Original Post: 8 Dec, 2022 @ 12:17pm

It's a good thing this mod was free because it run atrociously even on a 3070.

*Update 30th Dec, 2024 @2:22PM

Honestly, my review would've changed if performance was any better. Sadly, two years later, nothing has really changed. I don't blame the developer necessarily for this since it IS a free mod. I really blame Nvidia for this because I am on a 3080 12GB card and it is MORE than capable of running this game IF Nvidia wasn't so stupidly greedy and LOCKED DLSS 3.5 to 40 series cards. Seriously, you do a disservice to everyone when you pull this BS against your customers. The 30 series cards are more than capable of adequately running DLSS 3/3.5. There is no reason to lock it to the 40 series. With that said, DLSS cannot be used as a crutch for devs to not optimize their games which has now become a huge problem in the industry and that's honestly my only criticism of this mod. I would be more critical if this was a paid product, but let this be a message to other devs that are making paid products to optimise their games.

09/08/2024

With the release of the DLC on the 23rd of July this year, I can't help but feel this release still has a lot of sharp edges to shave down.

First things first. The amount of problems that appeared during release of the DLC actually broke the game more than it did to improve it and I get even more stability problems than before it was in early access which is SUPER DISAPPOINTING! Furthermore, there are still many features missing that would have been very much welcome in this update such as the ability to command officers over the head cams which is a sorely missed feature that was in the original SWAT 4 games.

To boot, even though this update has massively overhauled suspect AI, making the game that more interesting by introducing newer and more less predictable behaviour, the SWAT team member AI seems to still be quite primitive and even worse in some scenarios. From my experience, they seem to get stuck more often post update than ever before which is a shame since I really love playing single player.

With all that said, what I would like to see get added that has not already been mentioned would be VR support and the ability to command swat members to move restrained suspects or civilians instead of only the commander being able to do that. Another amazing ability that would definitely make the game more entertaining is the ability to swivel the camera on a horizontal axis when spectating the other SWAT members or commanding them remotely like you could in SWAT 4.

In conclusion, it's important to state that most optimization problems for me have been addressed (mostly through DLSS however), it is still a shame that lower spec PC's than mine still struggle to play this game despite such hardware being advertised as supported. Generally speaking I feel like DLSS/FSR have become more of a crutch/excuse for game devs to not optimize their games which is also a shame, so with all that said I really wish I could give this game a netural score since there's still a lot of kinks to iron out.

11/05/2024

As of making this review, I have ~175 hours in this game. I can definitely say the AI has evolved since early access and has been tuned quite a bit since the 1.0 release.

With that said, I think the AI difficulty is..... OK..... ish? Considering how much a game like this relies on good AI to succeed kind of leaves me in an odd position when writing this. Compared to SWAT 4, this game does still feel a bit empty with the lack of maps and improvements in the AI. I'm still left feeling that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done with the AI in terms of decision making for both AI teammates and suspects.

Something that I still really miss is the ability to command swat members through a camera system, which is sort of mitigated by a queuing orders system? It's good, don't get me wrong, but this doesn't solve the issue of me commanding my squad from a distance and it's a feature that would really spice up the game-play in my opinion.

Furthermore, the AI suspects are kind of robotic to reacting to partial visibility? Thankfully, that is being addressed in the next update, so that's something that I am really glad to hear! One thing that would be more interesting though would be introducing AI suspects that tries to hide from you, if partially visible, weighing the risk of full frontal attack or hiding and getting the upper hand.

On a final unrelated note, there is some real horrible use of AI art in this game. Most notably, the image used for the Hospital level, Relapse. That is something that definitely needs to be replaced.

Overall, those are all my concerns.

23/12/2023

Overall, this game is amazing value..... if you bought the game in EA and on a Sale like I did.

TL;DR don't buy the game now until they improve it quite a bit or the game goes on sale.

Got this game for $36 CAD so I cannot complain.

First things first, I want to say that this game introduces a lot of new features, maps, game modes, AI, and more. Sadly, that also is accompanied by many bugs that were not addressed in EA.

~ For example:

- AI Suspects attempting to shoot at you, even if you are in a completely different location than them and are no where in their line of sights, and have not established line of sight previously.

- AI teammates have been overhauled majorly, but are nowhere near polished like most AI in AAA releases. Teammates constantly get stuck, bug out, and constantly have to be ordered from one place to another to allow me to finally order them to stack up on a door or fall in.

- AI Suspects are difficult. To a fault. Some of them have wicked aim I haven't seen anyone have other than cheaters in CS:GO, the accuracy of their fire needs to be turned down a bit.

- Any kind of AI Ragdolls in the game are totally bugged with the map around them and constantly clip into the wall and/or fly into the sky as a result of attempting to arrest a incapacited/deceased suspect. This really breaks immersion and needs to be fixed.

- The game does unexpectedly lag for all types of GPUs unfortunately and the game even lags on my 3080 at medium settings, 2K. This is really bad optimization and the game has crashed quite a few times during my playthroughs.

Overall, These are some of the bugs that you would encounter. In addition to all these problems lies some missing features in the game that would be much appreciated like the ability to command your individual teams or group as a whole through the camera view like you could in SWAT 4. It's really baffling to me as to why this wasn't added on the official release, because this is a feature that is sorely missed. It would also be great to have VR support in this game eventually just to add more immersion which I think would be appreciated by many. Right now, VORPX is good, but even with this substitute, you are not completely immersed in the game.

Let's talk about the good stuff:

- Maps are completely redone and look more detailed than ever before, even going far as to add new maps to the choices you have of operating on.

- The amount of granular control over your AI teammates is awesome, but still needs some work. I would like to see the possibility of making the command menu a radial menu instead of a list since I believe it would be easier to use and nicer to look at.

- New guns and tools have been added which are both useful and feel satisfying to use, no question about the audio work and design are top notch in this game.

- The additional AI tactics has been greatly appreciated, especially where the AI can take hostages. I was not expecting that, but it's a welcome addition to the game and definitely adds to the immersion of the game.