You look at media in a way that really appeals to me. You go deeper than the surface level, and I'm glad that you and the people watching get to enjoy and examine these deeper perspectives.
@@cinemaspire7258 pointing out obvious aesthetic choices is not over analyzing when the visuals are right in front of you and you can hear the details, that’s stating the obvious and touching on it. Granted it can be a bit much at times, but calling this over analyzing is like saying the need for reviews are unnecessary, maybe, but it detracts from the opinions and ideas towards a piece of entertainment.
I love the way SWAT 4 handles its controls. So many simulation games think that "simulation" means making every action as awkward as possible, when they should be making them smooth yet limited. When you go to grab something, or push a button, do you spend 5 seconds flipping through menus to perform such a basic action? No. So why is this being made so much harder? SWAT 4's context sensitive system largely solves this and I love it.
Another simple old thing that SWAT 4 does for functional realism is just using simple crosshairs for aiming. Being a game based entirely on CQB it's good that there's no obstruction between the NPC's and the player, especially when the player has to decide what to do to them on the basis of how they're acting. Because in games sights eat up a far more sizeable chunk of your field of vision. And IRL you can aim with both eyes open, which will render your sights transparent. The only games to come close to this are some older shooters that use simple png's for ironsights. Hell, there's even a technique for using scopes with illuminated crosshairs in CQB where you put the scope cover on and aim with both eyes open, which will let you see a floating crosshair that'll shoot approximately where you need to land your shots. Ironically the modern insistence of modern 'realistic' shooters making iron sights mandatory for accurate shooting has in many instances facilitated very unrealistic movement from the players as they can shoot accurately as long as the sights are pressed to their face. Counter-Strike might not have been the most realistic shooter ever, but never in its time did it have the problem of strafe-spamming.
@@Killicon93 Maybe what they should do is make the weapon model go transparent and apply some DOF blur to give a similar effect to looking through it with both eyes open. With all the fancy shader effects we have in games these days I would think they can do this convincingly now.
"You can turn this game into a psychopath simulator if you wish, but that'd be like reading a book backwards:nobody would deny that you are reading it, but you're only engaging with it on the level of an object. [...] The game expects a certain level of seriousness from the player and it counts on it." THANK YOU! I'm so done with those ridiculous arguments about ludonarrative dissonance, it's like saying a theater director is responsible for drunken hecklers.
That depends on the game though, right? I see his point when it comes to a game like SWAT4, but the classic example of the first Tomb Raider reboot game does suffer from ludonarrative dissonance. You can't really play Lara Croft in the same way as she's portrayed in the cutscenes. She'll be an accomplished killer in your hands pretty much no matter what you, even if the cutscenes portray her as shocked, panicked and new to all of this. As a player you can't really play like that outside of continuously and purposefully causing near-game-overs, which is a ridiculous idea. There's nothing that pushes you towards that, which is also quite different from games like SWAT4 that have a lot of incentives to 'play it like its meant' as it were. But certain games don't have that, and they suffer from ludonarrative dissonance. The video even mentions GTA4 in that regard. To use your analogy, a theater director is responsible for drunken hecklers if they keep handing out alcohol while egging the audience on. SWAT4 is very good at not doing that, but that sadly isn't the case for some games.
@@MrCowabungaa Exactly. One of my favourite examples of ludonarritive harmony and dissonance in a series is in Bioshock and Bioshock infinite. In Bioshock nearly everyone is crazy from a mixture of their own innate oddities and plasmids wreaking havoc on their body and mind. Stuff like a plastic surgeon's strive for perfection in appearance and appreciation of art being pushed and twisted into murder and butchery trying to make "perfect" beauty. And if it was just a no-name splicer it still makes sense for them to attack on sight in a quest for either their next hit or just for the pleasure of it. Plasmids were a part of Rapture's society and they were ubiquitous. Why wouldn't someone want to just snap their fingers to light their cigarette? In Infinite a bunch of Colombia's citizens will just sit around and not report DeWitt or Elizabeth despite them being wanted criminals. Despite their miraculous effects and even being given as free samples, Vigors are hardly ever seen in enemies or the general public. And while it makes sense to rummage through the trash to find food in Rapture, Booker should look like a maniac doing that in most if not all of Colombia. Ludonarritive dissonance or harmony isn't so much what the player can do, any horror game can quickly turn into a comedy with the right attitude after all, but what the game encourages the player to do. Or in the other direction when the story makes an aspect of gameplay feel normal. I don't question why I can't cross the street in SWAT because the crime scene is where the SWAT team is supposed to be. I want to save Emily in Dishonored not just because it's how I beat the level but because Corvo loves her and the poor princess deserves a good life. Basically I rambled for far to long to say, ludonarritive stuff can notably improve a game or make it feel awkward but the devs aren't responsible for players playing incorrectly. It's when intended gameplay or gameplay with incentives conflicts with the story or when the story says something in contrast to the normal gameplay.
