concerned.

In a word...

Sexual.
Sun 01/05/05 at 12:12
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
The online play is phenomenal.. I don't really play anything other than Barricaded Suspects (Team Deathmatch) but that in itself is quality...

You get 1 point for a kill and 5 points for an arrest.. The ballistics are phenomenal though... it's so good online. I play it more than anything I have on XBOX LIVE.

I find the .45 SMG to be one of the best guns. It's not OVERLY powerful, but it's quite quick, very accurate and if you drag the mouse down when auto firing you don't shoot the ceiling..

It takes practice online.. but where as 2 weeks ago I was standing in awe at the people who got 25 when the rest of the players got 10-12, now it's me who gets the high scores in the majority of servers...

I normally do pretty welll, but I might just be playing with new players.

I love it though.. I should write a review on it - in case anyone is sitting on the fence.
Sun 01/05/05 at 03:22
Regular
Posts: 16,558
I haven't played online yet just incase they release a patch which normally happens with most PC games. They might make some gameplay changes in some upcoming patches so I would like to join in when people aren't so familiar with it :P
Anyway I might try it later tonight my nick will be I dunno? Probably this nick since Sniper (my old SR/net) name is probably being used.
Tue 26/04/05 at 00:30
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
Sometimes I do really well, and other times i'll have a very high kill total and a handful of arrests - but I TK so much (on accident) that I end up on about 7 or 8!

I love the game though. I normally play late at night and play some ambient music. It's very 'The Rock', but it's dead relaxing and quite artistic when loads of people are dying.

I played about half an hour ago, and literally shot about 8 people in a row. It was on the Auto Centre level, and I think the Mercs had just spawned in the middle room on the top floor, and I walked down the seating room and ran into them all - I just fired and crouch-walked and they all died - except the last guy, who killed me. It was so cool. I was quite optomistic after that altercation, and I went on to become the highest scoring player on the winning team that round. Other rounds you play against people who are incredibley lucky or cheat somehow.

It's a mint game, though - I can't stress it enough... I can only hope that Rainbow Six Lockdown is even half as good when it comes out. The Hit Detection in SWAT 4 is exemplary... and I love the way that even when you're zoomed in, with your crosshairs as tight as they go, you can still miss a distant target, because the bullet still has a fraction of room to move within the crosshair points. Adds and element of luck into long distance and short distance fights.

I love the .45 SMG. Someone said there is a bug in the code for the gun. I didn't find out what bug, if any, but I still use it. I use the .45 SMG and a Tazer backed up with a few Stingers, a Flash, Pepper Spray and a Wedge. I don't find time for an opti-wand.. although you can't deny their usefulness in the Single Player Campaign.

Hopefully they'll support the game with new maps, or even some mods. I'd like some new game modes. Infiltration would be a good one... where they design levels for 8 Terrorists and 4 SWAT members (or similar ratio) and the SWAT team have to hunt them out... like Terrorist Hunt on Rainbow Six. Also, some more outdoor levels would be good. I know SWAT normally infiltrate buildings, and whatever - but I think some outdoors stuff would be mint.

I played on a Swedish server today, and they'd incresed the speed by 25% and it didn't play half as well.. I initially wanted a speed increase, and 10% is something I might consider... but as much as 25% turned the game into HALO 2 with SWAT people... it just wasn't as intense - ironically!!

Still, awesome game. What are you lot called on it? My Nickname is just: 'Jez'
Sun 24/04/05 at 23:07
Regular
Posts: 16,558
I keep getting shot by people who don't seem to give up or I fail to spot them in dark.
Thu 21/04/05 at 00:28
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
Yeah. I'd probably speed it up a touch and make the the Assault Rifles crosshairs get smaller quicker. There's no reason that a swat team can go faster than a fast walk. They should have a jog function. It's just that little bit too slow at times.

But if you crouch, and progress through the level slowly, you own... have to watch your back, though.
Wed 20/04/05 at 18:45
Regular
Posts: 16,558
This seems very different but fun needs a patch though.
Wed 20/04/05 at 08:36
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Same, never bother with voice stuff with PC games. You can still point and give commands etc as normal with the single player, it is just up to you as to whether you actually follow them :D

It's absolutely sweet as in CO-OP as despite not having computer AI to play along side it makes for some really sweet ram-raids when you breach an entry from two different doors etc.

Just give me the nod when you are on.
Wed 20/04/05 at 01:24
Regular
"Fishing For Reddies"
Posts: 4,986
Yeah, you, Me and Soldier will have a blast - should be fun. I have no VoIP programs, but we can talk through text.
Tue 19/04/05 at 19:34
Regular
Posts: 16,558
I've got myself a copy of this (genuine) need to practice first then maybe we can have a go at co-op? :D
Tue 19/04/05 at 15:26
Regular
Posts: 10,489
Only played online the once, World or Warcraft and the odd CS: Source session dominate online play.

Would be up for some CO-OP though if you are interested. Give me a shout if you are.

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