qualhiveldorf

I recently got Swat 4 and I am impressed. It has all the good things about brothers in arms.

**Strategy**
The strategy is Swat 4 is the most crucial thing to the success of the mission. Knowing the map, enemies and civilians are crucial, they are shown in the briefing which one must watch for success! The enemies hide in excellent places such as the corners to either side of a door which are easy to miss in the initial inspection of the room and gives the enemy a point blank shot. The team control is crucial to the mission in order to not put yourself in harmsway. The mounted headcams on your team is critical in larger maps. The protocols one must follow in the game makes it even harder than most fps, you simply can't shoot the enemy, first you must tell them to surrender at this point the enemy will either surrender, shoot at you, run away or do "nothing". If the enemy surrenders then you must arrest him or order your men to arrest him, if he/she shoots then you have the right to shoot with deadly intent, if the suspect runs then you have to either follow or shoot, and if the suspect does nothing you have to use non leathal force ie. pepper spray.

**Weapons**
The weapon variety in the game is quite good with the ability to choose from 9 (I think) primary guns, 3 pistols and 5 extra slots which can be filled with non-leathal grenades, door stoppers, and/or optiwand (A device which lets you peer around corners and under doors). The primary weapons include, MP-5, MP-5 Silenced, .45 caliber smg, GB36s euro assault rifle, M4A1 m16 variant, paintball gun that fires pepper spray filled paintballs, beanbag shotgun, nova pump shotgun, and m4 Super90 shotgun. Pistol weapons include .45 caliber m1911, a 9mm pistol and a tazer gun. Flashbang grenade white flash followed by last seen image fading into the current image, stinger grenade makes vision go blurry and moving around, tear gas which is my personal favorite because no line of sight needed and wide area coverage, although some suspects are equipped with gas masks and lastly the pepper spray an excellent follow up for tear gas.

**Enemy Weapons**
The enemy weapons include, various pistols, mac-10's regular and silenced, AK-47 and variants, sawed off shotgun, and the most scary thing....every weapon availible to you, is eventually availible to the enemy except I have not yet seen them use any of the grenades or other tactical weapons.

**Maps**
The maps in Swat 4 are amazing, despite the lack of heavy rendering or excellent textures like in some games Swat 4 makes up for it by making the environment, mood and overall look realistic. There are the right type of objects in every map, the rooms are not pristine like some games nor are they always grimy but they look lived in and worked in.

*****SPOILERS*****
Here is a mission by mission summary of all the missions I have completed and tips on each one.

Food Wall: Make sure to send one team to go in through the main entrance and one to go through the back entrance, suspects will be found primarily in the walk in freezer and second story but be cautious about the bathrooms, kitchen and area in front of the back door. Can easily be done completely with non leathal weapons.

Fairfax: This one is just creepy, equip team with smg's and expect the suspect to be in the garage or one of the basement rooms. Gives you the chills.

Qwik Fuel: Suspects will be in the front store part and the back office part. Use smg's perhaps one shotgun and be prepared this is one of the harder first few.

A-Bomb night club: This one is the most difficult yet, you can easily get lost in it and lose track of the suspects that run off, expect civilians and suspects everywhere. Use a more heavy duty smg or rifle.

Victory Auto's: This one is moderately difficult but will take a ton of tries. Expect 4-8 suspects on the lowest level both in the rooms and in theparking areanext to the stripped/broken car and in the fenced off area with the electrical transformer. Target civilian will either be in the open room that can be seen at the top of the lower flight of stairs or in the understair closet near the confederate flag.

Red office: Take a level by level approach, set entry to the bottom level and don't use tear gas because the suspects have gas masks.

Vending Machine shop: This one is just difficult because you are given a suprise in the map. Easy to get lost.

Diamond center: Armored suspects with good weapons makes this one extremely difficult use a combo of 45 caliber SMG and shotgun or rifle and shotgun. Start at the top level by the elevator.

Children of Tarrone cult: This one is freaky also, a whacko cult threatens to blow up their aparments and a chnk of the city with it. Unarmored unmasked suspects with shotguns and rifles. Expect the most suspects at the makeshift church and 2 level chemical pot place.

I have finished more levels and will add them later. I give Swat 4 a 9/10