@@XSniper74184 This comment is 5 months old but I totally agree with you guys. Red Dead Redemption 2 is another example. Arthur is shown has a guy with a good heart who doesn't want to kill anymore yet the player is given the opportunity to kill innocent people. Killing innocent people or being an asshole to others doesn't match with Arthurs character at all. I think games like Fallout and Skyrim avoid this problem by giving us, the player, the choice to what our character says to others.
@@joey4186 Many AAA games has this "bastard with a heart of gold" type of protagonist like Arthur, showing they're genuinely good people that either do bad decisions or are blinded by a manipulative villain Which are very engaging to watch, the problem is when these games gives you the freedom to be a jerk, so it just feels wrong playing Arthur with an evil attitude, some of the best moments in RDR2 are the cutscenes with high honor
@@ayrtonjogaI think you guys are kind of misundertanding Arthur's character. He is not the "Anti hero who wants to be good", that's just how players love to portray him. Arthur is a bad man, no matter how we look at it, he did some horrible shit in his entire life. But he is fed up, he is getting old, later in the story sick, he just wants to find the peace he could never find in his turbolent years. I know it sounds like I'm just paraphrasing but I feel it completely changes my perspective on him.
1:07:43 This whole part right here is why SWAT 4, in my mind, is a league of its own compared to games like Ready or Not. Some suspects act rather slowly, hesitate, or run away. Some will fire on sight. Some of them will be unpredictable. It depends on the context, on the level itself, and even on the type of suspect. Some will surrender the moment they see you, some will try to ambush you (solo or in a group), and they will be more likely to surrender if you catch them off guard, like from behind. They can surrender if you hurt them. They can surrender if they see one of their own die. Or run away, making a final stand in a room. There is self-preservation most of the time or at least you can count on it. That's quite impressive for a game from 2005. Nowhere near perfect-or polished-but it's impressive. In Ready or Not, the suspects are in a "victory or death" mindset 24/7 while jacked up on speed, trained by Max Payne himself, unless you shoot them with a less lethal option. Even a lowly thug can do a 180° and headshot you in less than half a second while their arms clipping through their own body. They can see through walls. They can hear a door opening from INSIDE the house while they are OUTSIDE next to speakers blasting music. If they have a sidearm or knife, they WILL use it. A suspect, if he sees your damn toenail even once, will track you down with a frenzy of a shark, with a rage of a thousand supernovas, to end your existence in every timeline. Some suspects will just roam around all willy-nilly, making you walk the entire map all over again for one guy who's just walking around his arrested/fallen comrades. Even civilians are assholes with Forrest Gump syndrome and Stockholm syndrome combined, and they'd rather run the whole map and hug the nearest suspect instead of listening to the police while they are shouting for the police. There is little to no self-preservation. Yes, it's in Early Access, but these are problems that plague the game for over a year now. I hope they will tone down the AI a bit. It has the potential to be something amazing.
Yeah, as some dude put it, SWAT 4 feels like a real police and in some way a horror game, RoN instead is just a glorified FBI HRT’s wet dream of extremely violent suspects and mag dumping everything with “tacticool gucci” equipment, hope they can fix it
SWAT 4 is a simulation of ideal policing. Ready or Not is a copagandic snuff film generator. It's everything from what the game decides to detail (guns, violence, etc.) to what the game's scenarios are (turning the Pulse Night Club shooting into some sort of organized Islamic terrorist attack with literal suicide bombers as part of the insurgency). It's fetishistic and revolting.
From what I’ve seen, mechanically Ready Or Not looks like a real successor, but I haven’t seen this level of environmental storytelling throughout. At least while it’s in early access
RON has the potential to be a huge disappointment. I wouldn't count days or get hyped at all. It has gone through multiple phases of development, at times a disappointing Rainbow Six Siege clone. It has been in development for nearly five years now with no end in sight.
@@neattricks7678 I've played the ea steam build and it still feels like it may need another 2 or 3 years in the oven. Its a great foundation for something bigger, but as of now the AI is messed up in a weird way, their reaction time is insane and their behaviour makes no sense sometimes. The environments are still not good enough for such an ambitious projects and there is a feeling of overall jankiness to the movement, customization and gunplay. Your AI teammates are way too stupid to be even remotely competent on their own. Couldn't get thru a single level without them refusing to shoot an aggressive suspect and dying like a bunch of amateurs stuck in a doorway. Also whats with the first level crackheads having every doorframe rigged with frags? Seems a bit of an overkill for a bunch of poorly armed junkies lol.
@@olegdemianenko3054 Just like Zero Hour, while the game mechanics may seem nice at that foundation level like you said, there are many problems that prevent it from being what SWAT set out to be. Besides getting everything beyond the basics right they have to build an actual game on top of it. And after 5 years if they have done neither of those things I am personally fine with leaving it off my radar until something big changes.
There are bits of environmental storytelling in RoN. For instance, on the Hotel level, there is a secret room with a one-way mirror peering into a bedroom. That and the props in mind, you could definitely tell what was going on in there.
