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Swat Urban Justice
by Jolex Del Pilar
Thursday, May 30 2002
Our E3 hands on impressions and new screenshots galore!
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Title:
Swat Urban Justice
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Platform:
PC Windows
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Publisher:
Vivendi Universal Games |
Developer:
Sierra |
#
of Players: 1 + 16 in Online Play |
Genre:
Action
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
September 2002 |
Grapevine:
There was a lot that was good and a lot that was incomplete, which is forgivable for a game that is barely half done. The good parts were plenty, which should please the SWAT fans out there. |
The first person shooter (fps) style of gaming is perhaps the only style of gaming that is best played on a PC rather than a gaming console. No matter how many accolades Halo for the Xbox receives, anyone will tell you that Halo would've been just a bit more versatile had it been released on the PC as originally intended. The wealth of PC titles in this sub-genre is astounding and even overwhelming at times. However, this glut has forced developers to create new venues and ways of gameplay. Red Storm was the first to take the sub-genre in a new and exciting direction with the original Rainbow Six. Few companies have managed to even come close to R6's style of gameplay that included precision shooting, one shot kills, and even more revolutionary, one shot deaths. It stayed that way until SWAT 3 was released by Sierra.
The game featured the same type of gameplay as Red Storm's famed titles however it added an extra dimension. Where areas Rainbow Six was a counter-terrorist simulation, SWAT 3 was a law enforcement simulation. The difference was that in SWAT 3, you could possibly finish a mission without having to pull the trigger. This is quite a contrast to Rainbow Six's "precision killing" mentality.
Naturally, being a big fan of both Red Storm's Rainbow Six line and Sierra's SWAT series, I managed to take a look at both. I will talk about the upcoming SWAT 4: Urban Justice in this preview.
The game was only 60% complete when the Sierra PR representative let me at the controls. However, what was there was amazingly smooth. The game featured a brand new gaming engine that was running at about 60 frames per second. Granted, the game was running on a souped up Pentium 4, however Sierra assured me that the game would be perfectly playable on a Pentium 500+.
There was a lot that was good and a lot that was incomplete, which is forgivable for a game that is barely half done. The good parts were plenty, which should please the SWAT fans out there. The enemy A.I is much improved in this game than in previous versions of the game. First off, the enemy tends to hunt in packs. They seem to be good shots and managed to drop me on more than one occasion. It could’ve been that “door detection” wasn’t fully implemented yet so that the enemy “gangsters” could shoot me through doors, but then again, even I have my bad days. Another good thing was the kit selection screen. The game allows you to practically customize any part of your gun and equipment. From scopes, to the gunstock, it’s all changeable. A team can go in with everyone carrying different weapons; it’s very flexible.
The levels are also modeled after real world location in LA. From theme parks, to flea markets, the SWAT 4 team used real world locations as references to model their levels. One level, which was modeled after Santa Monica, looked very convincingly like the place it was attempting to mimic. Just imagine the hostage situation in a full blow theme park; girl by the cotton candy machine, gang member holding a gun to her head, what do you do? Very tense situations call for dire measures is what I say…
About the use of gang members, originally Sierra had planned to use terrorist. One of the gameplay options even let you play as the terrorist. However, Sierra was forced to nix the use of terrorist due to the events of September 11th. A small change, but in the end, probably a wise one on Sierra’s part.
The game has a September 2002 release date stamped on its press release and Sierra is usually good at making its dates, unlike a certain company who promotes a famous Italian plumber. From the 60% version we saw at E3, the game is looking to give Red Storm and it’s stable of “action” games a run for its money. Fall 2002 will be a great season for shooters indeed.
--- Jolex Del Pilar, Super Six One
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