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SWAT: Global Strike Team Hands-On Impressions

We check out the latest Xbox build of Argonaut's tactical action game at ECTS 2003.

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During a recent visit to VU Games' booth at ECTS, we had the opportunity to play the latest version of SWAT: Global Strike team. The version of the game on display was minus the headset peripheral required to play using voice recognition, so, as we entered a financial building to nullify a bomb threat, we had to make do with issuing orders to our colleague using the directional pad instead.

None of the enemies we encountered in the bank seemed keen on the idea of surrendering to us when we shouted at them (again, using the directional pad in place of the headset), so we were forced to engage most of them--either killing them outright or just knocking them to the ground so our colleague could restrain them when we instructed him to. As we proceeded through the bank, we found that ordering our colleague to go on ahead and secure areas ahead of us was an effective way of working, and, when he was fired upon, he did a good job of defending himself.

The most dangerous in the bank level were undoubtedly the security gates that we had to pass through, because every time one of us went to work on getting the gates open, an enemy would start firing at us through the bars. Once we'd passed all the security doors, it was time for us to locate and disarm a number of bombs that had been placed in the building. Locating the bombs wasn't too difficult, although since we were told that they were equipped with motion sensors, we made a point of instructing our colleague to open any doors we had to go through carefully rather than charging in or attempting to blow them off their hinges. Deactivating the bombs was simply a matter of telling our guy to take care of it, at which point he would crawl along the floor toward them and then spend about 30 seconds disarming them--as illustrated by a progress bar above the bomb.

Despite the fact that SWAT: Global Strike Team is scheduled for release in October, the version on display still appeared to experiencing a few problems--one of which proved fatal when our colleague appeared to get stuck in a piece of scenery en route to the third bomb. After getting himself into a bit of a flap and running on the spot, he eventually freed himself of the scenery--only to walk toward the bomb until it blew us both up.

Although our game came to an abrupt end, we'd have to say that SWAT: Global Strike Team is shaping up very nicely indeed. All the locales in the game have a very solid and realistic look about them, and the AI of the enemies is good enough that working closely with your colleagues is a requirement rather than an option. For more information, check out our previous coverage of the game.

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