@@DogeickBateman Honestly the interiors just feel unsettling, then again thats what the game wishes to do to the player so he's checking his back and is listening for any noise that doesnt sound like the game's ambience, one of the prime examples are the amarcham headquarters and also that one abandoned compound your helicopter crashes into
@@vodago I totally got the joke. Idk what i was thinking when i posted o.O This vid made me go back into swat 4 and i gotta say, to me and only “Me”..... Swat 4 is a better “swat” game than “ready or not” currently. However, “ready or not” is totally in its infancy. Its like trying to compare a properly aged wine to a newly formulated craft beer inspired by the wine. But i own both and i plan to keep playing both. I hope the devs take their time. Rushing a game never leads to anything good. Im totally fine with staying in early-access/alpha for a year or two even if it takes that. But i hope it reminds people that, yes there is a market for complex tactical shooters. They just need to make it right. Rainbow six 3 was made right :D Random as rant end. Check out Rainbow six 3 if you haven’t. The planning is daunting but, its freedom essentially :]
I love the everloving heck out of your videos man! But the ashtrays on 33:47 are actually gorilla hand ashtrays, an (illegal) product of poachers in the same vein as banned ivory trading. It was hilarious to me to hear human hand though, ahhahaha cheers mate
1:02:11 I just now am realizing Laurence built this tunnel using the equipment he stole from his job site. In the mission briefing, it's mentioned he has a job as a carpenter which he lost after being caught stealing from the job site. That's why this tunnel is covered in plywood, and it explains the lights and other things that look like those you'd find in a construction site
I like how mods have addressed the issue of "OP" less lethal weapons. Like less lethal shotguns can kill if you hit someone in the head with the bean bag. This game really shines when played with mods.
Most noticeably SEF mod. beanbag shotguns can incapacitate, flashbangs or stingers too close can be fatal and tasers can cause cardiac arrest when used on elderly or people with poor heart condition
Or how unreliable they are, tazers don't nearly work like you'd think, oc spray is extremely hit or miss, beanbags aren't going to do anything to someone that is on hard drugs and in a demented state.
@@gofuckthyself420IF youre playing on normal diff i would recommend shooting the legs, me preferably since i have 14 smokes 3 flashbangs and 3 stingers i just use one if they dont comply.
Ken Levine(who worked on this game too) talked about in the Bioshock director's commentary how he and another designer would go around and create a backstory for every little scene or piece of set dressing. How did this gun get there? What conflict killed the guy who's body you see now? et cetera. Then they would adjust the scene based on their story. You can see some of that approached used in this game. Seems like a really effective way to create a believable world.
Little touches like that really enhance immersion. If you can look around a room and piece together what happened before you arrived, you feel like a small part of a much larger, living world.
@@joeyf9826 Exactly. It makes your game world really interesting. That's why I love STALKER. Sometimes you come across bodies of random NPC's and you can see dead animals, zombies or another faction soldier lying around. Also Kenshi. Any game that has it's world alive ... regardless of how harsh you get punished for mistakes, makes you go and press that damn play button again.
The Last Of Us also has something like that. Sometimes when you see a corpse on the floor you can know what happened by looking at bullet holes on a wall, shell casings and blood marks.
Swat 4 definitely did their research. When this game was released in 05 oxycontin was taking over and people would pay $80 for an eighty milligram oc. Or maybe some of the devs were having fun on the weekend and knew from experience 🤣
Damn dude. Fast forwards to '19 and I get my wisdom teeth out. I get one and a half days oxy for my broken jaw, non-prescription ibu after that. Was spitting out bone/tooth shards a week later taking the same pills people take for headaches
"Element, Open and Clear. Sting it." "Copy." This game was the first PC game I played when I was 6. I will always remember this game and how sick it was. The first level of this game really sets the mood for the rest of the game. There is nothing like prime swat 4 with friends
"I want my lawyer" "Shut up" "You know I took a girl on a date here once" "Door's locked sir" "Musta been a blind date" "why are you trying me up?" "Quiet you"
The most immersive solo fps experience I ever had in a shooter was playing swat 4 with voice commands on. If you have a mic, try it out: this game is a masterpiece and voice commands remove the only unimmersive aspect which is the order menus.
@@FaceFullofEyes you definetely must try it out then, the voice recognition is quite remarkable for a game this old. Nothing better than shouting the usual lines such as "RED go there, cover that area, BLUE on me, flash and clear" and then storming a room. I really hope "Ready or not" will implement voice commands too sometime in the future.
@@FaceFullofEyes SWAT4 SEF with voice commands is the ultimate tactical shooter, period. No other tac shooter immerses you like that. The feeling of executing simultaneous assault of a room by saying "Element: go." Is incredible. It also recognizes basic compliance such as Police! Get Down! to the same effect as pressing the use key
Top notch video, as a lover of the swat 4, this video is an absolute treat. There's a lot of detail in that game I never noticed before, like the element that the diamond wholesaler's top exec is a prolific hunter and that they were employing child labour. Thanks for another excellent analysis!
