SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate

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.

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.

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?).

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

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.

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.

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?

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.