What happend to SWAT4?

Edit July 17th: SWAT 4 Patch 1.01 has been released - avaliable here.

OK I’m going to admit - I’ve been busy and what have you, to be honest i’ve not played SWAT4 enough to even make the fansite. To be honest I was quite dissapointed with the game on a whole and i’d like to post a review that was commented on this post by a reader:

Now that Swat4 is out.. let me say this.. IT SUCKS ROYAL YOU KNOW WHAT!! None of the FPS fans I have played with like it a bit.

I played Swat3 DM’s and TDM’s from 2000 through 2005 and loved it as a FPS game. The tactical simulation aspect was how it was originally created in it’s first and second version, but the third version introduced multiplayer FPS action and it was the third version that became their most successful with true gaming fans. I say “true” gaming fans because coop fans are notorious for not only lacking in competitive gaming skills, but for simply hopping from one tactical simulation game to the next. In my experience and opinion, it was the FPS fans that gave Swat its longevity and its reputation as a fun game. Go back a year or further and if you entered the Swat lobby.. you would have found about 4 to 8 coopers for for every 50 to a 100 FPS fans. Thats a fact even Sierra had to recognize in their server data.

So after a year or two of promises of a better FPS.. what did Sierra & Vivendi do.. they totally betrayed their most loyal supporters and put out a game all but designed specifically as a tactical simulation game. Yes you can also play multiplayer matches but its just so unbelievable slow and methodical that it just doesn’t hold a stick next to true FPS games like Call of Duty, BattleField, Medal of Honor, Counter Strike and all the other top selling FPS games. It seems.. the FPS part of this game was included as an afterthought and even when Beta testers recognized flaws in their testing and advised Vivendi of the problems, their feedback went ignored. Of course ignoring the problems was a logical reaction because there was simply no way to correct them without signicant changes that would require months to complete. Vivendi had simply overlooked the fundamental principle that fun should always take a priority over realism when it comes to producing successful games. Training modules or simulators have a place in gaming.. but not a priority in in FPS gaming. FPS genre fans want to have fun. they want fast paced, in your face, no holds barred deathmatches or team deathmatches where you can “own” your competition and have a perverbial spike of the ball and dance in the end zone. Fun.. particularly against live competition.. its what makes the games interesting.. that is the essence of gaming. You can keep your precise sequences, commands and tactics and ai’s. Give me an FPS with no lag, great maps, good weapons and the ability to move quickly and I’m going to go out, kick some butt or at least have alot of fun trying!! That is what Swat4 was supposed to do.. simply continue on that style and play of Swat3. Only with improved environments, graphics, sounds, data processing, better servers and an implementation of hack filters or guards. Thats all swat3 fans really needed or wanted .. instead.. we were basically told play time was over and we we had to return to the disciplines of Swat training. Boooooring.. but hey.. no problem. we’ve all moved on and found FPS fun in other games. I’m just curious what Sierra or Vivendi will do when the coopers inevitably leave as they usually do to seek a new tactical simualtion experience, especially now that they’ve lost almost all of their loyal FPS fans. I bet this game doesn’t have half the success Swat3 had.

Chaos.. (played in Godz Clan and now with Mag7)

 I’d like to thank Chaos for the highly detailed opinion of his, and I did respond:

Wow chaos you have alot to say about SWAT 4 - And I appreciate your opinion. I played SWAT4 both online and offline and to be honest I was really not impressed enough…

Thanks for your review - because its so detailed I’d like to use it to excuse my lack of producing the SWAT4 fansite I promised - simply because i’m not much of a fan to be honest!!

I too was highly dissapointed with the lack of coop especially - I mean personally I think Sierra have forgotten how to make a game decent and they just tried to make it have good graphics (and even thats debatable!).

The lack of mods is another thing - but really I couldn’t play SWAT4 long enough because of my graphics card (long story), but I widely agree you in much of what you said.

SWAT3 was an amazing game - and its gone!

What is my point? Well lets just say I wasn’t as into SWAT4 as I was with SWAT3, and therefore I haven’t had the real opportunity to make the fansite (swat4gaming.tk). If there are any SWAT4 fans amongst you, i’m sorry if I offended you - and if you want to contribute to the fansite that would be highly appreciated!