@@interweebs7408 that's true but that also works in it's favor at times, like the graphics being old/bad really adds to the atmosphere and makes it feel that much more realistic
The graphics look great in my opinion, just Run it in HD resolution with fxaa and you are good togo, the gunplay might need some adjustments but those are pretty quick tweaks you can do in INI files
SWAT 4 has stuck with me for a long time, I haven't seen anything like it ever since, not even the earlier Rainbow Six games felt like it. I'm glad Ready or Not is inheriting SWAT 4's feel, even if it's a little rough around the edges in it's current state. edit: as of Dec. 8 2023 its ok rn, cant wait for the 1.0 update
@SpyegleYes, but I'd argue PC Rainbow Six games at the time namely Rainbow Six 2 Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six 3 Raven Shield were pretty similar to Swat4 . Which is not a bad thing, since R6:3 - Raven Shield and Swat4 are some of my all time favourite games. I'm beyond exited of what Ready or Not can evolve in to, it already is almost an updated copy of Swat 4, it just needs more meat on the bones - meaning more levels. ps. the console versions of R6:3 and later R6 games are another matter, they're something between ghost recon and COD
@Spyegle Yeah, R6 was never about the minutiae of policing - evidence gathering and stuff. It was a tactical action game about counterterrorism. Sad what it has become, along with Ghost Recon. You can only really appreciate the atmosphere of SWAT in singleplayer is the problem. In a cooperative or competitive environment, the tension really falls apart. I think it's why the genre goes underappreciated in general. To really capture that feeling of no respawns, no bullshit, I think something needs to be taken from the old GR/R6 games which I can't remember if SWAT4 had. In GR and R6, you really wanted to keep your Ghosts and Rainbow soldiers alive throughout the campaign. If you had a pool of officers with their own skillsets in Ready Or Not, and players selected them upon entering your lobby, and their death meant they had to be replaced with a less developed/specialised officer, that would make the campaign feel more rewarding by the end if you keep them alive for the more difficult final missions. Games really need less meta progression and match-based gimmicks, and more focus on the classic campaign, the last game I feel did that was Left 4 Dead maybe. But obviously you don't unlock special characters or have permadeath in that game. Either way, some innovation/iteration would be nice on RoN's part instead of just trying to be "that swat4 remake with modern graphics" I agree - definitely needs more than that to succeed, as more than a cult classic.
SWAT 4 with the SEF:FR mod or BTLA still has more features and better gameplay than Ready Or Not. I'm excited for RON to become SWAT 5, but they are a long way from doing so.
@Spyegle Yeah Wildlands was ok. Strictly okay and nothing more imo, and I got it for $15 on sale so I don't have to sit with much buyer's remorse over it lol. They tried to blend every game together and then Siege just fell into the unfortunate trap of becoming a bog standard 5v5 competitive game. There was a great idea there and they just blew it :(
Look i get it that you are going to a tacsim shooter drought, but comparing RoN to SWAT4 is disingenuous, it's alpha was reworked greatly from being more R6 to copy more of SWAT4 without doing it's own thing, that's bad because SWAT4 ALREADY EXISTS, even on the atmosphere part it falls flat, gore even. and what irks me is the damn paid shills going everywhere saying the same bs that "RoN is SWAT5" when playing the EA game will show you it's not and it doesn't look like it will ever be, the team doesn't really know what the hell they are doing besides wanting money from starved gamers, you can easily call RoN the Scam Shilltizen of the tac shooters.
Something you mentioned that I think Ready or Not actually gets right is that the rules of engagement varies by scenario. As an example, on a raid mission where there has already been a lot of civilians killed before you arrive, you're allowed to shoot armed suspects on sight unless they surrender. This gives a lower score compared to arresting them, but doesn't give a penalty.
I remember opening the map at the A Bomb nightclub and seeing how it was hastily scribbled on a bloody napkin. That right there put me into the world. It also doesn't make a perfect layout of the building either. Things that make sense are shown like the parking lot, entrance and bathroom.
I love how just seeing a weapons collage around the edges of a thumbnail immediately tells me you've uploaded a new video without even reading the text. Glad to see you still around and Belated Merry Christmas.
This is where Ready or Not falls short on SWAT 4. The environments are built incorrectly, they are built from a tactical problem scenario and then furnished / garnished. From watching this the base building was to make a classic house / building from what you could expect to find and then start fleshing out the story and building on it. Which does lead to very good story telling and environments and things that makes sense, unlike Ready or Not that features a ton of loopback routes here and there that causes issues with it being a house or hotel. You can feel the game isn't out to let you fight crime, but camouflage tactical challenges to throw at you.
Swat 4, One of the last remnants of a love letter to stupendous game design.. Every aspect is made to fit into a greater scene.. The tension of being a SWAT Officer, How the AI Teammates react to Suspects -He s not complying...(The Sheer tone of suspicion with professionalism of An Operative) -Stay Down... - Shush... It feels very alive for a game that was made 15 years ago Regarding the part of killing or not killing a perp.. Swat gives you a multi tude of tools to edge on your enemies.. Looking behind a closed door, gassing, flashing and stingers, pepper spray Tasers.. Each tool is situational.. You lead a team of Swat operatives, you manage your team for a well done mission Also surprising a perp by behind also the amount of officers demanding surrender affects if they are going to surrender or not
Swat 4 is one of my favorite games of all time. Recently I've been playing Ready or Not, which is very good, but they could really learn a thing or two about some of SWAT 4's details from this video.
