Others say...

"Tactical training at its best"
SWAT 4 is the best of the hard core serious tactical simulations. This is a pretty authentic game and really fun. I have been a law enforcement officer for 11 years, and SWAT 4 has some training value like Fire Arms Training Simulator and other police trainers.

There are some annoyances. The game has excessively conservative use-of-force requirements. Based on the totality of most of the missions (hostages, injured civilians, shots fired, multiple bad guys with gas masks, rifles and body armor), someone holding a gun is a justifiable shooting in real life. You aren't going to give the bad guys a chance to harm anyone else (even by escaping) once entry is made.

Fortunately, it is possible to set the requirements low enough that use-of-force penalties won't fail you so you can unlock all the missions. Still, your team will always follow their artificial intelligence and get killed when they didn't have to.

I notice that the bad guys rarely execute hostages. This allows the SWAT team to take its time in most missions. In real life, if you have 10 citizens bleeding to death and active Columbine-type shooters, you would be under some time pressure.

There are some other unrealistic aspects such as only a five man entry team against a dozen body armored terrorists in a huge facility, and others, but the game is still the most realistic I've played as well as the most fun. Making split second life and death decisions is the most difficult aspect of law enforcement--you can end up dead or in prison. SWAT 4 makes it fun.


"Still an Excellent Game"
I am a huge fan of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield so I found this game just recently and decided to go with it based off of other's reviews. I am very happy with it, as it is so similar to Raven Shield in many ways. This is a tactical shooter first and foremost - meaning it is not a run and gun game. You direct (or lead) a four-member SWAT team into rather disturbing real life "situations", NOTE: there is a particularly deviant map at a cult hideout that would make this game a no-go for kids. In this game the goal is to NOT kill suspects unless absolutely necessary, and they push what necessary means. You actually get graded at the end of a round and its very hard to not get points detracted. The varying levels of difficulty require different scores to pass, for instance EASY requires nothing but survival and to not kill key civilians or targets. If you kill without giving threats a ridiculous amount of warning time, you will be penalized (see below). Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

Great graphics despite being older, they are better than Raven Shield, yet nowhere near FarCry/HL2 standards, but it looks as good as you would want it to on a rig that could handle those two for this type of game. The maps are very detailed and realistically rendered.

Immersive, you really feel in the moment with your team and you tend to get tense when things go unexpectedly. The maps are the best I have seen for small-scale tactical gaming.

Choices in gear matter, be warned - you cannot kill anybody but those either shooting or getting ready to shoot you, your team members or a civilian. This is a very tactical game and it challenges your thinking.

Unique, this game is going to challenge your FPS skills as well. You can lean around corners (but not while moving), use an under the door camera wand, throw flash bangs, CS gas, stinger grenades (rubber ball loaded grenade that stuns suspects) or use hand held CS for tactical advantage in a map.

Weapons are excellent, but they are real world SWAT weapons so they are no-frills. This is worlds away from Rainbow's endless load out options but much more realistic. You have the usual suspects: MP5, AR-15, UMP, auto shotgun and pump action with handguns going Colt 1911 and the Glock 19. The non-lethal shotgun, taser and CS paintball gun are actually quite effective and nice as you can shoot anyone with them and not get penalized. You also can choose a special breaching shotgun for doors, you have C2 otherwise - you cannot use that entry shotty to kill effectively though.

CONS
Bulky team interface makes using your team member head cam view almost unusable - this makes me rarely break my team up so I can see what everyone is doing. You can see through their cams, but it takes too long and is too cumbersome to use in action. You also cannot give delayed commands like Zulu in Rainbow, meaning you have to tell the team to go in manually through the interface. This makes two point entries a challenge as you need to use the remote unit's headcams, tell them to go - switch back to your view and hope you are quick enough to get into the same room in unison.

If you tell someone to surrender (a key mapping you will use more than any other in this game) and they don't drop their gun - yet don't point it at you, you have to wait till they threaten somebody or you can also shoot their leg, gas them, taze them or so forth - you have NO melee options. Failure to do this results in an "Unauthorized use of lethal force" penalty to your score - 10 points per infraction in a 100-point maximum schema. This causes extremely annoying situations when your team enters a room with five suspects and four civilians with everyone screaming "get down", "hands up", "drop it" - invariably you neutralize a non-threat. I assume SWAT members in real life do not wait for a guy running at them in a small room with an assault rifle to aim for them when there are other people shooting at them already. So realism suffers a little there for game play, as otherwise you could mop up with your AR-15.

No saving - which means if you are going through a long and challenging map - you have one shot at it. As the lead man you also cannot get killed, your team members can, but you will be penalized for this at grading time. Also if you are wounded badly - you move VERY slow - slow enough to make it impossible to finish if only half way through some maps.

That's far from everything, but I just wanted to add a recent review for those of us who don't go after only brand new games. I would have given it four stars except the package is a great deal for the money. The interface, threat system and lack of an in game save make me hold back on calling it a must have for anybody but genre fans. SWAT 4 is still very good and with the expansion pack - well worth the investment for those who like tactical shooters. If you are uncertain, check out the demo, but if you like Rainbow Six - don't waste your time, buy this now.

"Short Overview... Just to tell the user"
SWAT 4 GOLD Features

Includes the Original game and the Expansion!
The SWAT Experience - Lead your squad into fully detailed SWAT scenarios
Weapons and Tactics - Deliver justice with a full arsenal of official SWAT tactics and weaponry
Multiple Gameplay Modes - Extended SWAT replayability with Multiplayer and Co-op Modes
Quick Mission Maker - Create detailed custom missions for yourself and your friends
7 new single and multiplayer levels
Voice over IP Built in voice communication between teammates
10 player Coop - up to 2 teams of 5
New multiplaer mode - Smash & Grab
New weapons and equipment for both SWAT members and suspects
Stat tracking and ladders and rankings for multiplayer
Held commands - Orders can be held in single player until the leader gives the GO command
Unique Leader in Coop - Option to have only one person issue commands and lead the team
SWAT 4 Gold Download Minimum System Requirements

SWAT 4 Original game installation required
Windows? 98 SE - Windows? 2000 (w/ SP 3) - Windows? XP (w/ SP 1)
Intel? Pentium? III 1.0 GHz - Intel? Celeron? 1.2 GHz - AMD? Athlon?
1.2 GHz or Equivalent Processor
256 MB RAM
1 GB free Hard Disk space
DirectX? 8.1 - compatible sound card
Nvidia? GeForce? 2 w/ 32 MB (MX 200/400 Not Supported) - ATI? Radeon?
8500 w/64 MB or Equivalent Graphics Card
DirectX? 9.0c
Windows? Compatible Mouse & Keyboard
56k Modem for online play