On Children of Taronne Tenement, one door is assigned a label 'AltarTrap' and another is assigned 'BigRoomTrap'. There are at least three different trap models (a door-rigged alarm, door-rigged bomb, and free-standing bomb, triggered by a switch), and several classes (BoobyTrapRoster, BoobyTrap. It's evident that traps were cut very late in development. All of this functionality has been restored by player-created mods. The game notably has a few features which were cut at the last minute before release. This version has a different appearance based on the weapon choice of the player. The gui_tex.utx package contains a number of interesting things, including the images described above, but also an early version of the paperdoll. The expansion doubled down on this logic by adding another such icon for the lightstick that isn't used. While it doesn't appear in the game, a red smoke effect is used to mark the escape zone in VIP Escort.Ĭuriously, icons exist for pieces of equipment that the player always has equipped - handcuffs and multitool - but these aren't used. The icon implies that this was once intended to be a player-usable weapon, but perhaps dropped due to similarities to the M4Super90 outlined above.Īn icon exists for a red smoke grenade item. The M1Super90 model is reused as a suspect-specific weapon. The model looks nearly identical to the M4Super90, with a missing shell rack and different stock.

**Except in the brutalist office building I have been working in for the last year.Icons and models exist for a Benelli M1Super90. *Well, I live in a suburb of NYC, and commute there for work. I guess I crave tactical depth, even when it's poorly-implemented. I know this game is set in New York, but I live in New York*, and not every surface in this damned city is grey and brown**.Īnd yet, this is still more fun than I've had playing any recent first person shooter, except maybe Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway.

I just cleared an upscale hotel of terrorists, and somehow the developers crammed in an under-construction swathe of rebar grey particle board brown. SWAT 4 is higher-tech, clearly, with bloom and mapped bumps and reflective surfaces, but it is a pointlessly ugly game, filled with repetitive scenes of urban decay in the color palettes of brown, grey, and grey-brown. The longer I play this game, the more baffled I am that it is remembered as a classic and SWAT 3 is hardly ever mentioned SWAT 3 appears to have been a better game in every way, including graphically. The trick, you see, is to narrow down the level to three or fewer ambushes into which to throw your cannon fodder squadmates.

Since situations that cannot be soloed invariably result in the deaths of half of your squad - two of four officers die the first time, then one of the remaining two, then the one you've got left gets wounded but doesn't die. So really, the main tactical challenge of SWAT 4 is deciding which swathes of the level to solo, and which ones have too many enemies to solo. AI cops refuse to fire their weapons even while being cut to pieces by enemy fire, and will frequently walk past an enemy without noticing him, even if said enemy is loudly coughing or firing a weapon. Unarmored pill-poppers can take a few shotgun blasts and keep fighting, while cops (including the player character!) typically die from a single shot at Normal difficulty, and presumably die from the mere thought of bullets at higher difficulties. SWAT 4, bizarrely, takes a different approach, making all cops uselessly frail and inaccurate, including yourself. SWAT 3 took the same design attitude of Brothers in Arms: in order to encourage tactical play, your AI squad members were generally better combatants than you were, but they could not problem-solve. This time, I've decided to give it a real earnest effort, and I've made it a lot farther I'm currently at the stem cell lab takeover level with no signs of stopping.īut my god, are the AI cops useless. My typical attempt would amount to 'get to the dance club level, and then ragequit after my tenth failure'. Sad truth: despite being something of a fan of tactical shooters, I have never beaten SWAT 4.

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