Great video as always, I never expected SWAT 4 of all things to be covered My favorite thing about it’s aesthetic is that it depicts crime more realistically than any other game I’ve seen, there’s no superhuman criminals mowing down armies of cops like action heroes or anything like that like in most games, but you’re tackling ordinary, everyday crime that most people don’t talk about, and the suspects could be anywhere from ordinary people fighting to survive all the way to radical lunatics, like you covered Your channel is one of the most underrated on RUclips, keep up the good work
This is an issue I have with Ready or Not. It seems to confuse sheer grittiness with realism. All suspects present are incredibly unsympathetic at best if not outright monstrous. Whereas in SWAT 4 the addicts robbing a convenience store are portrayed as unfortunate people who are desperate in Ready or Not the equivalent mission has the addicts murder a man in cold blood, shoot and injure others, and murder a dog before you arrive on scene.
truly a game worthy of praise, i remember when it had just come out and my pc could barely handle it and i was thinking to myself; "in 10 yrs this'll still be the shit" and only until the release of ready or not a few days ago, 15 years later ,this game was still king of its genre.
Really nice video, it’s unfortunate how little is noticed in the average playthrough, but your attention to detail was really eye opening as to what made SWAT IV so memorable
This is a really great look at the sort of thing that's commonly missed in gaming - aesthetic immersion. I've just started playing SWAT 4 again (yes I have RoN), and it is those little details that add so much to the levels.
I've heard the occasional mention of Irrational Games' SWAT 4 from several sources over the last decade, all offering very generous praise without much detail. Despite the ocean of acclaim, I never gave it much attention until today. Your impressively thorough analysis of SWAT 4--and especially the deeper subtext in its world-building--has culminated in a professional, charming, and captivating video; a testament to the writing and storytelling prowess that both you and the creators of the game possess. This was quite the treat. Good work!
I did too, so much so that Face Full of Eyes is the only RUclips Channel I support on Patreon, even above all the other ones I watch. No pressure, of course, but it might be worth looking into if you want to support him.
im replaying this game again with the elite force mod to remind myself where Ready Or Not got its inspiration from, and it reminded me why this game in particular is still my absolute favourite tactical shooter, because of the reasons you mentioned, but for me particularly, the act of killing is a conscious decision because you're always aware that killing is an option, not something you have to do
This game had always been at the very edge of my understanding, knowing it exists yet not much beyond that. Now I feel I've been missing out on a game I've wanted for years, as a fan of the original Ghost Recons, Rainbow Sixes, and SOCOMs and what have you. You've also made me excited for Ready Or Not, a game I had until now written off as just an aspiring Rainbow Six Siege clone. So thank you for expanding my horizons with another fantastic video.
what's the environmental storytelling like now? I've heard really mixed things and it's hard to tell what is blind hating because new game bad and what is well meaning criticism
In my opinion it’s excellent. They’ve added a lot of incidental details, and there are micro-stories in pretty much every level. Ends Of The Earth legitimately made me tear up, and Elephant (the active shooter mission) is even more chilling. 911 calls are chilling, and the Evidence Locker adds additional context and human tragedy to many levels. Frankly a lot of the complaining baffles me- 1.0 represented a massive jump in detail and quality, and as someone who played the shit out of 1.0 people who say the AI hasn’t been fixed have simply not been willing to take their time and engage with the game’s premise. Teammate AI was so improved in 1.0 that beta single player was like a different game. Is it perfect? No. There are areas that could be improved- I think Void still hasn’t quite mastered use of suspect and teammate dialogue to the level SWAT 4 achieved, but they’re getting close. There are also a lot of unanswered questions about the overarching story. Occasionally AI can bug out. But all of these issues are being worked on despite a community that seems bizarrely negative to me. I’m not a tactical shooter veteran and my aim is middling to potato, but I still S-ranked the campaign and am fighting my way through an Ironman run right now. I’ve racked up over 120 hours and expect many more. I’d definitely recommend it- I’d be happy to help you get to grips with the game in co-op too. IMO, Ready Or Not is a worthy successor and deserves to do well.
That clip at 1:13:58 might've been the most common occurrence in that level but carried so much weight in that section that its gonna be in my head for a while.
Your scriptwriting has become so much better, it's unreal. Everything is tight and focused, each topic flowing neatly into the next. And, of course, the editing is appropriately crisp. Your best one yet!
The peak experience of the game captured through all the aspects. It's not just gameplay, it's art. Very timely release with Ready Or Not hype, I never heard of SWAT 4. When making accent on ambient sounds, please demonstrate them for few seconds please(actually there were really a lot in the second part of the video).
You should definitely make an aesthetics of the Stalker series. One of the most thematically and atmospherically intriguing and unforgiving game series out there
1:15:10 always cracks a smile to see Firewatch mentioned, recently just replayed it with developer commentary and boy oh boy it may just be one of my favorite dev-walkthroughs out there
Awesome review on probably one of the best games I've ever played! Just a little correction, the South Korean diplomat's bodyguards you mentioned did have a traitor. You are right that they were in a panicked fight-mode, but I noticed if you shout "police!" they usually comply, but there'll always be one guy who refuses and shoots on sight, that guy is the traitor. In fact the complying guards will always mention "Hope they (you and Element) get that traitor"
...and I was right. I played the game when I was a teen, I didnt notice all those nuances and storytelling cues left everywhere. Awesomely done video, I hope that ready or not will use as many of the narrative and exposition tools Swat 4 had !
