SWAT: Target Liberty obviously has you playing as a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) division in a fictional New York. You play as Kurt Wolfe, a legendary officer who is sent into what seems to be the midst of gang battles between the two prominent Korean gangs (what’s with all the Koreans in games at the moment?). With team members like Python, Gramps and Hollywood, each with their own strengths and traits, you’d think that you’re in for a bit of a ride. Well no, the (rather short) story is really just a typical terrorist plot, with dashings of patriotism. Fans of The Shield may get a minor kick out of it, as the story was written by that show’s script writer.
While we have been a bit negative at the start of this review, we have to admit that the game does have a few merits, even though it hardly lives up to the promise of “life and death decisions” and that there really aren’t that many opportunities for using the tactics at your disposal. The real issue that annoys us, not only with regards to this game but a lot of PSP games in general, is that the developers have still made design decisions that they should’ve realised by now simply don’t work on the PSP, or a portable system for that matter.
That super-soaker looks threatening...
Since you are playing with a SWAT team, it makes sense that you have some robust tactics at your disposal. As the team leader, you can go out and take care of things yourself, with the others covering your back, or you can send them in to do the dirty work. While the interface does take a little bit of time to get used to, you’ll have most of the staple squad command to pick from. That is, whether to rush the room or to frag and clear, whether to engage immediately or only when fired on. And so forth. On this front, the game gets rather repetitive.
Before you get into a room guns blazing, you’ll either hear people screaming or see them waiting for you. Firstly, you’ll generally have to give them a warning that you’re there and to comply (triangle button) and then decide your action based on that. Even if you walk in on an enemy, you’ll be punished if you don’t give them a chance to comply. Furthermore, you’ll be rewarded if you manage to subdue enemies rather then just killing all of them. That, and you’ll unlock a few little goodies if you are able to find the various collectibles around the level.
The game itself is played from an isometric perspective and the initial impression it gives is somewhat like Killzone: Liberation. However, you’re mainly crawling from room to room. Even though you can see the outline of the next room, you won’t actually be able to see who is in the room until you’re actually in it. Hence, it can be beneficial to use your tactics and see who is there before you open the door with a mirror. Still, this aspect of the game doesn’t work as well as it could have, because it takes a little while before you actually see the people there. Thankfully, this doesn’t punish the player too much.
What a shame, we can't go through now.
The camera, while fixed at the isometric perspective, does have a dynamic element to it. For the most part, you’ll have a decent view of where you’re being shot. That is, you’ll never really be shot at from an awkward angle. However, the PSP screen doesn’t really allowed for you to see far enough on occasions. So, while you won’t be shot from awkward angles, there will occasions where your point of view will not reach the enemy who is shooting at you.
While the game plays decently enough, there are a couple of aspects that really drag it down. Firstly, the design in the game is pretty weak. So while you have all these abilities at your disposal, there really aren’t that many occasions where you’ll need them. You can get away without doing anything fancy. It’s really a matter of clearing one room after another for several levels. Secondly, when you open up the interface for picking between tactics, the game pauses. The nature of the lock on would have benefited from the pause and some intuitive placement as well. It can get confusing in the heat of battle. And while it works, the gunplay is really weak.
The aspects that really hurt the game are the AI and the pacing. The AI is completely bland and devoid of any human actions or responses. Your squad are at least responsive and do get things done, but we were forced to restart more than once when our squad member glitched and we couldn’t continue. That and the game is ridiculously slow. The pacing and character movement is snail-like, and while we appreciate that it is at least attempting to portray real-life SWAT work, it's completely inappropriate for a portable title. It borderlines on making the game unplayable. The levels obviously have taken this into account and been punctuated with checkpoints, but the help it gives is marginal.
Good to see that they're being careful.
This is the reason why we question the game’s existence on the PSP. Why would you try and bring an experience that requires a taste for slow pacing to a system where most would want a quick gaming fix? While we understand the reasoning behind the use of the isometric style gameplay, it’s something that really needs to be done right or it falls apart. You have three offline multiplayer modes, Football, Rodeo and Great Escape. While the names are endearing, the gameplay is not, though Great Escape gets interesting if you can get 1 on 3 matches going.
In terms of graphics and sound, the game is passably solid, though it does come across with the usual pitfalls. The environments are surprisingly well detailed and reasonably varied, but this doesn’t help the gameplay. Your characters have some distinction to them, but every other NPC is rather generic. Still, most structures in the game have a cardboard carton look to them. The cutscenes are poorly directed and not particularly compelling. The voicing is passable but very limited and repetitive. The sound effects and music are passable as well, though neither aspect makes the game stand out in any way.
Even if we doubt the reason for the existence of SWAT: Target Liberty, it does have a few aspects that are solid, particularly the command interface. Unfortunately, these aspects are drowned in the parts of the game that are bad. Really, we’re not sure who has the patience these days to sit and tactically weave from room to room on the go. It’s something you’d expect from a console or PC game, but not on a portable. Furthermore, the player is sucker punched with awful and glitchy AI, weak gunplay and no real use for tactics. It basically drops the game from average to poor, and at the end of the day, too difficult to openly recommend.
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