The Pandora Directive

Tex Murphy returns for another interactive movie adventure game. Just like Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive puts you in Murphy’s shoes to explore the world in first-person view as well as watching full motion video sequences.

Release Date

Pros

The tutorial is wonderful. It does a very good job of teaching how to do things in the game’s Virtual World Engine. There is also a full text, topic based help system to learn specific things.

Just like previous Tex Murphy games, The Pandora Directive has good humour. Not the crazy humour you find in Monkey Island or Sam and Max, but more like seeing the the bad luck happenings of our favourite P.I. and the sarcastic comments he makes about the surroundings.

According to the manual there are three paths and seven different endings. The three paths are determined by the choices you make which are to be selfish, to be kind, or to be neutral. I have not completed the game yet so I cannot comment on the endings, but I will put this as a pro point for the fact that there are seven different endings.

There are a few real puzzles like figure this pattern or build a jigsaw puzzle. I am not keen on real puzzles, but I do admit they do give some extra variety to the game. I was very glad that so far they have not been too difficult.

Just like Under a Killing Moon before it, The Pandora Directive is a rock solid detective adventure game. The story flows well and has been excellent so far. How the puzzles fit together also makes good sense.

The inbuilt hint system available in “Entertainment” level is a very good optional help mechanism for those that tear their hair out when they get stuck. It is only available in “Entertainment” level which has less game content than “Game Players” level. The good thing is you can start playing in “Game Players” level and only drop down to “Entertainment” level when you are ready to give up.

Cons

The first-person 3D graphics engine is quite old. Although I usually do not have a problem with old graphics, there were some warping graphics as I moved and looked around and it made me feel a bit nausea at times.

Other Points

If you play the “Game Players” level, you are really left out in the open right from the start. It is up to you to figure out what the first step is and then all the steps after that.

The first-person movement controls are a bit clunky, but it does work once you are used to it.

Just like most adventure games, good observation skills are required. Unlike some adventure games though, pixel hunting is not required in The Pandora Directive. The 3D view gives the player enough control to see things in good view. You just need to adjust yourself to the correct place and angle.

Although most of the game can be played without any time critical actions, there are parts that do need quick movements and good timing.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed Martian Memorandum and Under a Killing Moon before The Pandora Directive.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Monkey Island 1-4 and Sam and Max Hit the Road.

I played on “Game Players” level and got stuck on Day Five. Then I restarted the game on “Entertainment” level and played a bit just to see how different it is. I have decided to take a break and see if I can figure out the Day Five problems without using the hint system or reading walkthroughs.

DRM

The Pandora Directive is available DRM free from GOG.com

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

• Windows: Windows XP or Windows Vista
• 1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)
• 256MB RAM (512 recommended)
• 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
• Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

• Windows 7 64 bit.
• Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
• Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Rise of Nations Gold Edition

A real-time strategy(RTS) game where you wage war over land, sea and air from the ancient age to current day information age. Lead one of 24 nations to conquer the world.

Release Date

Pros

There are five Conquer The World(CTW) campaigns and they are very good. The Conquer The World mode adds an extra element of turn-based strategy to the game. The turn-based section can heavily influence how easy it is to play the real-time battle.

Your units’ AI are very good. Citizens can be set to automatically gather resources nearby or help with building things nearby.

The nuclear missile super weapon is REALLY a SUPER WEAPON. But the game has a limit of how many nuclear missiles can be fired before ARMAGEDDON!

There is a very good tutorial that teaches basic real-time strategy concepts as well as things specific to Rise Of Nations. Very beginner player friendly.

The game is moddable. Check out Rise of Nations Heaven to get mods and maps.

For some Conquer The World campaign battles, the battle map is actually generated based on the main CTW campaign map. So when you attack from one area to another, the battle map generated looks like the zoomed in area of the CTW campaign map. This is very innovative as you can create your own CTW campaign and all the battle maps will be generated for you when you play your campaign.