Those videos are the definition of quality content. Observations going so in-depth that you could make a story out of anything. I feel like this is what RUclips was created for, and something that is so rare nowadays that you could consider this channel to be a true gem of the internet. I can easily day that one of the best things that ever happened to me while using this platform was encountering this channel.
What a great coincidence that as I started playing Swat 4 this video showed up in my recommendations. This really makes me feel like I've just barely scratched the surface with what I've noticed in my playthrough.
The level of detail and thought and observation you put into these is so good. You are a phenomenal creator and I look forward to whatever you decided to do next.
I dont know if you will see this, but this is the best video put on youtube. I want you to know this video has gotten me through so much. I come back so often and I cant express how comforting you make your videos, especially this one. Masterpiece, thank you.
I think what you brought up about psychology was fantastic. One favourite examples in a game I’ve played was weirdly enough in Titanfall, a game that is takes place mostly in a straight up death-match setting. Seeing and hearing the grunts stack up on doors, bark orders, banter to relieve tension, or run screaming from Titans and Spectres. Standing in your Titan in front of a grunt as they fire in futility and their rounds bounce harmlessly off your armour and shields will sometimes result in them dropping their gun and giving up. All of it helped make a 1v1 deathmatch feel more immersive than massive 32v32 multiplayer matches.
As always, I'm thrilled to see that you've released new video! It's the exact moment when I know - next 1.5 hours will be spent seeing TOP_TIER cultural treasure. I want to wish you success in anything you start making, and thank you for your determined work in this kind of content. You're great!
So good. SWAT4 is one of my favourite games and you revealed so many details attracting me to this game that I didn't even realise in the first place. Professors of Media and Culture Studies at my university cannot present a case study more lucidly and comprehensively than you.
I absolutely love this video So detailed, well edited and well written I sleep to this video all the time because I find your voice relaxing to listen to
I absolutely love your presentation, attention to detail, and takes. You are able to pick up on the little things that would never cross one’s mind and it’s amazing.
I've never watched your stuff before but your descriptions and attention to detail during the Fairfax mission were incredible. Reminds me of how the narrator in Disco Elysium sets the scenes. Thank you for your efforts here.
As someone who has only ever played this game on Elite or Hard, your comment about games as an experience rather than just a mechanical challenge really stuck with me, and inspired me to play through the campaign in a way I've never tried before. I lowered the difficulty to allow for some mistakes, and tried to play through the whole campaign with no (or at least minimal) deaths. It was a really incredible experience. Every shootout, every arrest, every step - every single moment was fraught with tension. Having to clear a room that couldn't be fully checked with the optiwand put me on edge more than any horror game I've ever played. Thank you so much for this video.
You may want to try SEF First Responders mod. It disabled optiwand to make the gameplay more realistic. It has also many quality improvements for a super intense experience
this video is a perfect breakdown of level design and world building. honestly this would be perfect for college and even university design courses. as someone who somehow managed to get a diploma in game and graphic design, this video does and amazing job of explaining how subtlety makes or breaks a games atmosphere. doesnt matter how pretty your models, textures and lighting is if your level is bland and feels dead an abandoned. if this wasnt for a college/ project then i dont know why you put so much effort and detail into this analysis but im so glad you did.
Oh yes, I've been waiting for this since the announcement on twitter. SWAT 4 is one of the best tactical games I've played in a while, and this video brings it justice.
I'm glad I found this channel. Your choice of words with their dustings of poetry teamed with the way you look at media make for a really captivating watch.
Swat-4 is such a detailed environment game.When I first played the game.I look at thr environment for hours to see what it is about.Such a good game honestly.
After re watching this for the 3rd time and knowing a few week ready or not getting another big update making me all the more making ready or not more of a ideal swat 4.
One of my game design teachers was one of the devs for this game, and one of the things he used to rave about alot in class was environmental storytelling. I really should tell him to show his own game when trying to make this point. Its absolutely littered with amazing examples.
What an incredible coincidence - I only just recently completed SWAT 4 after having played it many years ago without ever getting past the tenament level (due to being scared out of my mind). Your video essays are a real treat to watch, and encourage me to think more critically about the way in which we consume games today.
Absolutely fantastic deconstruction and review of all the elements that make SWAT 4 so immersive and interactive. I particularly like chapter seven as exhibiting what I consider to be the most important element of the game, the suspects themselves in all their variation, in well delivered commentary and it is followed up with the similarly excellent chapter on the voice acting. If only VOID understood the game as well as you've done here, then we might have had a better successor to this game than we do. A job well-done.
Feels like much more of a complete package than Ready or Not. RoN feels unfinished presentation-wise. The lifeless police station is a good testament to that.
thank you for this video, i remember this game when i was about 10 years old its one of the first game that really immersed me the environment made me scared so much and yet so fascinated at the same time, it was unlike any other fps game i played
I knew this game before, but never was aware of the level of detail it has, both in mechanical level and level design. This is the kind of "review" that actually makes me want to play a game, the level of analysis that I wish I had when talking about a game I like. Can't wait to play this game.
