Title: S.W.A.T. 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate

Date: 03.08.2006

Genre: First-person Shooter

Platform: PC

Developer: Irrational Games

Publisher: VU Games

Story
Well there are actually several ‘stories.’ Your S.W.A.T. as always but this time around things seem to always center on a gang called the “Stetchkov Syndicate”. The stories themselves, more so the scenarios are lacking sometimes then other times they are really inventive and fun to play out although one of them you may find offensive if you’re religious. Anyways there’s only about 5 or 6 missions but they are actually inventive! Can’t say anything without ruining it (hints at MP levels from Swat 4)!

Graphics
Is it the best looking game ever? No, but they did improve the graphics I think. You now have options past “High”. So you can really get some good detail! Although there were some problems once in a great while but nothing that affected the game play. Another thing is the new models of some of the guns look kind of funky, the P-90 looks really silly when you hold it.

Gameplay & Added Features
These two things go hand in hand in this! Well nothing been taken away but they did add a bunch of things. Besides new levels (you get to keep old levels to for Mission Maker) you get added weapons, and some cool features like the ability to throw glow sticks to mark areas where you have been (although I never use them). You also can “Melee” people (aka punch) for whatever reason. You can issue you some new commands too!

I’d rather not spoil all the cool stuff they added so it’s really cool. When you start the game there’s even a button that you can click to look at all the new features! On the “game play” side the Career seems a wee bit harder, more so because of a few things. For one the maps are more complex (strategy wise) and bigger (literally) and they made the AI smarter! But not only that, if you have a suspect drop his weapons there’s a chance he can pick him up and shoot you, I had it happen on my first mission and I was killed because my team wasn’t watching him! The AI is so much more fun to face!

Controls
Well obviously they are easy because you can’t play this for the first time like its something different. It’s the same as playing Swat 4! The only bummer is you have to set your controls up again! I just took pictures of my controls and went in game and kept alt-tabbing out to compare buttons. However there are a few more buttons to add so as always the control situation is even more… complicated.

Sounds and Music
Well music wise I never really had it on because I can’t hear the environment in the game so I can’t comment on that. But the sound isn’t as annoying as before (when it comes to voices). People don’t say stupid things as often, although sometimes the game must go loopy and Hostages will scream non stop for entire games. Other then that the rest of the sound is the same as always!

Multiplayer
I only played this game a few times online. I never liked it that much online. However I will admit this is more fun online then Swat 4 is. Only problem is too many people don’t care about playing right because most players have fake CD-keys.

Overall

Overall this is an awesome expansion! I hope they do another expansion or even develop another game in the series. Even though there isn’t a huge amount of new missions, the new stuff makes up for it seeing as how you can use it in the old missions!

Pros
+Better graphics
+Better AI
+Cooler maps
+Better features
+New weapons

Cons
-Some may not want to spend $20

Game Score

9.0

Reviewed By: Contributed