Back in the mid 90's Sierra's first SWAT game hit the streets. It was a
good first effort, but the second was much better, and was a real time
strategy game
along the first person shooter lines. Now with SWAT 3, Special Weapons
and Tactics has come home to roost in a first-person tactical
simulation.
In SWAT 3 you control the element Lead of a five-man squad which is
broken into Red and Blue elements. As Lead, you decide who goes where
and who does what, much as in Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear.
Also as in Rogue Spear, squad members can move in one of two
ways: dynamic, and stealthy. This is tactical gameplay at its best, and
SWAT 3 may be the closest competition this year for the Spec Ops II and
Rogue Spear crowd.
As leader your first mission is to choose your squad. You have
16 members to choose from, each with differing skills and experience.
Unlike earlier first person shooters, your squad members gain in
experience in career mode, increasing your incentive to keep them
healty!
As a response to increased urban violence in the early 1960s, police
and sheriff departments began implementing military strategies against
armed and barricaded suspects. Among the first to organize such a
full-time tactical unit was the Los Angeles Police Department.
Christened Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) by future LAPD Chief
Daryl F. Gates, this elite group would revolutionize crisis management
techniques worldwide.
Several tragic incidents spurred SWAT's creation. The Watts riots in
August 1965 lasted seven days and involved 10,000 people over an area
of 46.5 square miles. Thirty-four people died and more than 1,000
people were wounded. Even as the fires smoldered, the LAPD realized
that innovative tactics were needed to contain and control this new
form of decentralized mayhem.
Next you must equipped the squad members with weapons and gear. On the
SWAT team each weapon has both a primary and secondary load. The
shotgun, for example, has a breaching slug which can make a locked door
an easy entry. In the style typical of recent physics engines, even the
path of individual bullets is traced by the AI, including all nine
pellets in a primary shotgun load! Similarly, different weapons affect
different materials appropriately.
Environment and Graphics
Environments are particularly impressive. All the action takes
place indoors, so loving attention has been paid to detail. The 18
close-quarter missions can be played in any order or in sequence in the
career mode.
The characters in SWAT 3 look particulary good. They ought
to... all the motion capture was done using an LAPD SWAT officer. The
graphics engine itself is based on the Gabriel Knight engine, rendering
the upper and lower body separately. The difference is immediately
apparent, since this technique allows SWAT members to lean sideways,
peek around corners, and generally protect as much of their bodies as
possible.
Detail? Just like in an actual SWAT team, the member's name appears
on his vest. Bullet holes appear where they should. Faces can even be
recognized. The enemy AI allows them to respond to sounds, including
footfalls and gunfire, and you can track down a wounded assasin via the
trail of blood!
At least two training missions are to be included in the release,
complete with a talking trainer who walks you through the tactics. The
last information on multiplayer was that it would follow the initial
release in the spring of 2000, and the initial release would be single
player only. Watch for a hands on report soon!
