SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition

The Good
After upgrading from SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle (CQB), I was thrilled to see that you could now create your own custom missions, without having to log on to the online servers and be the only sad, lonely person playing a one-man co-operative. I can honestly say that SWAT 3 is one of the best first person shooters I've played on. It's also very, very addictive, and the online content now is brilliant.

The Bad
I'm a bit miffed at the fact that you can't find mod files for SWAT as easily as you can for games like Half-Life/Counter-Strike/Team Fortress. The other niggly thing is that I can't get WorldCraft to load my custom levels, so that I can run them in the game. Maybe I'm going wrong somewhere. In all, it is a great game.

The Bottom Line
This is an excellent addition to any shoot-em up lover's game collection, so do the right thing, and donate your money to the smiling man in the computer game shop. Programmers have to eat too, you know...

The Good
What I really like about this game is that you are a police SWAT officer and your mission is to not kill but arrest the suspects and save the hostages. You have to do this by using tactics and team work. You have to quickly identify if it is a suspect or a hostage, then make a quick decision to either shoot or arrest the suspect if he is holding a gun. You get awarded for saving/ arresting people and not for killing as many as you can. It’s not a Shoot-em-up but more like an arrest-em-up. It has a lot of realism but it also has a high fun factor. SWAT is a live saving organization and that is well shown in the game.

The game is made by developers with SWAT (tactics) knowledge and made use of real SWAT advisors and consultants. It has good mod and map making abilities which has kept the SWAT community/game alive for many years.

Of course there is also Death Match and Team Death Match etc. for the people who rather have a shoot-em-up and like to kill everything. Lot’s of fun too…I guess, if you are into that stuff.

The Bad
No (good) gun view (well not without activating it with console). The AI sometimes is in the way and not on the exact place that you want them to be. (Just like human players btw :p). There is no direct IP connection.

The Bottom Line
It is enjoyable for both Co-op and (Team) Death Match players. Ehm.. it’s the best game I have ever played and I have been playing it for years. It’s that much fun and it’s not like any other game around.