Video Preview

Jason Ocampo arrests some criminals in this video preview of SWAT 4.

• Watch
• Download

The SWAT series has a long and varied history in gaming. The series launched a decade ago as sort of a puzzle-solving simulator with Police Quest: SWAT. It then evolved into a real-time tactical game in 1998's Police Quest: SWAT 2. The following year, the franchise evolved yet again into an excellent first-person shooter with SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle. And after an aborted attempt at another sequel, the series went into hibernation...until now. Irrational Games, developer of last year's Tribes: Vengeance, is now hard at work with SWAT 4, a realistic first-person shooter that emphasizes using real police tactics in order to neutralize a situation. We've been playing around with the early version of the single-player campaign to see how the game is coming together.

In SWAT 4, you'll lead an elite police SWAT team through a variety of real-world missions, from executing high-risk warrants to rescuing hostages, as well as other situations that require more firepower than what a regular police officer carries. But while you'll carry military-style weapons and equipment, as a police officer, you're expected to only use force as a last resort. Your job is to serve and protect the public, and it's always preferable to arrest criminals so that they can face justice rather than just shooting them. This means that if you go in guns blazing like you would in a military shooter, you could very well lose the mission.

It's important to use good tactics in SWAT 4. Here, the team prepares to force entry into a room.

The single-player campaign will be fairly easy to get into. After a quick tutorial that will get you up to speed with all the latest SWAT gear, including weapons, non-lethal grenades, breaching charges, and an optical camera that lets you peek around corners, you'll dive into your first mission. At the beginning of each mission, you'll be given a briefing of the tactical situation and some background information on the suspect or suspects, as well as the opportunity to listen to the initial 911 call, if one was made. This can provide valuable information as to what to expect inside. You'll also be given the best available map of the premises (anything from a quick sketch to detailed schematics, depending on the location), as well as a choice of possible entries into the property. For example, you may want to send your team through the front door, or you can try sneaking in through the back. You'll also receive mug shots, sketches, or photos, if they're available of the suspects, as well as any civilians known to be inside, though in some situations that information is unknown and unavailable.

After the briefing, you will be able to select your team and equipment. You'll lead a five-man SWAT team, made up of you and a couple of two-man elements. Each man will carry a primary and secondary weapon, tactical gear, such as flashbang grenades, gas grenades, and door wedges (to jam a door shut), and breaching charges. Generally, each man in an assault team carries out a specific role. Assaulters carry the heaviest weapons, mainly the Colt M4A1 Carbine, whereas close-quarter battle specialists are armed with a compact submachine gun, which is easier to wield in tight spaces. Your breacher will usually carry a tactical shotgun while your scout will carry a silenced weapon, allowing him to quietly take down anyone who might pose a threat. Finally, the team pacifier is armed with non-lethal weapons, such as a pepper-ball gun, which can neutralize threats without killing them. You can also choose from a variety of different ammunition types, which can be important depending on the threat you're facing. The two primary ammo types are jacketed hollow-point rounds, which are useful against unarmored targets, and full-metal jacket rounds, which can penetrate armor. To make things easy for you, there will be a number of saved loadouts that you can select, or you can customize your own loadouts and save them for future missions.

The briefing screen will let you equip your squad with real-world weapons and equipment.

Once your SWAT team is equipped, you'll be dropped into the mission itself. We played through the opening missions of the campaign, and they're about as gritty and real world as they come. The first mission is set in and above a dingy Chinese restaurant. You have to serve a high-risk search warrant and stop a weapons deal from going down. Since there are civilians around, you have to be extra careful to keep the situation under control. While you have complete control over your own character, you can command your team members simply by placing the reticule on an object and holding down the right mouse button. A context-sensitive menu will pop up, and you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through your options; release the mouse button and your team will execute the order. So, if you place the reticule on a door and then click and hold the right mouse button, you can order your team to simply open the door and enter the room. Or you can order them to open, bang, and clear, in which the team will throw a flashbang grenade in first before entering the room, and so on.