Officers also seem to be a bit clumsier when it comes to room clearing. The one fix I’d want is that the order ‘Cover’ (ordering officers to watch a specific area) was unbreakable unless an officer was directly engaged. Although the officers acted in a similar way in the base game, in that you didn’t have to worry so much about being flanked. Sometimes this can also lead to suspects killing hostages before you even know they are threatening one, leading to a failed mission.Īnother problem with the AI is when threats do arise, every AI member of your team will focus on the threat. Failing to have officers cover various doors can quickly lead to the player’s team being ambushed. This gives merit to silenced weapons, whilst also forcing the player to be aware of their flanks. The player must also report civilians who were injured before the mission began to prevent them from bleeding out, forcing the player to act fast.ĪI suspects now seem to have improved hearing.
This can be frustrating as in the heat of the moment, you can miss reporting a suspect.
Gameplay wise, the player is now forced to report every suspect that is downed, less they want to suffer a score penalty. You can also turn on perma-death for your team members, but I’d recommend against this as if they die early in the campaign, you will be left shorthanded in later missions. The player can also choose to play a perma-death campaign where if they die, they must start again which adds tons of tension to every choice made. When starting a new campaign, the player can now play through both SWAT 4 and it’s expansion The Stetchkov Syndicate without having to close one down to play the other. No one cared who we were until we put on the masks. As tear gas is the most effective grenade in vanilla SWAT 4, this is a good addition. The disadvantage of this is losing head protection and poorer vision due to the gas mask. On top of this, some less lethal tools, such as the TASER can cause certain people to become incapacitated due to their drug use or old age, so the player has to take more care with what less lethal tools they bring.įinally, in single player, you must worry about wearing gas masks to prevent tear gas taking an effect on your team. There’s also new ammunition, including jacketed soft point, armour piercing and numerous buckshot loads for shotguns. Some old weapons have also been modified, most gaining additional fire modes. All the weapons have much better models than the vanilla game, and I hope those in the base game are replaced with similar, high-quality skins. None of the weapons really change the game that much, but there are some nice additions such as the high capacity P226, or the five shot ARWEN grenade launcher. There are some new weapons that have been added. I’d also argue 3-4 magazines for most primary weapons is going to be more than enough for just about any mission in the game, as most enemies don’t need to be turned into Swiss cheese before dying.
Taking heavy protection is a no-brainer, as it allows you to survive more damage, and there’s rarely a need to rush. If I’m being honest, this isn’t too big of a deal. Carrying heavy armor, an M4A1 carbine with ten magazines and a grenade launcher with 25 tear gas grenades will slow you down to a crawl. Now the player has to worry about weight and bulk. How equipment is managed has changed a lot. Although only one map has been added, some changes have made old missions much more dynamic. The Elite Force modification adds new weapons and equipment, whilst changing some core mechanics and AI. Generally, unless I get complacent, I tend to find the game easy. I know the quirks the AI has and how I should approach just about every situation.
I know every map off by heart, and I have my own certain way of doing things. SWAT 4is one of my all-time favorite games.