SWAT: Target Liberty

As a fan of Sierra’s SWAT franchise that lit up my PC back in the day, I was actually anticipating the series’ introduction to the PSP handheld. For the most part, the series began as a tactical first-person shooter featuring a squad of highly-trained SWAT specialists that just didn’t burst into rooms with guns ablaze but rather took some strategy and real-life police enforcement guidelines that had you making arrests when the bad guys are smart enough to throw their weapons down. Yet in SWAT: Target Liberty, a PSP exclusive title, all the good things we love about the series just doesn’t show up in this game.

“Oh no, it’s a mime … a French mime!”

Target Liberty places you in command of a three-man SWAT team that suddenly finds itself involved in a war between rival Korean gangs as well as a terrorist plot to detonate a bomb somewhere in the heart of New York City. As team leader Kurt Wolfe, you and your team dive head first into the gang war that has the Jopoks and the Gangpehs taking to the streets and causing chaos. In the midst of the gang violence, though, a known terrorist faction threatens to blow up a major NYC building so Kurt’s team is pulling double duty on this mission. This is the story that makes up the game’s single-player aspect and the missions will have you going through a number of areas in the New York City area.

While past games in the franchise have been tactical first-person shooters, Target Liberty is a third-person tactical action game that shows you the situation from a bird’s eye view of your surroundings. It’s actually a lot like Killzone: Liberation … only the tactical portion is flawed and the actual police procedural aspect of the game just doesn’t work. The game first tosses you into the Killhouse, a training area that teaches you the basics when you’re called into action. Your first mission begins in the subway as the two gangs have taken a number of hostages and then you’ll work your way into gang territory in a number of other locales. In true SWAT fashion, you’ll even have to complete a list of mission objectives. One objective has you disarming explosives scattered in side offices while other objectives have you securing a number of hostages in Central Park.

The tactical end of things has you issuing orders to your men and deciding what specialist works well within a given situation. Some situations require a sniper while others a negotiations expert and depending on the scenario or mission objective you will have to decide what specialist you would like on the team before you head out. The trouble is that your men don’t often respond as quickly as you like and this goes double for combat situation. You can issue orders to position your men using a green icon as well as order your men to secure hostages or enemies that throw down their weapons to surrender. Then again there are times when your men will respond to situations a lot faster than you can seeing as Kurt moves like he’s wearing cement boots. Your sluggish movements are the reason you will get killed or arrive to an intended spot a bit too late to provide covering fire or give orders to secure hostages.

When not winning Grammy after Grammy, U2’s Bono leads an anti-illegal music download task force.

Aside from the fact that your character moves at a frustrating sluggish pace, combat in the game is actually tedious and oftentimes ridiculous. Like past SWAT games, you and your men will shout at the bad guys to put down their guns. Sometimes enemies will surrender after firing a few rounds but your men will still open fire and kill them. Since most of the battles are close-quarter affairs, you will often run into enemies and inflict damage by way of rifle butt. This simply makes matters worst since there are enemies you’ll need to interrogate. Even the skill upgrades you earn in the game don’t help any.

The problem is that nothing really changes in the game’s short single-player mode and by the third mission you’ll feel like you’re just doing the same thing over and over again. At least Sierra included a multiplayer mode played via an Ad Hoc connection that has your friends taking up the role of the other members of the team. The great part about that is that you can coordinate better with real players and thanks to the Killhouse generator feature the game does a magnificent job of setting up the multiplayer options that play to your skills. The game modes are also actually pretty inventive. There’s Football (a game that has you collecting hostages and leading them to your base), Rodeo Round-up (where you are tasked to take out a number of hostiles) and The Great Escape (where one player takes of the role of a SWAT member while the others play as terrorists).

Graphically, the game displays some pretty impressive environmental detail. The opening subway level alone will blow you away with the liter, makeshift blockades and the scatter of empty bullet castings. Unfortunately, you can’t really interact with the environment so you can’t even make use of the blockades as cover. The character models aren’t bad at all either and watching the bad guy goes down is fun to watch. What doesn’t work are the game’s repetitive soundtrack and the voice acting that just doesn’t quite capture New York City accents all that well. Somehow even the sound effects don’t come out right on the PSP speakers.

SWAT officer: “Oh darn, I forgot to pick up milk and bread. My wife is going to kill me.”

SWAT: Target Liberty for the PSP could have been a really great game since it does have all the right elements in place but with so many faults this is more an exercise in frustration. As a fan of tactical shooters, Sierra has often done right by the series but somehow it just doesn’t come together nicely in the portable format. If you’re a fan of the genre or the series, this is one game you will seriously want to skip altogether. Sorry, Sierra, it was a nice try but this mission is a No Go.

Gameplay: 5.0
There’s tactics involved but it doesn’t hold a candle to Killzone: Liberation and your characters somehow move slower than molasses. You can change your team’s load-out weapons and there are some decent mission objectives to complete but combat is handled way too awkward to be much fun.

Graphics: 6.2
The environments are packed to the gills with details and your team looks pretty good in action. There’s some realistic character movement as well, making kills really stand out. Too bad the visual effects are seriously lacking in everything.

Sound: 4.5
The soundtrack is repetitive and the effects sound a bit too muffled but the worst part comes in the form of the voice acting that’s just too embarrassingly bad. The New York accents are just plain laughable.

Difficulty: Medium
The missions offer up a few objectives to complete and the close-quarter combat makes this a little harder on your team. Still, the most challenging part is wrestling with the poorly conceived tactical options and the awkward shooting controls.

Concept: 5.5
It’s a SWAT game and you’ll have a number of cool weapons on hand as well as goodies you can unlock throughout the game. You can upgrade your team’s skills and play wireless multiplayer matches with up to four players. Other than that, there’s not much to this game.

Multiplayer: 6.0
Despite the lack of an online multiplayer option, four players can take on three different game mode types such as Rodeo Round-Up, Football and The Great Escape. The Killhouse map feature randomly picks out mission conditions and does a great job to boot.

Overall: 5.0
A repetitive and flawed experience from start to finish, SWAT: Target Liberty is a disappointing tactical strategy shooter that just doesn’t quite have what it takes to be a fun game. This is too bad really since this isn’t an incredibly bad game … it’s just the poor execution that makes this feel like wasted potential. SWAT fans will definitely want to stay clear from this one.