Another great video, me and my friends have been playing Ready or Not since it went up on steam and we played SWAT 4 before that, I've got a lot or respect for both with how they're willing to portray the rigors and violence of tactical police work. With how suspects react, the only games I can compare them to are something like Halo, since the Covenant act like a foe who has some capacity to defeat you instead of just running into your bullets. It's different of course but I think they accomplish the same idea, selling the player on them being real sentient beings who can pose a threat. I think mechanically Ready or Not is already on par with SWAT 4 (aside from the AI's pinpoint accuracy and animations, a problem the devs have already mentioned is in the process of being fixed).
holy shit you're back again and now you're covering one of the games i love the most from my childhood next to san andreas and the burnout series i couldn't ask for a better semi-late-christmas gift than this merry christmas man, i can't wait to see what you do next year!
Stopped pretty short way into the video. I need to play this first, you've already delivered what makes it great so well to me in the first 20 minutes.
Chapters:
1. City of Fairview - 0:00
1.1 Insides of a city - Identity, History, Psychology - 2:23
2. Environmental Storytelling - 9:47
3. Criminality in the world of SWAT 4 - 14:31
3.1 Fairfax Residence - 23:27
3.2 Duplessis Wholesale Diamond Center - 32:08
3.3 Children of Taronne Tenement - 34:36
4. Atmosphere: Weather - 43:55
4.1 Time of day - 45:48
4.2 Lighting - 46:39
4.3 Soundscape - 47:56
4.4 Soundtrack - 49:59
5. Ethics behind rules of engagement - 51:17
6. Mechanics - 57:49
7. Psychology - 1:07:43
8. Voice - 1:14:58
9. Immersion - 1:20:11
10. Legacy - 1:28:51
I love you
no one ever said anything about RS Siege's environmental storytelling, bc each map has it's own story to tell, you may fill that gap
one of my favourite games thank you
the town is actually based after Boston Massachusetts
Aesthetics of S.T.A.L.K.E.R?
You look at media in a way that really appeals to me. You go deeper than the surface level, and I'm glad that you and the people watching get to enjoy and examine these deeper perspectives.
why cant i see the deeper surface level to see deeper perspectoves
I believe it's called over-analysing ;)
@@cinemaspire7258 pointing out obvious aesthetic choices is not over analyzing when the visuals are right in front of you and you can hear the details, that’s stating the obvious and touching on it. Granted it can be a bit much at times, but calling this over analyzing is like saying the need for reviews are unnecessary, maybe, but it detracts from the opinions and ideas towards a piece of entertainment.
@@enternamehere3936 what fake accent?
@@RobPaulson88 it's called a joke
I love the way SWAT 4 handles its controls. So many simulation games think that "simulation" means making every action as awkward as possible, when they should be making them smooth yet limited. When you go to grab something, or push a button, do you spend 5 seconds flipping through menus to perform such a basic action? No. So why is this being made so much harder? SWAT 4's context sensitive system largely solves this and I love it.
Ah yes Arma
It really is one of the best systems. All you need to know is a few keys and that's it.
I think thats because its less simulator and more tactical shooter.
Another simple old thing that SWAT 4 does for functional realism is just using simple crosshairs for aiming.
Being a game based entirely on CQB it's good that there's no obstruction between the NPC's and the player, especially when the player has to decide what to do to them on the basis of how they're acting.
Because in games sights eat up a far more sizeable chunk of your field of vision. And IRL you can aim with both eyes open, which will render your sights transparent. The only games to come close to this are some older shooters that use simple png's for ironsights. Hell, there's even a technique for using scopes with illuminated crosshairs in CQB where you put the scope cover on and aim with both eyes open, which will let you see a floating crosshair that'll shoot approximately where you need to land your shots.
Ironically the modern insistence of modern 'realistic' shooters making iron sights mandatory for accurate shooting has in many instances facilitated very unrealistic movement from the players as they can shoot accurately as long as the sights are pressed to their face.
Counter-Strike might not have been the most realistic shooter ever, but never in its time did it have the problem of strafe-spamming.
@@Killicon93 Maybe what they should do is make the weapon model go transparent and apply some DOF blur to give a similar effect to looking through it with both eyes open. With all the fancy shader effects we have in games these days I would think they can do this convincingly now.
"You can turn this game into a psychopath simulator if you wish, but that'd be like reading a book backwards:nobody would deny that you are reading it, but you're only engaging with it on the level of an object. [...] The game expects a certain level of seriousness from the player and it counts on it."
THANK YOU! I'm so done with those ridiculous arguments about ludonarrative dissonance, it's like saying a theater director is responsible for drunken hecklers.
