Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context YMMV / SWAT4

Go To

1* AnticlimaxBoss: The leaders of the eponymous Stetchkov Syndicate, a dreaded arms dealing syndicate and violent street gang rolled into one, is revealed as a pair of paranoid old man and a violent man holding themselves up with the remnants of the syndicate in a warehouse with no hostages or civilians apart from just a single unarmed accountant. The mission leading to the arrest or death of the pair is considerably easier than the final mission of the base game, which is about fighting a violent fundamentalist militia in a genetics lab full of scientists.
2* BreatherLevel: The second mission, which is the serial killer's home. At most this only has two (sometimes a random thug suspect is present) suspects compared to a small (but still numerous) arms dealing gang of the first mission.
3** The Elite Force mod swapped the order of that mission so that the serial killer's home is the first mission.
4** The Wolcott Project, while not exactly easy per se, has very few, if any, unarmed civilians, also wide open segments where suspects can be easily spotted from a distance, which makes previous missions look like a cakewalk in comparison. The difficulty ramps right back up after this mission.
5* CompleteMonster: [[DarkMessiah Andrew Taronne]] is the {{manipulative|Bastard}} and sociopathic leader of the fanatical Children of Taronne. Originally a RenegadeSplinterFaction that broke off from a separatist group, Taronne indoctrinated dozens of men and women into his [[ApocalypseCult doomsday cult]], purchasing an abandoned building to keep brainwashing them until they are reduced to lunatics who are more than willing to sacrifice themselves for him. Promising to his followers that they would be reborn as "higher beings" after death, Taronne planned on not only exploding the building with all Taronnians inside but also destroying a section of the neighborhood, taking other innocents with him. Ready to kill his own believers to intimidate the SWAT, Taronne knew of their arrival in advance and made the Taronnians [[WouldHurtAChild murder their own children]] to emotionally break the law enforcement.
6* CrossesTheLineTwice: In mission 6, elevator doors can keep opening and closing on a victim's head. And if you go back to that area later, it'll still be the case, because there is apparently no way to actually get him out.
7* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Lawrence Fairfax was seeing a psychiatrist and his murders are very clearly a consequence of his mental state, but the specifics of it are left unexplored.
8* DemonicSpiders: Uncompliant civilians and suspects, which makes you need to deploy those stun grenades or non-lethal weaponry... The expansion finally add melee.
9** Armored militias. They can soak more bullets even if you're armed with FMJ (though less than other bullets if being shot by FMJ), and in darkness, they're almost look like a PaletteSwap of your SWAT unit though the suit is noticeably gray (sometimes with camo vest) and unmarked. Most of them have higher than average reaction time as well.
10* GoodBadBugs: In SWAT 4, you can get penalized for shooting suspects if you haven't given them proper warning to surrender or they haven't opened fire on you first. Your AI partners and snipers (the latter of which under your control) ''don't!'' The snipers being not penalized thing is fixed in Elite Force by giving you a proper penalty for doing it, but the AI partners aren't.
11* ItsShortSoItSucks: Even including the briefings, tutorial, and set-up, the game's 13 missions only take about 4 hours to complete. For modern consumers, this is less of an issue, as the only version still being sold (for a reasonable $10) is ''SWAT 4: Gold'', which comes bundled with the ''Stetchkov Syndicate'' expansion pack, doubling the length of the campaign and adding many new features, as well as more weapons and options for replay value.
12* MemeticMutation: "You're in [[ArtificialStupidity my way sir"]].
13* MoralEventHorizon: There is one level in ''SWAT 4'' that involves a cult. Investigating the basement reveals an underground grave yard for babies! Naturally, they're more evil than the terrorists.
14* PlayerPunch: If you found the game pretty standard before then mission 9, The Children of Tarrone, will clean your clock. Most will be creeped out by the NightmareFuel of a apocalyptic cult and likely finish the level in the basement where they show to be a new breed of evil: murdering their children and burying them in the basement.
15* RetroactiveRecognition: Reynolds is voiced by [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Barthandelus]].
16* ScrappyMechanic:
17** Once you've pulled the pin on a grenade and prepared it for throwing, you can't cancel the throw.