Cons

There are no cons for Rise Of Nations. It is simply a great game.

Other Points

There are 24 nations to play in the Gold Edition. But each side is very similar except for a few unique units and a few beneficial perks. Some of these perks are, faster gather rate of a certain resource, or build certain units faster or cheaper units.

The graphics are OK considering how old the game is. It would have been nice if it was full 3D like in The Moon Project.

Biases

Reviewed version 03.02.12.0800 of the game.

I really liked Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun and The Moon Project.

I also liked Warcraft 1 and 2, Dark Reign and Total Annihilation.

I have completed the Entire World, Napoleon and Alexander campaigns. In fact I have completed Entire World campaign many times, I just keep coming back for more!

I have not played any multiplayer games.

DRM

A product key must be entered when installing the game.

The disc must be in the drive to play the game.

Patches

To get patches you must use the game’s autopatcher. There is no place where you can just download the file to keep for later use.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

• Windows: XP/2000/ME/98 – 128 MB RAM
• processor: 500 MHz
• hard drive: 1.6 GB
• video card: 16 MB/3D
• other: audio board with speakers/headphones
• online/multiplayer requirements: 5.6kbps or better for internet play

Computer Played On

• Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM
• Win XP Pro
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

When adding custom CTW maps, you might need to delete the %appdata%\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\conquest\temp folder to pick up the correct map graphic when starting the new CTW game.

Recommended Mods

• Times of War Unofficial Expansion v2.2 – Increases the number of territories for CTW: Entire World. Also has quite a lot of other changes.

My Creations

Conquer The World campaign map of Australia .

Larva Mortus

A simple top-down shooter with RPG elements and a horror theme. You work for a secret “Agency” that hunts down evil things. The Agency gets reports of nasties happening some where and it is your job to fix it. Usually by mowing down loads of undead and other monsters. The main story of the game is, a mysterious person contacts the Agency saying an ancient artifact has been stolen. You must retrieve this artifact because it is very evil.

Release Date

Pros

The graphics are very good with nice, smooth 2d animations. The whole game has the comic/cartoony look to it and it is nicely done.

The music is excellent and matches the whole horror theme very well.

Similar to RIP 3 The Last Hero, as you kill the monsters, you get experience and you can upgrade your character in different ways.

Randomly generated normal missions. Normal missions are not related to the story of the game but are there so that you can fight through and gain experience to level up. They include killing all monsters in the area, rescue lost souls, destroy champion monsters and lifting the curse of the area(ie. destroy the evil symbol in the area).

There are many monster types and they are well done. There are the usual zombies, skeletons, giant spiders, bats and demons just to name a few. They are also quite detailed. Zombies can have their heads shot off, and they just roam around headless. Somtimes you can see just legs walking around. Gargantuan spiders lay eggs which explode into smaller spiders, and werewolves can pounce at you.

Cons

Even though it has randomly generated maps, it is still a simple top-down shooter and does get repetitive.

Other Points

There is an option to turn off gore.

There are power ups and new weapons to pick up, but the number of weapons and power ups are less than that of RIP 3 The Last Hero. Unlike RIP 3 though, you have limited ammunition and must find more as you go. If you completely run out of ammo it is to the trusty two-handed sword you go. There are only eight weapons and six power ups in Larva Mortus.

The action takes place from room to room. Each time you enter a room, there are monsters for you to clear. Once you have completely cleared a room the monsters do not return. However you can choose to leave a room without clearing it, which means if you return, the monsters will spawn again. As the tutorial says, this is one tactic to try and get more ammo.

The game automatically saves your progress each time you complete a mission. You cannot save the game mid-mission which means some mission can take a while, depending on how many rooms were generated and placed for that mission.

Each mission map is randomly generated. So if you died during a mission, doing the same mission again can give you a different map. Unfortunately there seems to be only a handly of combinations. After playing for a while I started noticing maps being repeated.

After completing the campaign, you can continue playing the random missions.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.02.

