In an industry where first person shooters are a dime a dozen, Swat 4 is, in many ways, a breath of fresh air even after 4 years of being released. Unfortunately, no game like it has really been released before or since. It’s very much grounded in reality, but it won’t break your soul like an early Rainbow Six game. This is mainly because there aren’t as many enemies, most of them are willing to surrender, and the AI of your team mates, while not perfect, is usually impressive and gets the job done. Now, during some of the more frustrating and challenging missions you might disagree on that, but I have never seen a game with squad AI that works this well considering some of the complicated actions that they have to perform like a teammate opening a door, and a 2nd teammate prepping a grenade and the 3rd and 4th covering.

They will, however, occasionally get stuck on parts of the level, and you may not even be able to see exactly what they’re stuck on, as they simply fall behind, and you need to backtrack and push into him to make him wake up. In short, this game is far from perfect, but lets delve into it a little.

You are a recently promoted SWAT team leader, whose name is Sergeant Mr. Sir (Okay fine, that’s just me) eager to earn the respect of your squad in the field with leadership and hot lead. That’s about the extent of the story told in Swat 4. There’s absolutely no narrative, and no connection from one mission to the next. Honestly, that’s the way it should be, because SWAT isn’t a squad of hardened mercenaries-turned heroes, out to stop evil doers. They’re just guys doing a job.

The entire game is as realistic as can be without compromising gameplay, or at least trying not to. I find that one of the biggest problems of the game is that it has absolutely no leeway where police procedure is concerned, in fact, I’m pretty sure that it goes against it. It’s pressed upon the player to avoid violence at all costs, and encourage suspects to surrender peacefully. In gameplay, this translates to yelling “Police! Freeze” before shooting a suspect, otherwise it is deemed unnecessary violence and you lose points accordingly. Since your success or failure depends on getting a certain score out of 100, losing a mission for shooting too many people is a real possibility.

In real life, and don’t quote me on this because I’m no expert, I’m quite certain that if an officer strongly feels that his life, the lives of his fellow officers, or the lives of civilians are directly threatened, then they are obligated to fire on the suspect, and don’t need to ask nicely first. If asking nicely was always necessary, you’d pretty much have 1 officer death per 1 suspect death, because they’ll always fire first and usually won’t miss.

I appreciate that the game is trying its best to stay a simulator and discourage deathmatches in police situations, but sometimes the system just isn’t lenient enough.

The graphics are standard for the year it came out. Nothing special, but definitely not ugly. Everything looks as convincing as it should, because you’ll never have SWAT officers marveling at beautiful sunsets anyway. All the levels are extremely well-made, offering plenty of tactical challenges to handle. Particularly memorable are long hallways with parallel doorways on both sides, and small rooms with suspects who have their gun pointed directly at the door, who are JUST out of reach of C2 charges to stun them on breach. Both situations are tactical nightmares, and since you can be taken down in one or two shots, almost every 20 feet is a new adventure, and moving down a hallway raises your heartbeat. It’s great, it’s scary, and it really gives a new appreciation for what these brave people go through in real life. But even the coldest, most heartless gamers playing this game will know that no matter what crappy job you’ve got at some grocery store somewhere or convenient store, I’m sure it would be like vacation for these guys.

Back to level-design, some of the levels are actually very atmospheric, particularly the somewhat disturbing 2nd level, where you’re tasked with arresting a suspected serial killer who’s been kidnapping young girls and locking them in a dungeon. There’s scribbling on the walls, there are newspaper clippings everywhere describing his crimes and the people he’s kidnapped. There are masks hanging from the ceiling, and girls tied up in the basement. In my opinion, it’s a lot more disturbing than any horror movie, because there are actually people out there that are like that, and that’s f*cking scary.

I lost a few points for shooting him in the back of the neck with a full-metal jacket round from my assault rifle, while he was running away like a nancy-boy, but hey, I only ask for you to drop your weapon once. If you don’t, I’m not responsible for what happens to you. It’s procedure, after all.

There’s also a later level where a cult is holed up in an apartment, and they’re all completely insane, but some of them have cracked completely and taken other members hostage. There are bizarre scribbles all over the walls, the place is dirty and completely unmaintained, and all the hostages are non-compliant because they still believe in their cause, that is, returning alien messiahs…I didn’t feel guilty calmly asking my men to deploy their tasers. But all these missions give the game some honest variety and make things interesting.

Audio is well-done. Your squad will always respond accordingly, and even have casual chit-chat if they see something of interest, or comment if a place is particularly creepy. I also appreciate how their aggressiveness fluctuates depending on who they’re yelling at. If restraining a hostage they’ll say something like “Don’t worry, everything’ll be alright, we’re going to keep you safe.” but if handcuffing a suspect it’ll be more along the lines of “SHUT YOUR MOUTH, PUNK” and even your own character will say things like “Go handcuff that clown.” with such a satisfying, smile-inducing prejudice.

Gameplay isn’t perfect, for issues mentioned above, but also because of the very…simulation-esque feel of the game which I’ve commented on in other reviews. Movement is slow, and sluggish. Sprinting at full speed in this game is the same as power walking in real life, which wouldn’t be a huge problem if there weren’t any time limits. You can also get shot in the leg which slows you down to a sickening pace, making timed objectives even harder if not impossible.

Also, non-lethal methods are just too difficult to pursue unless you’re going for a highscore. The bean-bag shotgun and pepper-ball gun don’t have enough ammunition and don’t have enough stopping power, plus, I’m pretty sure any SWAT officer in real life would prefer a sub-machine gun or assault rifle any day of the week.

There isn’t much more to say about this game. It’s a first-person shooter that’s unique, and for the most part, incredibly fun for anyone who can tolerate a slightly slower, but intense pace. It’s definitely the deepest tactical game I’ve ever played. The older Rainbow Six games were too difficult for me, and the new Vegas series is almost completely fictional and fantastical in its execution (Don’t argue with me. You know that wearing nothing but a black tank top and a baby-blue pilot helmet is completely ridiculous), but Swat 4 nails the balance between sim and game.

SWAT 3 was all sim, overly complicated, completely spartan in its presentation and execution, and just not much fun to play despite its uniqueness, but SWAT 4 is completely streamlined. For the most part, it’s easy to make squad mates perform complicated and coordinated actions, and it makes for a very unique experience. You won’t be disappointed, and the game is 20$ even at the greediest of game stores. It’s an 8.5 from the Sanctuary, check it out.

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By the way, giving credit where its due, the picture of the shirt is from The Spoony Experiment.com, in which he plays through every SWAT 4 mission and gives hilarious commentary.