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SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 best

By Tom Chick
(12/14/1999)

The good: Immersive team interaction, excellent AI, varied and realistic missions, impressive graphics engine.
The bad: Absolutely awful manual, pig-headed interface.
The bottom line: Cops meets Rainbow Six, but prettier, smarter, and without commercials.
Multiplayer: N/A
Single player: Excellent
ESRB rating: M (Mature)

SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle is revolutionary. Not since Looking Glass's Thief has a first-person shooter offered such a dramatic breakthrough in gameplay. Although it follows in the footsteps of squad-based tactical games such as Rainbow Six, SWAT 3 has several new twists that make it unlike anything else you've ever played.
Police Story
SWAT 3 is basically a first-person shooter with 16 missions that can be played individually or as a campaign. The placement of characters and mission objectives is randomized each time you play, so for a game with "only" 16 missions, there's considerable replay value. In the campaign, the missions gradually reveal an insidious terrorist plot in Los Angeles. The briefings before each mission are a compelling form of storytelling. Red Storm's Rainbow Six games tried to do something similar, but their stories were embedded in chunks of tedious text. In SWAT 3, the story unfolds in a series of urgent bullet points that you get on the way to the scene: "OK, this is why you're here, this is what you have to do, these are the stakes, now go!" The authoritative voice work here and during missions deserves kudos.
Bad Boys, Bad Boys
Once you're in a mission, SWAT 3 starts to resemble an episode of Cops. You spend most of the time crouching behind other officers, following their hushed and careful movements. When all hell breaks loose, they bustle ahead and burst through doors, barking out commands: "Put your hands up! Get on your knees! Now! Move it!" You watch as your squad handcuffs suspects who are cursing them out, as distraught hostages weep and wounded men groan, writhe, and bleed. Your radio makes that "cop bleep" sound (bloodle-oop) as snipers report enemy movements or headquarters acknowledges your request to evacuate wounded officers. And all this takes place in the types of locations that you drive past every day: banks, bars, houses, office buildings, and churches, which are all beautifully rendered by the game's engine. Thus, SWAT 3 has a certain verity that gives it more power and immediacy than a globe-trotting techno-thriller or a fantasy shooter.

Screen Shots
Click the captions for more game shots!
-He's no choirboy
-Officer down
-The fashion police
-When geeks dance
-Going in

Furthermore, SWAT 3 effectively captures the concept of nonlethal police procedure rather than scorched-earth commando actions. You are not here to kill people, but to protect and serve. The missions are often populated with neutral characters, or even characters whose motives are unknown. SWAT 3 calls for restraint, a quality that is missing from most first-person shooters. The campaign tracks your performance through a leadership rating, which is determined by a combination of factors, such as proper use of deadly force; the respect AI officers have for your methods; and the survival rates of suspects and officers. Although you're limited to the three guns a SWAT team uses, there's an impressive variety of police toys that are built into the gameplay: handcuffs, flashbangs, tear gas, lock picks, lightstick markers, and a very well-done surveillance mirror.

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SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle

SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle

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