I really liked RIP 3 The Last Hero.

I have completed the game.

DRM

I cannot remember if the game has DRM.

Minimum Requirements (from the official site)

• Windows XP/Vista or Mac OSX 10.3+, 1.2GHz, 256MB RAM, OpenGL support (recomended)

Computer Played On

• Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
• Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with Altec Lansing ACS41 speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
• Win XP Pro
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Astro Avenger 2

Bigger and better sequel to Astro Avenger. Bring your mouse back to scroller shooter duty and blow up more beautiful 3D space ships.

Release Date

Pros

The graphics have improved from the first game.

The level design is more varied now. It does not feel as same same as Astro Avenger.

The music is very good.

The variety of enemies have also increased since the first game, which is good. Those that have played the first game will be familiar with some of the enemies.

Apart from gun upgrades and missiles, you can now also purchase droid sidekicks to help you out. Unlike other games though, the sidekicks do take damage and can die.

Cons

It is still a simple scroller shooter, so it does get repetitive.

Other Points

Although in general there is more variety than the first Astro Avenger, there is still not as much stuff as in Tyrian 2000.

The guns are pretty much the same as the first Astro Avenger. There is one gun that is different from the first game and another extra secret gun that you have to collect parts to assemble. The regular gun types have upgrades as usual. I have not got the secret gun yet so I know nothing about it.

Because you can use the mouse to move the ship so fast, it is actually possible to fly in front of the bullets you just fired. It does not damage your ship or anything but just looks funny to me.

Biases

Reviewed version 2.0.9.

I really liked Tyrian 2000, Xenon 2: Megablast and Raptor: Call of the Shadows.

I also liked Astro Avenger.

I also really liked RIP 3 The Last Hero and liked Theseus – Return of the Hero and Larva Mortus. They are not scroller shooters, but they are simple action shooters.

I have not completed the game.

DRM

There is a registration key you must enter to play the full version.

Minimum Requirements (from Readme.txt)

• Windows 98/2000/XP/ME/Vista
• Pentium 700MHz or better
• Direct3D compatable video card
• RAM: 256Mb
• 35 megs free hard drive space
• Sound card (optional)
• DirectX 8.0 or higher
• I am not sure if it is a typo but it does say DirectX 8. The previous Astro Avenger had DirectX 9 as a requirement.

Computer Played On

• Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
• Logitech G35 headset and/or Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with Altec Lansing ACS41 speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
• Win XP Pro
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Stargunner

A horizontal scroller shooter that combines R-Type with Tyrian 2000 and available for free!

Release Date

Pros

Stargunner is a simple, fast and action packed horizontal scrolling shooter.

It is free! Get it now from GOG.com.

The music sounds pretty good, even though it is the old MIDI type sound.

There are four episodes with I don’t know how many levels each, filled with plenty of enemies. Plenty of shoot’em up goodness to be had.

Much like Tyrian 2000, you can pick up power-ups and buy upgrades between missions. There is not as much variety as in Tyrian 2000 though.

Cons

Like all simple scroller shooters, Stargunner does get repetitive.

The game is very difficult. Not as difficult as R-Type, but difficult enough that on the easiest setting, I cannot complete any episodes.

Other Points

There is a story although I did not care much for it after seeing the intro of each episode once. Standard strike the bad guys before they attack us scenario.

Biases

Reviewed the GOG.com version of the game.

I am sure I have played quite a few horizontal scroller shooters, but the only one that I can remember is R-Type and I enjoyed that a lot despite it being insanely difficult.

In the vertical scroller shooter arena, I do really like Tyrian 2000.

DRM

Stargunner is free and DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

• Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
• 1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)
• 512 RAM (1 GB recommended)
• 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
• Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

• Windows 7 64 bit.
• Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
• 4GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
• Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones.
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Star Wolves

Baldur’s Gate in space! It is not as polished as Baldur’s Gate, but Star Wolves is still a very enjoyable sci-fi RPG.

