23-Mar-2005 "Arrest him, Will!" "He won't stay still!" "Where's he gone?" "GET DOWN! GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!" "Jamie, he keeps running off!" "Why are you arresting me? They're over there!" "PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND DON'T MOVE!" "Stop him!" "Help... Help..." "Hold on..." The electrostatic crackle of a tazer shot fills the air. "Right, he's down. Cuff him."
Not strictly in keeping with proper police procedure perhaps, but a panicky civilian is more trouble than he's worth and at least it got the job done. Yes, this month we've been mostly playing the co-operative multiplayer mode in Irrational Games' simulation of being a gun-toting rozzer, SWAT 4.
Last month we were offered a hands-on session with the single-player game, with all the pepper balling, flashbanging and optiwanding that entailed (check out issue 152 for the full story). This month, we took delivery of a more advanced version of the game, one that didn't have all the multiplayer modes greyed out and resolutely non-selectable. Our lunchtimes have never been the same since. Is the sun still yellow?
KEYSTONE KOPS It's not just the random abuse of civilians that marks out the multiplayer game of SWAT 4 as a potential work of comedy genius. Asthma fans are well catered for, with a wide variety of smoke grenades and pepper spray dispensers that, in the wrong hands (Sefton's), can result in fun-filled minutes spent coughing your lungs up after a badly thrown projectile.
Then there's the near irresistible urge that fills any true gamer of salt when confronted with the rear end of your team-mate while you hold your tazer secondary weapon. Will spent about three whole minutes convulsing on the floor following that one. Although on the plus side, his quivering body served as a half-decent human shield to hide behind.
ON THE FLOOR! Truly, most FPS merchants have missed a trick with their interminable sorties into alien deathmatch landscapes, evil terrorist lairs or WWII battlegrounds. For sheer entertainment value, nothing can top three of your mates storming into some Kwik-E-Mart style convenience store and shouting at petrified old women to hit the dirt lest you put the business end of your pump-action shotgun up their backside. Who says games don't let you live out your fantasies?
Of course, the life of a modern tactical response police officer isn't all laughs. SWAT 4 does a bang-up of job of recreating the tension involved in storming a jewellery store filled with masked banditos. Hidden triggers set off thumpity-thump mood music that raises the hairs on your neck, and accidental discharge behind your team-mates after you've just spent minutes creeping silently along a dark corridor can almost cause the older members of your gaming units to have coronaries (as we learnt from bitter experience - my fault this time).
All of which highlights the importance of good communication. Integral to a good co-op game of SWAT 4 is being able to tell your buddies exactly what sort of height they should jump to when you tell them. The context-sensitive command menu from the single-player game is present and correct, but the need for a more coherent chain of command is still an issue that needs to be worked on prior to release. At present, everyone is free to issue commands left, right and centre, which more often than not just results in your hapless Optiwand operator (the sneaky under-door/round-corner camera device) running back and forth in a miasma of confusion.
That's the co-op game anyway. The rest of the multiplayer smorgasbord consists of competitive team action in the shape of VIP escorting, rapid deployment bomb defusals and standard cops vs robbers deathmatch-style shootouts. Even here though, SWAT 4 is a little different, with more points being offered to players who arrest their opponents than those who dispense justice through the medium of flying pellets of death.
We covered the VIP game last issue, although it's worth quickly reminding ourselves of the bizarre feeling that comes from being forced around a gaming environment on your knees, shackled like a German sex tourist. It's not much fun for the hapless VIP either. Ho ho.
The Rapid Deployment mode is a simple variation on the point capture gameplay variant seen in many a team-based online shooter. Three to five suitcase 'dirty' bombs are randomly scattered about the map of choice, slowly ticking down to detonation. SWAT have to find and defuse the buggers, Suspects (the bad-guy teams) have to keep them ticking away, strangely giving you the chance to experience life through the eyes of a suicide bomber. Blimus!
POLICEMAN'S BALLS SWAT 4 code is this close to being finished. What's left to come are one or two cosmetic tweaks and a tightening of the graphics engine (several texture rips are still visible, eliminating the tension of whether anyone is standing behind the door you're about to blow open - a legitimate take-down tactic as it happens).
The AI also needs a bit of a polish. Take the panicky citizen at the start, for instance. Was his refusal to stand still and be taken to safety until fried with voltage an accurate simulation of terror or just a fault? It's unclear, but come the finished product we'll at least have the evidence to see how hard the bug testers are working. Ha ha! Evidence. Do you see?
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