Sidetrek: Swat 3

Yep, I know I'm one version out of date.

Decided to take a break from blinding playing CoH. So in between puttering with Guild Wars, and Doom 3, I was rummaging for a strategy game and I found this really old Swat 3 game. Ok, it's not strategy but it's a "tactical" game.

Personally, before this, I had installed it twice and deleted it twice as well. First time around, I kept dying and not figuring out wtf I had to do. Didn't help that the cheapo version of the CD didn't come with a manual. Gave up.

Second re-install, I had finally figured out that I was NOT supposed to run and gun like a Counterstrike maniac and was all game to be like a real police SWAT team member....

Except, my team members kept correcting me as I tried to evacuate hostages, declare people 'down' or 'neutralized' or... wtf is with this weird and lame terminology anyhow? I don't even have a dictionary here. And why won't this stupid mission end? Didn't I get everyone out already? Why is it every time I hit 'escape' and leave to debrief, or hit mission complete, I keep failing the mission?

Gave up again. Just couldn't figure it out.

Swat 3 is really so not intuitive. But I was game to give it a third try. And this time, I was smart enough to go read some GameFAQs first. Thank god, someone included a definition of terms in their FAQ.

Ohhhh. So 'down' means wounded, and 'neutralized' means dead, dead, deaders. And I actually have to HANDCUFF hostages before I evacuate them? Oh. I thought I already inspired compliance with a SWAT uniform and a big fat rifle pointing at hostages. After all, they already had their hands raised in surrender. Seriously, would you attack the guy coming to rescue you? After an agonizing hostage situation? With your bare hands when the guy has a M4 pointed at your chest? I still need to be cuffed? Sheesh.

Personally, I would be crawling at their feet, thanking them and trying to get the fuck out of there by staying low and running behind the guys in body armor and big guns. Erm, the good guys, I mean.

That's what I thought airplane hostages did. Swat or commando team jumps in, maybe drops some gas..."Everyone stay low! Down down!" and they shoot the bad guys. Hostages meanwhile staying low/down, and trying to crawl out, evacuate ASAP once it's safe. Do they really CUFF every hostage? Wouldn't that really impede evacuation rate when everyone has their hands behind their back?

Anyhow, maybe that's the reason why that poor lost plane guy flying into a restricted zone was jumped on and wrestled to the ground by police forces, cuffed and charged and what not.

Granted, he was suspicious, and a suspect, and could be charged.

I understand it in some cases. Say you barge in, this suspect tries to shoot at you or run away, and then he drops his gun. Then yes, you cuff him before taking him away.

Dunno. Anyhow it's a game. Conventions needta be followed. My mistake was trying to treat it like 'real life' and playing it situationally.

Third try, re-install, and hey, it's actually going well now that I know what the police procedures I'm supposed to follow actually are.

It's actually kind of fun to order bots around to do stuff, while you lurk behind (not safe barging up front, you tend to get shot full of holes and mission ends). Though there have been times ALL FOUR of them got shot down and I had to complete the mission on my own. Now that was heart-pounding.

It's a pretty good police sim. You try to be safe, but sometimes all these crazy unexpected things happen.

There were a few instances of the bots getting stuck on staircases and breaking the versimiltude but all in all, quite believable. I'm getting into it. I might pick up Swat 4 once finishing Swat 3. I understand it's a little less clunky in interface. I hope, anyhow.

And boy do I have new respect for the SWAT teams. Freaking scary to be in a position where you know people are gonna take potshots at you, and you're NOT supposed to shoot back unless in self defence (Do I wait until he fires at me before shooting? Is he or is he not pointing a gun at me? He's so freaking far away, how can I even tell?) and you always need to remember to give them the chance to surrender first, otherwise.

Oh, and let's not get me started on hem, trying to shoot to wound. Apparently the feet are the best place to aim. Unfortunately, all the FPS training has led my instinctive aim to somewhere considerably higher up. Like the head and chest torso area. Oopsie. That's why I'm real careful about not firing till fire upon. They tend not to move after I hit the left mouse button.

(Now, I'm not a fan of all the crazy noise made about violent video games, but certainly, I think we are training a generation of people who know where to aim at a human body for immediate trauma. Give them a gun and a reason to use it, and there's gonna be a buncha head and torso shots if their aim in real life is passable.)

Swat 3 is fun because of the moments though. The missions are all randomized, so hostages and suspects are never in the same place.

So there was one time, the team opened the door, and there was a freaking suspect in terrorist garb (ski mask, body armor, gun and all) hiding right behind it to the side. And it so happened that I was the only one who could see him from the angle we were standing at. Man, did I shoot. The instinct happened so quickly. It was like one of those ancient Counterstrike impulses. See masked man, fire away. Only later, after the guy was on the ground, I started to worry. Oh crap, did he point the gun at me? I think I forgot to yell at him to surrender. In fact, I think I shot him to death while he was still surprised.

Heh. Oh well. I wasn't penalized for mis-use of deadly force after that mission though, so I guess I was ok. But it's such an interesting game that you are actually thinking about the ethics of a shot.

I gather Swat 4 stresses non-lethal more. I think I'd like that for a change of pace for a police sim. You're the good guys, you're not supposed to be killing people, but arresting them. Seriously, not City of Heroes style, but really taking them in, even when they don't deserve it.

And there was the time I failed a mission because of an interesting positioning of armed suspect and hostage. Long corridor. Hostage in the middle, in surrender position, kneeling, hands raised, screaming like an stuck pig. Gunman way beyond at the end of the corridor. I peek in and see the situation, dodge sideways with Mr Trigger-Happy Terrorist's bullets flying at me, and go, Crud. The suspect is yelling curses, the hostage is bawling my eardrums out with useless comments, I'm disoriented and confused, trying to get in a good shot at the suspect, but the stupid hostage is in the way. All I can think of is to keep trying to peek around and aim for the suspect, but it's a damn fat hostage.

Suspect has no such qualms about not hitting the woman. He just blazes away merrily. Because I keep poking my head out, staring at him. My teammates were still responding to my order to come back me up (dunno where the heck they were, they never did arrive in time.) Yep, you guessed it. He shot right through the hostage, I watched the lady fall in horror, and then my screen turned red and I hit the floor with my teammates yelling in the radio, Officer down!

Dayum.

Moral of the story: if I am ever unlucky enough to be in such a situation, I will NOT, repeat NOT, yell and distract the guys rescuing me. I will be as quiet as a mouse and try to look really small and not get between two men with guns.

Yea, Swat 3 is fun. I'm busy installing the patch so I can play more missions and so on. I wonder if anyone still uses the multiplayer. I should think co-op mode would be very interesting.