Release Date

Pros

The game is played in real time with intelligent or manual pausing. The intelligent pausing is optional and is as good as Baldur’s Gate except for one missing pause when get hit option.

There are plenty of ships to to buy or loot and plenty of weapons and systems to upgrade your ships including your main mother ship.

There are different characters that can join your party, each with their own set of skills. Some skills are passive skills like gun proficiency and others are limited use power up skills like lucky for thirty seconds. As your characters gain experience, you will also need to think hard on how to upgrade their skills.

Although not to the level of Empire at War or Sins of a Solar Empire, Star Wolves does look very good. The explosions are satisfying, the ships are well detailed with different gun types firing different types of ammunition.

The camera and movement controls are quite easy to use. This not only makes the game easy to control, but also allows you to get the best views for the space combat.

The story was quite interesting. Just do not expect a Baldur’s Gate level of story telling.

There is very good dynamic music. It does not sound as good as Empire at War or Sins of a Solar Empire, but it is still very good and matches the game events very well.

Cons

The speech sounds really bad. Either that or the people are just super calm, even under life and death situations.

There were some text problems in the manual and in the game. Some parts were difficult to understand and Sometimes the description is of something that is different to the item that is present.

Star Wolves has the worst tutorial I have ever played. The descriptions were vague and I actually got stuck. There is a “Next Step” button which skips that part of the tutorial, so there is a choice to move on to the next step.

The enemy AI is OK. The AI that controls your pilots are OK sometimes and other times they become really stupid and fly into stationary objects damaging themselves. I have not seen the enemy AI do this, just my own pilots.

There is a bug where sometimes your ships will just get stuck randomly in space and cannot move. It does not happen often, but when it happens while you are in a fight, it is reloading time.

You can trade equipment and loot, but only in the intermission phase. During a mission you will fly to different space stations, but you cannot trade unless there is a scripted event.

Other Points

Movement is in full 3D much like Homeworld. So you can move ships on the X, Y and Z axis. Once you are use to the controls, it is quite easy to perform too.

The game progresses one mission at a time so it feels quite linear at times. The good thing is there are decisions to be made within a mission and when extra missions pop-up. The choices you make also affects how the game progresses which takes a bit of the linearity out of it.

Space combat must be played in a similar way to Baldur’s Gate. You have a party of characters(only two at the start). You have to arm your characters, in this case with ships and weapons. Then in combat you have to use clever tactics and give orders to your characters based on their strengths.

The game was very difficult, or maybe my space combat tactics were really bad. I had to play on easy difficulty just to get past the first few missions. After about fifteen missions, I was finding it difficult to survive the missions even on easy.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of the game.

Star Wolves was the first space combat RPG I have played.

I really liked Baldur’s Gate 1, 2 plus expansions.

I really liked Empire at War and Sins of a Solar Empire.

I did not like Homeworld, because I found it too difficult.

I have completed Star Wolves once on easy. I have to say I enjoyed the game a lot, despite its flaws.

DRM

Star Wolves is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

• Windows XP or Windows Vista
• 1.8 GHz Processor
• 256 RAM (512 MB recommended)
• 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
• 2GB HDD
• Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

• Windows 7 64 bit.
• Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
• 4Gb RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
• Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

To play the game in native resolution on my PC, I had to edit the file default.cfg. I modified the line with gr_init_resolution and set the resolution to my monitor’s resolution. For more information see the Widescreen Gaming Forum where I found this information.

If you would like to listen to the nice music outside of the game it is possible to extract them in ogg format:

1. 1. Go to the Star Wolves install folder.
   2. Go to the data folder.
   3. Make a copy of the file Data.data.
   4. Rename the copied file to blah.zip.
   5. Open the zip file and you can go to the data/music folder to get the music files.

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

      

Empire Earth 2 and The Art of Supremacy

A real-time strategy(RTS) game that takes land, sea and air combat from the stone age all the way to a rendition of the future… with Hercs!

