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SWAT: Global Strike Team Review |
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SWAT: Global Strike Team
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To be entirely honest this game (SWAT) sat around on my desk for a week or so before I decided it was time to play it. The reason being that at first glimpse of the cover it looked like another Ghost Recon and I dreaded putting the game into my X-Box due to fear of having to learn a scrupulous amount of controls, options, weapons configurations, and tactics. When I finally began to play the idea was to run through the tutorial, and maybe the first four missions to get enough information to never have to play the game again, but the game was about as far away from what I expected as possible.
Then what kind of game is SWAT: Global Strike Team you might ask? Well, it's a first person, tactical, arcade like shooter. The idea is that this is the most elite SWAT team on the planet, that handles high risk hostage and bomb situations for all major world governments. The team is made up of three characters, your main character is the standard team leader, with basic abilities. The other two members of the squad are the sniper, and the demolitions expert. Throughout the missions you'll command the demolitions expert who is nearly always by your side, you can tell him to blow down a door, disable a bomb, or just follow your lead. Many times the sniper will be stationed at a distance from you and the demolitions expert, and at certain points of the mission control of the sniper is given to you, so that you can provide cover for yourself in a sense. It's a pretty good scheme, depending on the situation you'll have to learn how to use the two squad members to their fullest in order to complete the mission.
We'll start off with the basics of game play, there is no tutorial, you just go right into mission briefing, where the situation involving the mission is presented. Before starting a mission a weapons outfit must be chosen, for primary weapon choice there's the shotgun, assault rifle, or machine gun. The secondary weapon is always the tranquilizer gun, then there is a selection of grenades including a pack of flash bangs, tear gas, EMP's, and concussion grenades. The most interesting thing I found about this game was the weapons upgrades. Depending on how well you do on one level, you acquire points which will allow you to purchase upgrades for your primary weapon. Each of the three different weapons has its different upgrades, for example the assault rifle has the ability to upgrade to four levels of stronger bullets, accuracy, clip size, and magnification. This really helps keep interest in the game as it progresses, seeing as there are a full twenty missions each with harder enemies than the last.
Caution and skill engulf this entire game, as you creep through a level around every corner could be a hostage, enemy, or injured officer. The additional element that makes this different from any other game is the behavior of the terrorists/enemies. There are SWAT rules that say you are not to take a lethal shot at any person unless they have engaged fire, or provoked you to attack. Some of the enemies will surrender their weapons immediately, in which case the action button will allow you to cuff them, or you can send a squad mate to do it. Other enemies will surrender themselves after taking a couple shots, in either case if you use lethal force on a surrendered person it will result in a negative mark on your SWAT rating and in some cases cause you to fail a mission. In cases where you can see the back of a person but they haven't seen you yet, a tranquilizer is always the safest route to take.
As the game progresses you'll encounter missions all over the world, the enemies will become more and more advanced, and so will you. This is one of those games that's in between good and great, but more than likely leaning more towards the good side. Plenty of new concepts that haven't been discovered yet, along with plenty that have. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt however and say that this one is worth purchasing, there's plenty to keep someone busy with the depth of single player alone, on top of that cooperative and death match style play is available which should give it plenty of replay.
Review By: Travis Parrott
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