SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate

By Chris Tomkins Published 27 February, 2006

Dean Tate on Irrational's latest.

SWAT 4 was one of the best tactical action games of 2005; so good, in fact, that it made it to the heady heights of No.28 in EG's end-of-year Top 50 extravaganza. It was certainly one of the most brutally macho games you'll ever come across anyway, making you feel like you're playing out a particularly stroppy episode of The Shield.

And now there's more perp-busting to come, with the March 10th release of Irrational's forthcoming Stetchkov Syndicate expansion pack, featuring seven new levels that pit players up against "one of the most dangerous and ruthless criminals yet." To sate our curiosity in the lead up to the game's release we grabbed level designer Dean Tate for a quick chat and a cuppa...

Eurogamer: A welcome return to one of the most atmospheric games of 2005. Could you talk a little about how you plan a level? How do you develop a concept?

Dean Tate: When planning a level I like to look at it from two distinct points of view, the game mechanics and the story.

The first thing we did when starting the expansion was to sit down and brainstorm lots of cool, interesting things for the player to do in the levels. We wanted to throw interesting twists at existing locations in the real world: take something the player knows, then turn it on its head! With this being an expansion we thought it was important to take all the cool gameplay mechanics of the original and find new ways for the player to experience them. We also worked to strengthen that feeling of "being there" by providing each level with its own story fiction.

Once the brainstorming is done and we have a bunch of Ingredients to work with we take the freshest ones and mash them together to make a level with a perfectly browned, crusty exterior...a smooth, creamy centre...something that leaves a sweet aftertaste. If SWAT 4 was a filling dinner, then this expansion is the perfect dessert. The Iron Chef would be jealous.

'SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate' Screenshot comeout

Come out, come out wherever you are.

Eurogamer: Could you talk about - without spoiling it too much, of course - some of the levels in the game. What do you think are the particular stand out points?

Dean Tate: You guys really want spoilers, huh? We can tell you not to expect any of the same stuff you saw in the original. Instead, expect all-new scenarios that'll provide a tougher challenge than anything SWAT came up against last year. You'll be leading your team through the winding depths of a dilapidated and abandoned subway station, into a rock concert that’s gone a little quiet (hostage-taking terrorists sorta tend to ruin the party...), through the halls of the Department of Agriculture (sounds boring...) moments after the centre of the building has been well and truly gutted by a bomb blast (ok, not so boring), and plenty of others.

Eurogamer: Actually, screw spoilers: Is there anything as spooky as the serial killer level?

Dean Tate: That’s a damn tall order. The team here at Irrational made that level and it still manages to creep us out. Not to go too far and spoil anything, the answer to your question is "yes" (why, are you afraid?).

Eurogamer: The co-operative play was one of the other stand-out features in the game. Playing in across a LAN and shouting at each other is a glorious thing. Why was this so important to you?

Dean Tate: For this exact reason; it's important to you guys, and it's important to us as well.

Eurogamer: In fact, so important you've expanded it considerably. 10 player co-op is a serious thing. How does the game play out with 10 players? I'd imagine the dynamics would change in interesting fashion.

Dean Tate: The dynamics don't change too significantly. In our experience, small teams tend to separate and clear parts of the level independently. The level needs to be large enough so that the teams don't finish the level too quickly. We were careful not to make any small missions for the expansion that had only one or two enemies.

And taking up from our LAN experience, the VO-IP will bring that to people who haven't set up a voice-chat server themselves - which is just about everyone.

'SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate' Screenshot black

"Hey! You in the black!"

Eurogamer: Could you talk a little about how the fluidity of voice communication improves the game?

Dean Tate: Being able to coordinate breaching actions is what this game is all about. It was almost impossible to do this over the Internet using traditional chat.

Voice chat makes it easy.

Eurogamer: A Melee attack is a welcome addition to the add-on pack. What was the train of thinking which lead to its absence in the original game?

Dean Tate: Time is the biggest constraint on any game project. We regularly have to weigh up the pros and cons of every feature and make sure the best stuff makes it into the game. Unfortunately there was just too much other cool stuff to put into the game.

Similarly, Held orders. Could you talk a little about how they will operate?

Dean Tate: Held orders are really simple. You can delay the execution of any order by holding the shift key. This allows you to have your teams stack up in two locations and make their assault simultaneously.

It doesn't sound like much but when you start to play around with it you soon find it can make a huge difference.

Eurogamer: Dean, thank you.

SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate will be released on March 10th from Vivendi Universal Games. Look out for a full review in the lead up to its release.

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About Chris Tomkins

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Comments (35) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Zuiyo #1 6 years ago

    Fey-irst!!!

  • PearOfAnguish #2 6 years ago

    Held orders are really simple. You can delay the execution of any order by holding the shift key. This allows you to have your teams stack up in two locations and make their assault simultaneously.

    Yay! That would have been useful in the nightclub mission...


    Love SWAT 4, best tactical FPS thingy evar.

  • El_MUERkO #3 6 years ago

    Cant wait, I play SWAT 4 regularly on the

    Shits all over the likes of rainbow six

  • tiddles #4 6 years ago

    I'm playing SWAT 4 at the moment, and it's superb. My one problem is that I get killed by the LAST F*&%ING GUY in the level every time....

    This expansion sounds like genius - pity they missed the Feb 28th release date advertised on the posters you see in the game... :)

  • urban #5 6 years ago

    woop :D

  • Stickman #6 6 years ago

    I really, really must buy this game. I loved number 3, and by all accounts this is much the superior game.

    Would anyone else agree that this was the most overlooked game of the last year?

  • Dynamize #7 6 years ago

    Good good. Soon, more opportunity to zip-cuff a perp and smugly declare "Have fun in Rikers, scumbag."

    @Stickman
    'Tis a good progression from 3 indeed. Although I was a little disappointed that they'd got rid of the Stealth/Go Dynamic control angle. Was exciting having the team get compromised, switch to dynamic and the music change tempo and such.
    Still, a fine addition to the old Police Quest pantheon.
    Dunno if it was overlooked really. In terms of sales I think it was respectable, based on this here expansion.
    Might've been one of those "for those in the know" games though. Attention from fans, more caution or skepticism from people who haven't had anything to do with the series before, and so deem it as just another FPS.

  • Furbs #8 6 years ago

    Is there much variety in the weapons? Call me shallow but after 3 or 4 missions of SWAT 3 I was starting to lose interest because the guns were all basically the same.

  • reality_cheque #9 6 years ago

    Just in case nobody else has - Furbs, you shallow S.O.B.! :p

  • Tyronne #10 6 years ago

    Funny to think that this is a decendent from the old sierra point and click adventure `police quest`

  • Furbs #11 6 years ago

    I cant help it if gunpr0n turns me on!

  • Dynamize #12 6 years ago

    Plenty of variety in weapons. The usual suspects really: M4, G36, MP5(and SD5 variant), UMP45, Bennelli shotguns in Less-Than-Lethal and lethal flavours, the usual .45/9mm sidearms, tazers, teargas, blah blah.
    Really there are only so many ways you can think of to propel a piece of metal quickly out of another piece of metal :)

    @Tyronne
    Yeah, they really should do an update of Police Quest 3 and 4. I really enjoyed the preamble of 3, doing the day-to-day stuff of a cop. Pulling over a speeder or a car mentioned in an APB, taking care of some nutter in a park, following procedure and all that.

  • smoison #13 6 years ago

    "a tougher challenge than anything SWAT came up against last year"

    Damn, some of those mission were already REALLY hard. Even on Co-Op!

    And if you havent played the SWAT's before, Swat 2 has the best strategy , and 4 the best FPS action. (Not the same kinda of games)

    P.S And i believe SWAT 1 is police quest....
    Edited by 1 at 27/02/06 @ 16:58

  • juggler #14 6 years ago

    Zuiyo: Waynker

  • asphaltcowboy #15 6 years ago

    Awesome! Can't wait for some more SWATtage!

    Btw, there's a spelling mistake in the second paragraph: "curioristy"
    Edited by 1 at 27/02/06 @ 17:17

  • bunglebonce #16 6 years ago

    I played the demo, and I wasn't hooked despite some nice touches. Maybe I shall give it a go again?

  • tiddles #17 6 years ago

    I played the demo, and I wasn't hooked despite some nice touches. Maybe I shall give it a go again?

    Make it so - it's a grower...

    You never really get tired of bursting into a room and shouting at people. For the next game they should put "shout" on a key on its own (rather than on the "use" key), maybe give you different levels of screaming, that sort of thing...

  • bunglebonce #18 6 years ago

    Sounds good.

    I wonder if you need the original to play the expansion? The held orders sound particularly interesting to me.

