Tell me about SWAT

[Kongamato]

A long time ago, I bought Police Quest:SWAT, thinking it would be a great game. It was a disappointment, part of a microfad of digitized games. Anyway, after that I ignored the SWAT series until now. After seeing screenshots and reading SWAT 3 reviews, I'm developing an interest in SWAT 4, which is being made by Irrational. I like the idea of tactical co-op and missions with randomized events and enemy locations. I'm also a fan of the gritty, Se7en-style atmosphere Irrational's going for.

What kind of experiences have you had with the later installments of the SWAT series, and what kind of a game do you expect SWAT 4 to be?

Some screens:

SWAT 4!.. Beautiful Scenery... (http://www.strategyinformer.com/shooters/misc/screenshot-viewer.shtml?swat4,12,11)

Suspense... (http://www.strategyinformer.com/shooters/misc/screenshot-viewer.shtml?swat4,12,1)

Romance!... (http://www.strategyinformer.com/shooters/misc/screenshot-viewer.shtml?swat4,12,2)

[ICantSpellDawg]

listen to me carefully

swat 3 was AMAZING

one of the all time best games ive ever played
swat for should be that much better with all of the new technologies and perks that come with other modern games

stay on this one

[Navaros]

the only thing that sucked about Swat 3 was the squad mate AI

or i should say, complete and utter lack of any squad mate AI

i tried to beat that game by setting the enemy AI to the hardest difficulty setting, and making sure that none of my squad mates died during the Mission

i spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours trying to reach this lofty goal, and i never ever got passed the "sewers" mission

just to get to the sewers mission, i had to replay every mission before that (like 14 or so) dozens of times, at the bare minimum

i even tried turning down the enemy difficulty to medium, that still did not help the problem

the thing is, no matter what you tell your AI squad mates to do, they often don't listen to you

ie: you tell your squad to stay put and cover the doorway to the stairwell. all of a sudden a hostage opens that door, and your squad mate automatically steps out of position and walks into the stairwell, getting killed instantly

this of course, is despite the fact that you told him to stay-put no matter what

i can't even begin to count the gazillion of times that such things have happened to me in Swat 3

Swat 3 is great except for the horrendous AI. if you're a perfectionist who likes to keep all your men alive, however, then the AI really is a huge frustration

to be fair, i have concluded that all AI sucks at this point in time , so the problem is not exclusive to Swat 3

[Fragony]

Hmmm compared to the rainbow six series the AI is exceptional, but that is not saying much. Swat 3 really is an excellent game, if you manage to find a copy by all means go for it.

[Navaros]

the thing i liked most about Swat 3 was that you issued commands via the NUMPAD

anything you needed to do, you could do it quickly with a few keystrokes of the NUMPAD

that control system is awesome

trying to play games like Counterstrike where you have to press needless keys like "V" first before issuing commands really feels cumbersome and annoying after coming from Swat 3's smooth-as-silk NUMPAD system

anyone know if the Swat 4 game will retain this NUMPAD system? if not, i wouldn't be interested in it

[Kongamato]

Bad news for Navaros.

"the big focus here, though, is on smoothing out controls and streamlining the interface so you can instinctively issue commands to your squad. This is a welcome change from one of the problems that plagued earlier titles in the series. While the HUD is still early in the optimization process, the direction that Irrational is taking with the contextual command menus is already quite clear. You'll no longer need to fumble through three layers of commands just to order a breach and clear. See a crook who needs to be cuffed? Just walk up to him and hit the Space Bar; you'll give the obvious contextual order and he'll be detained."

EDIT:Good news for Navaros. Found another article.

Irrational is also adding an all-new, highly streamlined, and completely optional context-sensitive interface. This is in addition to the classic SWAT 3 interface, which was extremely flexible but was found to be overwhelming by many beginners.


It appears that the old system was deep and powerful but not newbie-friendly. I'll get used to it, but I worry about the idea here. Gamers are not morons when working their computers. Even the garble-speaking lowest common denominator of gaming can work their way through an interface with skill and efficiency.

It doesn't sound like a spoiler for me, as I never played SWAT 3 and am more interested in co-op at this time.

[Navaros]

oh my goodness. "fumble thru 3 layers of commands" --- what the freaking [CENSORED]?!

no offense meant, but only morons would complain about the interface of Swat 3. it probably had the best interface of any FPS ever made.

any command could be accessed in less than a second via quick NUMPAD strokes. unlike most games of it's kind where first you must click V, then you must hit the TOP ROW NUMBERS (which are much harder to reach and slower to manipulate than the NUMPAD) etc. etc.

now i almost wanna test out this game just to see how much the new interface sucks compared to the Swat 3 interface ~:eek:

[Fragony]

These are the guys that made system shock 2, have some faith!

[ICantSpellDawg]

YOU WANT HOT AND LATHERY NUMPAD COMMAND ACTION?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!

GET HIDDEN AND DANGEROUS 2 AND SABRE SQUADRON?!??!?!?!??1






...it is gnarly to the enth deg