SWAT: Target Liberty

"Disappointing, considering its pedigree"

Depending on when you started gaming, you'll know the SWAT series as: (a) a graphic adventure game, (b) a strategy game, or (c) a first person shooter. Regardless, Sierra's SWAT series has earned it's fair share of awards, whether it was with the graphic adventure Police Quest: SWAT, or the awesome SWAT 2 strategy game, or the first person shooters that were SWAT 3 and 4. Now, SWAT comes onto the PSP with SWAT: Target Liberty, and it really doesn't live up to its name.

SWAT: TL hearkens back to a time when videogames took inspiration from '80s action movies. You have your characters named Kurt Wolfe, Hollywood, Gramps, etc, and you form a 3 man SWAT team that seems to be the only people that can take down a nuclear threat in a convoluted plot involving Korean street gangs and Middle Eastern terrorists. SWAT's plot is not important, though - merely window dressing for some tactical gaming goodness.

SWAT is heavy on premise - it has a lot of really good ideas. In each level, you and your team must infiltrate an area and neutralize suspects, as well as restrain civilians. The game uses a lot of real life police procedures. For example, you're encouraged to radio in any downed suspects and report any restrained civilians or suspects for pick up, and you're penalized for opening fire without first shouting at suspects to drop their weapons. You can also perform a variety of actions when interacting with doors - you can look under the door with a camera, stack your team to flashbang and clear a room, or use a breaching charge on a door, etc. You also have a cool cover system that's similar to the one in the PSP iterations of Syphon Filer - simply push up against an object to take cover. Lastly, there's also an experience system - do well in missions, gain experience, invest in you and your team mate's abilities. Sounds great, doesn't it?

That is, of course, where things start to fall apart. If you've played one level of SWAT: TL, you've played them all. Each level basically plays the same - shoot a few suspects, arrest a few, smack some civilians a few times until they comply before you restrain them, interrogate them, etc. It's also a shame that the core action is so dull. In order to fire on suspects, you must first hold the L shoulder button, and then use one of the face buttons to aim at a specific suspect, and then release the shoulder button before you can fire. This takes more time than it should. The ability to look into the next room with a camera is kind of disappointing as well - you don't see anything but a green circle outlining what may be either a civilian or an armed suspect. It makes the option feel kind of pointless. The cover system is clunky in execution, where you take too much time to get in and out of cover, and always seem to enter cover when you don't want to and can't when you do. Levels run rather long too, and they involve many of the same repetitive actions until you reach the end. You could try speeding up the process by running everywhere, but you don't seem to move noticeably faster - whether you're running or walking, you still move at a snail's pace.

One notable thing about SWAT: TL is it's relatively good AI. In most tactical games, you end up doing the bulk of the work, but in SWAT: TL, it's the exact opposite. Your team mates will be invaluable, as they're often much better shots than you are, and they're quite intelligent. You can order them to move to specific points, restrain suspects/civilians, etc. They'll react to suspects according to the situation. For example, if they're shot at after they give warnings, they shoot back. You can also set them to use only lethal force, or only non-lethal force. Enemy AI is just as good, although they have a tendency to shoot you from off-screen.

SWAT's gameplay is really slow, and tactical in a not-very-fun kind of way. I didn't get far enough to finish the game - the game doesn't really get better, so if you don't like the first couple of levels....

SWAT does have some multiplayer, but the shooting in this game isn't very fun as it is. You also get a random "Killhouse" generator, which generates random levels for you to play in.

In terms of presentation, SWAT does things pretty well. The graphics are exceptionally well done, as is the sound. Everything looks great, from characters to environments, and there are no frame rate problems to speak of. The sound design is good, with some quality voice acting for both the police and the suspects - the dialogue is pretty dull, though. The sound effects aren't quite as strong, with some of the guns sounding like toys, but that's a minor issue.

SWAT: TL is a mixed package. I really wanted to like this game, but after investing some time with it, it just doesn't seem like it's very fun. There are definitely a lot of good ideas, but a large variety of factors really get in the way of enjoyment.

Overall:
Pros:
+ Great presentation
+ Excellent AI
+ Variety of real-life police tactics used in-game
Cons:
- Dopey plot
- Extremely repetitive gameplay
- Over reliance on AI team mates
- Shooting and cover aspects flawed in execution

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/07

Game Release: SWAT: Target Liberty (US, 10/16/07)