Release Date

Pros

Very pretty. Looks better than Rise of Nations. Probably because it is newer.

Sounds good too. Even better if you have the Doc Matthews Sound Pack.

Has random map generator.

The Tug-Of-War mode in The Art Of Supremacy is very interesting. You fight over several maps. Completion on one map takes the fight to another map where the winner gets slightly disadvantaged but you get to take heroes from the previous map to the new map. And anything you have researched carries over as well.

Lots of mods and maps to try. Just look at Empire Earth 2 Heaven.

Cons

The AI controlling your units seems a bit stupid at times. Sometimes they attack well, other times they just stand there or keep running to and fro and get shot.

There is a citizen manager screen where you can assign them to gather different types of resources, but I did not like it as much as Rise of Nations auto build and gather function.

The nuke doesn’t feel like a superweapon.

Biases

I only played single player.

I really liked Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun, and The Moon Project.

I also really liked Rise of Nations.

I also liked Warcraft 1 and 2, Dark Reign and Total Annihilation.

I did not like Homeworld.

I never played the original Empire Earth.

DRM

I do not own the game any more and I cannot what DRM it had.

It is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

• Windows XP or Windows Vista
• 2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon or faster processor
• 512 MB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 4 or DirectX 9.0c-compliant 128 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support, minimum screen resolution of 800×600
• DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
• Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

• Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM
• Win XP Pro
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screen shots are taken with my settings.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Star Wars Battlefront II

Ever wondered what it was like to be an ordinary grunt soldier in the Star Wars movies? Star Wars Battlefront II makes it so. Battle on foot, in AT-ATs, in X-Wings and more.

Release Date

Pros

You get to drive AT-ATs and it is every bit as powerful as in Empire Strikes Back and also has the same weaknesses.

Play through the great battles of the movies and even execute the same manoeuvres as in the movies. Yes, tow cables work on AT-ATs, but you have to be good to pull it off and get a friend to co-pilot the speeder.

When there are enough people (or AI), it looks, sounds and feels like those battles in the movies. Of course if you have real people, it is more believable than the strange behaving AI.

It has been a very long time since I played multiplayer, but I remembered it was excellent. It needs quite a lot of people though. Five on each team is OK but the real fun starts when you have ten on each side.

The graphics and sound are great! Although not as good as SWTOR or even Empire at War.

For a multiplayer focused game, Star Wars Battlefront II has got a good single player experience complete with a single player story campaign. In Rise of the Empire, you are a grunt in the 501st Legion starting as a Clone Trooper and ending as a Galactic Empire’s stormtrooper.

Galactic Conquest is another nice addition to the single player experience of the game. It is a strategy-lite mode where you start of with only one soldier type and you have to conquer planets, gain credits and upgrade your arsenal. When combat is initiated, you play the FPS mode of the game.

The game is easy to learn and play. There are hint boxes that popup and they can be turned off for the seasoned player. There is also a very nice tutorial which doubles as an intro to the single player campaign.

When you meet certain conditions you can play as Vader, Chewbacca or one of many other heroes, complete with force powers. The special powers are not as comprehensive as other Star Wars games, but it is still great fun to Force Choke someone or throw your sabre into a crowd. There is also an all out heroes battle mode on Mos Eisley where it is just all heroes fighting.

Cons

The instant action options are not saved. Very annoying if you do not like the default options.

The AI is pretty dumb, but at the same time they seem to be all crack shots! They move around pretty chaotically and sometimes behave strangely, like circling a dead body shooting at it. Once they notice me though, it seems they take me down with 100% accuracy most of the time.

Other Points

The space battles are quite clever. You can fly ships and fight in space or you can land in the enemy’s capital ship and wreak havoc on foot. The idea is fantastic, unfortunately the interior of the capital ships are too small with only five rooms. There should be at least a few corridors to run around in.

The flying in space battles is very arcadey. It is still good fun, just do not expect it to be like X-Wing Alliance.