18** Mouse acceleration is enabled by default, and cannot be disabled except by modifying the .ini file.
19** The crosshair color is light blue, which is very hard to see, and this cannot be changed in the default game.
20** The slow movement speed even when running and the extreme widening of crosshair when running although the "running" is far slower than even other "realistic" shooter.
21** For some reason, you can't move while leaning left or right. Some mods fix this.
22** Being penalized (or, more specifically, not rewarded) for justifiably killing enemies, and being penalized further for shooting an armed suspect that hasn't shot at or is actively preparing to shoot one of your team. In reality, many of the situations, including active shooter, armed terrorist groups, and fanatics with explosive materials capable of blowing an entire city block, warrant full authorization of deadly forces against armed suspects.
23* SpiritualSuccessor: ''VideoGame/ReadyOrNot'' unashamedly tries and succeeds to be ''SWAT 5''. [[https://youtu.be/0PH_f3zo5_A?t=89 One trailer]] references the "Bring Order to Chaos" catchphrase, and opens with "TOC to (...) Team" on the radio.
24* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel / GrowingTheBeard : Definitely the best and most mature of the four ''SWAT'' games so far. It helps that it was in DevelopmentHell for ''six'' long years and that the talented old warhorses at Irrational eventually got the opportunity to work on it.
25** Also, the The ExpansionPack is a variation of this trope, since it heavily improved the already great original game further.
26* ThatOneLevel:
27** Red Library Office is, quite frankly, one of the most frustrating levels to play. For one, the level is surprisingly large over the preceding ones, with long hallways and rooms with open doorways, allowing suspects to easily move around. And two, it's built like a maze, with many nooks and crannies providing cover where suspects can ambush you. Third, some of the suspects have gas masks, rendering CS gas, pepper spray, and the pepperball gun useless.
28** St. Michael's Medical Center is largely luck-based, due to its open nature, the large, cluttered rooms making many grenades ineffective, and the windows that suspects can see you through.
29** [=DuPlessis=] Diamonds is considered a hard level by many players for how large yet cramped the rooms are and the amount of heavily armed suspects equipped with gas masks.
30** The Children of Taronne tenement is full of roundabout paths that allow suspects to get the drop on you, and the mixing room is near impossible to clear without getting injured, due to its two-level layout and ample cover for suspects.
31** The Old Granite Hotel. Not only are there a lot of highly skilled armed militias (see DemonicSpiders above) with hostages, you're also on a strict 10 minute time limit to defuse several bombs.
32** Mt. Threshold, the genetics lab, befitting its nature as the final mission, is the hardest. it's the largest level in the game with plenty of areas which are difficult to keep track of where you've been. Plus the suspects are very sensitive to a lot of noise from several rooms and the gimmick of the stage is that the terrorists (they're of the armored militia type, see DemonicSpiders above. That they wore [[WhiteMaskOfDoom white hockey mask]] didn't help because of the darkness and blending colors) are highly willing to kill hostages (and with the death of just one hostage, you fail the mission) once they're alerted. Careful planning and [[BoringButPractical door-wedges]] are definitely needed. The mission was so hard that the final mission of the expansion is massively easier due to the wide open spaces and only one unarmed civilian.
33* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: You have to cuff and restrain civilians, a staple mechanic of the SWAT games since the third as opposed to escorting them out (like in ''Videogame/RainbowSix'' or ''Videogame/CounterStrike''). While there are good reasons for doing it that are explained to the player in the tutorial, both you and your teammates are unnecessarily rough about it, and the voice lines to order a civilian suspect to be tied up are strangely hostile. And while your AI teammates will take a moment to reassure the civilian if ordered to restrain them, they do a poor effort of it, with generic comments like "we'll protect you" or "it's okay, it'll be over soon". The result is that civilians often complain that they're being treated like the criminals or ask why they're being arrested when they haven't done anything, because the SWAT team doesn't explain to them ''why'' they're being restrained. That being said, tying down civilians on the spot is a bad idea in logic and in real life, given how these will only make them more vulnerable to the bad guys.

Top