SWAT4

[Q]

So this weekend I played some co-op SWAT4 with a friend. The game is actually very fun. It's like playing Raven Shield except that you can't just shoot first and ask questions later - the goal is to capture all of the suspects without killing them.

The co-op mode supports 5 players, and they have some team based adverserial modes that look like potential Smackdown material.

[jackrabbit]

I played the demo back when this game came out in '62.

I liked the gameplay as far as scouting the maps and the formations and orders, but I hated this crap with having to tell a guy with a gun "Freeze! Put down your weapon! Put down your weapon! Put down your weapon! Put down your weapon!" finally shooting him and having the demo end cause it wasn't correct police procedure.

I'll bet the adversarial is pretty awesome, though.

[Q]

You need to use the beanbag shotgun. That way you can shoot first without killing them and as an added bonus they're much more likely to surrender after being hit with a high velocity beanbag :).

Anyway, I found it a refreshing change from just shooting everything on sight.

[Creole Ned]

I am possibly intrigued.

[Q]

The really fun part about SWAT is that you have all sorts of toys to play with - taser gun, beanbag shotgun, flashbang, gas, stinger, etc. The people in the game have a different reaction to each of these and it's amusing to just run around using random non-lethal items on people just to see how they react :).

P.S. For anyone that's tried previous SWAT games, I played SWAT3 and thought it sucked. SWAT4 is really good.

[Q]

SWAT multiplayer modes (aside from co-op):

GS: Tell us about the different multiplayer modes, especially the non-traditional modes like rapid deployment (bomb disarming), and VIP rescue. How are these modes going to challenge players to approach multiplayer differently, and how will they challenge players to act as a skilled team? What kind of in-game options and balances will be put in place to minimize team-killing and generally goofing around to disrupt the flow of the game?

JF: Barricaded suspects is the most basic of the three modes, and it will probably be the most familiar. It's essentially team deathmatch with the SWAT and suspect teams facing off against one another in order to get the high score. As an added twist, you can select to disable respawns and go for a round where the last team standing wins.

In rapid deployment, the SWAT team must locate and disarm a number of randomly placed bombs within the mission area. It's the suspect team's job to guard the bombs and prevent SWAT from disarming all of them before the bomb timers run out; they receive bonus points for each bomb they successfully guard if SWAT fails to get them all. SWAT wins by clearing all bombs.

VIP rescue was the mode we selected for the multiplayer beta, and it is the most unique of the three. One of the SWAT members is randomly selected to be the VIP each round and the rest of the team must safely escort him to the extraction point. The fun twist is that the suspects can't kill him off right away. Instead they have to arrest him. Once the VIP is captured, the SWAT team has two minutes to rescue him. If time runs out, the suspects are free to assassinate the VIP and win the round. It's really a blast. Next to coop, VIP is my next favorite multiplayer mode!