The game is clearly a multiplayer focused game with some single player fun. Other Star Wars games provide a much stronger single player experience including SWTOR, even though SWTOR is also a multiplayer focused game.

There is support for joystick, but there is no force feedback.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of the game.

The game plays very similar to Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2. I only played the demo for BF2 though. Overall I enjoyed SWBF2 more than the two old Battlefield games.

I really liked Serious Sam, all the Doom games, Quake 4 and Quake 2.

I also really liked F.E.A.R, Chronicles of Riddick, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, SWAT 4, Red Faction, Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Red Faction 2 and Painkiller Overdose.

I also liked Battlefield 1942, Delta Force and Spec Ops 2.

I have not completed the single player campaign.

DRM

A CD key must be entered during installation.

The disc must be in the drive to play the game.

Patches

1.1 – No comments.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

• Computer: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer required.
• Operating System: Windows 2000/XP required.
• CPU: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ or faster required.
• Memory: 256 MB RAM or higher required.
• Graphics Card: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
• Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Sound Card required.
• CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM drive or faster required.
• Input Device: Keyboard and mouse required, Joystick or gamepad supported.
• Connectivity Requirements: DSL, Cable or faster connection required for Multiplayer.
• DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c is included on this DVD.
• Note: DirectX may require the “latest” drivers for your particular hardware.
• Installation: 4.3 GB of free hard drive space required. We recommend that you have an additional 200 MB of free space available after installation.
• SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:
  • ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 familyt
  • ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 family
  • ATI Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800/X850 family
  • NVIDIA GeForce3 family
  • NVIDIA GeForce4 family excluding the GeForce4 MX
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX family
  • NVIDIA GeForce 6 family
  • NVIDIA GeForce 7 family

Computer Played On

• Windows 7 64 bit.
• Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
• 4Gb RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
• Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

To skip the introduction logos create a shortcut to BattlefrontII.exe and add the parameter -nointro. The file BattlefrontII.exe is in the GameData folder.

SWAT 4 Gold

A tactical first-person shooter(FPS) where you play the role of SWAT(Special Weapons And Tactics) in various law enforcement situations.

Release Date

Pros

Very realistic game. You are part of the police and you are not allowed to use deadly force except as the last resort. The mission score depends on your using force appropriately.

The weapons are as realistic as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl. Except for one thing, when you reload your weapon, the unused bullets in your old magazine does not carry over to the next magazine.

Excellent AI. Your team mates act as a team and really help you out. The enemy and civilian AI are also excellent and act very believable. They walk around, run, hide, attack and sometimes even given themselves up willingly. The one minor problem with your team mates though, is that they do not know how to subdue suspects if they refuse to drop their guns. You have to subdue all suspects yourself, until they drop their guns. If your friends have non-lethal weapons, what can happen is, they shoot the suspect, the suspect croaks for a bit but still holding on to the weapon. After a short time the suspect recovers and kills your friend.

Each time you play the same mission, some people are randomly placed. They also walk around so even though the map and mission is the same, you must take extra care at every corner because there might be an enemy right there. This really adds to the replay value.

There is a quick mission builder which allows you to take missions you have completed and change the conditions of the mission for you to play. Essentially you are making a new mission for the same map. There are many conditions to change like number of civilians, number of suspects, what mission objectives and even how high the morale of the people are. This adds to the replay value of SWAT 4.

The graphics are beautiful and the environments are very detailed. The only thing missing is environmental destructibility (Stranglehold anyone?).

The sounds are excellent. Everything from ambient sounds, speech and weapons to the action music really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

The Stetchkov Syndicate expansion allows you to play all the original missions with all the new weapons, new equipment and the new hold command functionality. This is on top of the new missions that comes with it.

Team members’ viewports. Look through the eyes of your mates by activating a picture-in-picture viewport. From there you can also give them orders as to what to do. You also get to use sniper viewports to watch or shoot suspects through windows.

