Daryl F. Gates' Police Quest: SWAT

After 'Open Season', Sierra and the series started to focus on the high intensity roles of SWAT team members. It wasn't a bad concept to explore, but the mix of FMV, unfulfilling gameplay and harsh learning curve left this Police Quest entry quickly filling up bargain bins back in its day for justified reasons.

You play a unnamed officer assigned to LAPD's SWAT team. You're effectively referred to as SWAT pup or just plain pup. It's not the greatest however I won't get hung up on that alone. It's the fact that you spend the entire game either doing monotonous training or carrying out a handful of police call ups (that have multiple possible outcomes if you're willing to replay and roll the dice) that are either over pretty quickly without you having done really much at all or are difficult. Requiring you to never make a mistake in planning, moving, communicating.

There is also a level of disconnect going on because of the nature of its FMV gameplay. Take for instance the first mission when you're called up to a domestic situation and have to secure an elderly lady. In the most common variation, half of the team will proceed to make a stealth entry thru the front door while you and one other member are stationed at the front of the house and are to sweep thru the left side of the property. Many times the lady can be spotted (either armed or not) and you can call it in / signal to the team (before entry) and nothing changes. You're lucky to get a voiceover from someone acknowledging your discovery.

It's not about wanting things to be all shooting and action pieces throwing your brain and logic of the police out the window. They needed to do a better job immersing you in the job and it's complex nature. It's too short start to finish. More missions were needed. The FMV realm does allow for some humorous acting, death scenes and general moments of screwing up (intentional or not). Get used to being chewed out, suspended or hearing 'Amazing Grace' play after you or a teammate gets killed.

What the game does well is it treats the members of these highly skilled units with respect. Explains some of their tools and tactics. You also get to experience different roles, weapons, positions within the team throughout the game. You can even be promoted to element leader or even take up the scope as a sniper on the last mission.

'Police Quest: SWAT' was a letdown of a title from a series that had always delivered up until this point. I especially liked the move into realism with mature themes in 'Open Season', but this sequel was botched.

This is one of my best Christmas gift I got when I was a child in the 90s, when I watch YouTube and I'm sad to see it's not that appreciated as it should be.

You play a new swat member who has no name and is called swatpup, you train to become an assault then in time you get a chance to become a sniper, and who knows if you do well you be an element leader.

What I love about this that I feel I'm part of swat, any mistakes I make I learn and I know now thanks to this game what it's like to be a swat officer and I don't want to be on their shoes.

Also I like the acting, yes it's fmv cheesy, but when they start the mission they feel like swat officers, way better than the crappy swat movie.

But there are some flaws and yes those flaws I agree with the youtubers.

For starters, the game is too short, it has only 4 episodes, and one of them is just training and breefings, the rest are 3 missions that's play different every time you restart the game, although it's brilliant that they change the scenario for each mission, for example one mission you enter a building as an assaulter and play that mission again you are a sniper on the roof, sounds familiar? Yes that's what blade runner game did 2 years later.

Other flaws is that the information is not clear at first, and that makes it difficult to know what to do on first mission, it takes a lot of study and most gamers want to shoot not study.

But I love this game and give it 6/10