    I think I didn't really get into it before was because of the lack of planning beforehand. It was one of my fave things of the R6 series, and I felt a little underwhelmed with not being able to plan everything down to the last detail.

    I just read the review again. KG mentioned snipers very briefly- how does that work?

    Hope I still have the demo on my drive..

  • El_MUERkO #19 6 years ago

    also if you want to have a laugh play VIP with some mates, nothing like torturing someone before shooting them in the head for laughs online

  • asphaltcowboy #20 6 years ago

    bunglebonce: the point is, they're not meant to have up to the minute information - it's "we need help! get in there asap!" As for snipers - they radio over to you if they spot someone, you can then open up a viewport of what they're seeing and even take control if you want to.

  • Baronen #21 6 years ago

    Wow, looks great.

    *is holding breath for 360 port*

  • tiddles #22 6 years ago

    Anyone have any tips on how to use the snipers? Since you get penalised for opening fire without warning/provocation, they seem a bit useless - your team has to have engaged the crims first, at which point it's generally too late to have to time to switch to the snipers....

    It's nice when the snipers spot your team and radio everybody, though :)

  • Dynamize #23 6 years ago

    I thought sniper kills were somewhat oddly not penalised. Pretty sure I did a mission and only killed one suspect and that was with a sniper.
    Unless it's just if the sniper reports "Armed suspect and hostage in sight", in which case if you kill him it doesn't penalise because it represents a threat to an innocent.

  • meepster2312 #24 6 years ago

    Original game £7.99 at Play now

    http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=promo&pa ge=title&r=PC&title=608501

    Bargain!

  • Munkhee #25 6 years ago


    Been playing the original game for the best part of a year... Absolutely superb. Still haven't finished the SP campaign tho :-)

    It has a few quirks and annoyances (which the expansion should sort out by the sounds of it), but definately the most fun I've had with a tactical shooter. Multiplayer co-op is fantastic too.

    Highly recommended (especially at £7.99 as mentioned above).

  • bunglebonce #26 6 years ago

    £7.99, nice.

    I do understand that there shouldn't be the same detailed planning as in R6, and to be honest it's a bit stabilisers on a bike: it'll take me a while to adjust but I'm sure it'll be just as fun in the end.

    I game the demo a shot again last night. Apart from hitting the wrong buttons a few times in critical moments I had a jolly good time with it!

    I do like the monitor for watching the other teams. It looks to be better implemented than the new Ghost Recon game, though it's difficult to tell without playing GRAW yet.

    I know it's worth a gamble for eight squid :)

  • Furbs #27 6 years ago

    I've got an Athlon 2400, 1.25gb RAM and a Radeon 9700Pro - think I'll be able to get away with this on medium settings at 1024?

  • tiddles #28 6 years ago

    @ Dynamize - I have actually never used a sniper because I assumed it would be an infraction! I should try popping a few more perps and see what happens... :)

  • tiddles #29 6 years ago

    @ Furbs - I reckon it has about the same hardware requirements as Half Life 2... if you can play that OK, you shouldn't have any problems with SWAT.

  • Furbs #30 6 years ago

    Ah great, thanks tiddles, HL2 was fine. Ordered :)

  • tiddles #31 6 years ago

    You tend to move around pretty slowly and cautiously most of the time anyway, so frame-rate isn't the issue that it might be in other shooters.

  • UncleLou #32 6 years ago

    I think I didn't really get into it before was because of the lack of planning beforehand. It was one of my fave things of the R6 series, and I felt a little underwhelmed with not being able to plan everything down to the last detail.

    Heh, just the opposite here. I never liked the planning part of the R6 games, it always felt to me like I had to do what the AI should do during the game, not like I was planning an attack.

    Oh, and SWAT4 rocks, yes. Would be a crime not to get it for that price. :)

  • tiddles #33 6 years ago

    Further to what UncleLou said, one of the brilliant things about this game is the degree to which the enemy and hostage positions are randomised. Because the maps are fairly small, you get to know the layouts very well but you must always be on your toes - any corner could hide an enemy who could take you out before you even see them if you're not paying attention. You really have to get good at the game and its tactics, rather than just learning patterns.

  • bunglebonce #34 6 years ago

    Ordered :)

    I'll just have to wait patiently until the expansion price comes down.

  • Tellute #35 6 years ago

    £7.99? Sweet, I'd been interested in this for a while.

    Damn, I forgotten how quickly you can shop at play once they've stored all your details.

    (And I ended up ordering Serenity whilst I was there).