SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate Preview

SWAT 4 has a striving online community. When researching for this preview I was amazed to see how active this community is. Obviously, it's great to know that Irrational is listening to their fans and that they are working on the very features that will ensure the longevity of the franchise. The changes to the single-player mode are nice, but the multiplayer changes should make the fans truly excited.

Black Bulgarian?

Nice normal mapping effects.

Finally, as you'd expect from any expansion pack, the Stetchkov Syndicate will feature new weapons and equipment for both SWAT members and suspects. In Pawlicki's words: "There are about a dozen new weapons and tactical items. This time some of them are team specific. For starters, SWAT gets the Colt accurized rifle for sniping and a 40x46mm grenade launcher for taking out suspects with less-lethal rounds at a distance, while the suspects get the likes of a 5.56mm light machine gun. We have taken time to carefully balance multiplayer so that you can play well-matched rounds with each side having different equipment, but we did put in an option that allows all of the weapons to be available to either team. Included in the tactical gear are night-vision goggles, an ammo pouch that can be equipped to hold additional ammunition, lightsticks for marking cleared rooms, and a no-armor option in multiplayer that allows for faster character movement but obviously makes the player more vulnerable."The neat thing about this is that players will be rewarded with new weapons as they progress through the campaign, adding a bit of an RPG element into the mix.

From a visual standpoint, expect the expansion to look much like the original game. Irrational once again uses the modified Unreal 2 engine with the addition of normal mapping. Also, the game itself takes place in the same city as before. Nonetheless, what we saw in the original was good enough to keep us playing on, so I don't see how this could be a problem for the fans.

SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate is slated to appear in stores in early/Q1 of 2006. The expansion will require the original game to play and though I've looked around I couldn't quite find what the price will be. But seeing how the original game now costs around $30 bucks, my guess is that it won't be more than $20 bucks.

Hopefully, I'll get to revisit that serial killer's mom in the prison in the expansion. She and I, we go way back.