Cons

The game takes a very long time to load, and half the time there is no harddisk activity. In fact a few times I accidentally started the game and didn’t even know it because the splash screen failed to show. I proceeded to load another game and then SWAT 4 shows up! The game took 3 minutes 16 seconds to load up when I timed it.

Each menu option also takes a long time to load.

Each mission also takes A long time to load. The first mission took 1 minute and 8 seconds to load! A relief though is that reloading the same mission takes a bit shorter time.

The scoring is a bit unfair. If you incapacitate or kill a suspect, even though it was done correctly (eg the suspect was shooting at you), your score still gets penalised. You do not get a negative score, just that you will not score as highly as if you arrested the suspect.

Other Points

You cannot save your game mid mission. This means you must go from start to end without being incapacitated or failing one of the mission objectives. This is exactly like in Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear except in SWAT 4 you can only control one character. So if your one person gets incapacitated, it is mission over instead of control switching to one of your buddies. Makes the game quite tense at times.

The accuracy of your weapon works the same as in Rainbow Six. It depends on whether you start moving and how fast you are moving. The accuracy is indicated by how far apart the crosshairs are and when you stop moving or are moving at a constant speed, the crosshairs slowly converge to show higher accuracy. Unlike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Call Of Duty 4, you cannot use the iron sights to increase accuracy in an instant. You must slowly wait for the crosshairs to converge. Different weapons’ accuracy increase at different rates though, eg a pistol becomes accurate much faster than the M4 Carbine.

There is no story for the single-player campaign. It is a series of unrelated missions but have a full briefing on what the situation is. There are 13 missions in the standard SWAT 4. The expansion adds 7 extra missions with a loose plot about a gang called (surpise, surprise) The Stetchkov Syndicate.

Night vision goggles (NVGs) is one of the new pieces of equipment in The Stetchkov Syndicate. Unfortunately your buddies are too stupid to use it. It still comes in handy for weapons that do not have a flash light though, like the grenade launcher.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of SWAT 4.

Reviewed version 1.0 of SWAT 4 The Stetchkov Syndicate.

I really liked Serious Sam, all the Doom games and Quake 2.

I also really liked Red Faction, Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Red Faction 2, Painkiller Overdose and Star Wars Battlefront 2.

I also liked Battlefield 1942, Delta Force and Spec Ops 2.

There is multipler cooperative and team-based versus modes but I only played the single-player mode.

DRM

The game needs an Internet connection to activate on first start up.

A serial key must also be entered.

I bought SWAT 4 Gold from Direct2Drive and now they have been taken over by Gamefly. Since the take over around January 2012, I cannot play the game because Gamefly still has not provided a new license and activation for the game. Another wonderful story about DRM punishing customers.

SWAT 4 Gold is available DRM-free from GOG.com

Patches

The 1.1 patch is available here for non-Direct2Drive versions of the game.

Minimum Requirements (To Be Advised)

I will find out this info after Gamefly makes the game playable.

Computer Played On

• Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
• 2Gb RAM
• ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
• Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with laptop speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
• Win XP Pro
• Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

Add -nointro to the SWAT 4 shortcut to skip the company intro videos.

Recommended Mods

Global Swat Force has got custom built maps and some of them are very good. Just follow the instructions on their site to install the maps. To open a custom map, load up SWAT 4 as normal. At the menu screen, press ` (backtick) to bring up the console. Then type
open <map name>
where <map name> is the name of the file WITHOUT the .s4m extension.

SWAT 4 Quick Mission Maker Map Pack. Eight game levels created by members of the SWAT 4 QA Team using the quick mission maker. No new maps, just modified missions on existing maps.

My Creations

My lone wolf and original missions packs for The Stetchkov Syndicate. The lone wolf mission pack contains all the original plus expansion missions configured for lone wolf play. The original missions pack is just all the original missions configured to play with the SWAT 4 Expansion, so you get to use the new weapons and command. Download swat4lwoldm.zip .