That depends on the game though, right? I see his point when it comes to a game like SWAT4, but the classic example of the first Tomb Raider reboot game does suffer from ludonarrative dissonance. You can't really play Lara Croft in the same way as she's portrayed in the cutscenes. She'll be an accomplished killer in your hands pretty much no matter what you, even if the cutscenes portray her as shocked, panicked and new to all of this. As a player you can't really play like that outside of continuously and purposefully causing near-game-overs, which is a ridiculous idea. There's nothing that pushes you towards that, which is also quite different from games like SWAT4 that have a lot of incentives to 'play it like its meant' as it were. But certain games don't have that, and they suffer from ludonarrative dissonance. The video even mentions GTA4 in that regard. To use your analogy, a theater director is responsible for drunken hecklers if they keep handing out alcohol while egging the audience on. SWAT4 is very good at not doing that, but that sadly isn't the case for some games.
@@MrCowabungaa Exactly. One of my favourite examples of ludonarritive harmony and dissonance in a series is in Bioshock and Bioshock infinite.
In Bioshock nearly everyone is crazy from a mixture of their own innate oddities and plasmids wreaking havoc on their body and mind. Stuff like a plastic surgeon's strive for perfection in appearance and appreciation of art being pushed and twisted into murder and butchery trying to make "perfect" beauty. And if it was just a no-name splicer it still makes sense for them to attack on sight in a quest for either their next hit or just for the pleasure of it. Plasmids were a part of Rapture's society and they were ubiquitous. Why wouldn't someone want to just snap their fingers to light their cigarette?
In Infinite a bunch of Colombia's citizens will just sit around and not report DeWitt or Elizabeth despite them being wanted criminals. Despite their miraculous effects and even being given as free samples, Vigors are hardly ever seen in enemies or the general public. And while it makes sense to rummage through the trash to find food in Rapture, Booker should look like a maniac doing that in most if not all of Colombia.
Ludonarritive dissonance or harmony isn't so much what the player can do, any horror game can quickly turn into a comedy with the right attitude after all, but what the game encourages the player to do. Or in the other direction when the story makes an aspect of gameplay feel normal. I don't question why I can't cross the street in SWAT because the crime scene is where the SWAT team is supposed to be. I want to save Emily in Dishonored not just because it's how I beat the level but because Corvo loves her and the poor princess deserves a good life.
Basically I rambled for far to long to say, ludonarritive stuff can notably improve a game or make it feel awkward but the devs aren't responsible for players playing incorrectly. It's when intended gameplay or gameplay with incentives conflicts with the story or when the story says something in contrast to the normal gameplay.
@@XSniper74184 This comment is 5 months old but I totally agree with you guys. Red Dead Redemption 2 is another example. Arthur is shown has a guy with a good heart who doesn't want to kill anymore yet the player is given the opportunity to kill innocent people. Killing innocent people or being an asshole to others doesn't match with Arthurs character at all.
I think games like Fallout and Skyrim avoid this problem by giving us, the player, the choice to what our character says to others.
@@joey4186 Many AAA games has this "bastard with a heart of gold" type of protagonist like Arthur, showing they're genuinely good people that either do bad decisions or are blinded by a manipulative villain
Which are very engaging to watch, the problem is when these games gives you the freedom to be a jerk, so it just feels wrong playing Arthur with an evil attitude, some of the best moments in RDR2 are the cutscenes with high honor
@@ayrtonjogaI think you guys are kind of misundertanding Arthur's character.
He is not the "Anti hero who wants to be good", that's just how players love to portray him.
Arthur is a bad man, no matter how we look at it, he did some horrible shit in his entire life.
But he is fed up, he is getting old, later in the story sick, he just wants to find the peace he could never find in his turbolent years.
I know it sounds like I'm just paraphrasing but I feel it completely changes my perspective on him.
1:07:43
This whole part right here is why SWAT 4, in my mind, is a league of its own compared to games like Ready or Not.
Some suspects act rather slowly, hesitate, or run away. Some will fire on sight. Some of them will be unpredictable. It depends on the context, on the level itself, and even on the type of suspect. Some will surrender the moment they see you, some will try to ambush you (solo or in a group), and they will be more likely to surrender if you catch them off guard, like from behind. They can surrender if you hurt them. They can surrender if they see one of their own die. Or run away, making a final stand in a room. There is self-preservation most of the time or at least you can count on it. That's quite impressive for a game from 2005. Nowhere near perfect-or polished-but it's impressive.
In Ready or Not, the suspects are in a "victory or death" mindset 24/7 while jacked up on speed, trained by Max Payne himself, unless you shoot them with a less lethal option. Even a lowly thug can do a 180° and headshot you in less than half a second while their arms clipping through their own body. They can see through walls. They can hear a door opening from INSIDE the house while they are OUTSIDE next to speakers blasting music. If they have a sidearm or knife, they WILL use it. A suspect, if he sees your damn toenail even once, will track you down with a frenzy of a shark, with a rage of a thousand supernovas, to end your existence in every timeline. Some suspects will just roam around all willy-nilly, making you walk the entire map all over again for one guy who's just walking around his arrested/fallen comrades. Even civilians are assholes with Forrest Gump syndrome and Stockholm syndrome combined, and they'd rather run the whole map and hug the nearest suspect instead of listening to the police while they are shouting for the police. There is little to no self-preservation. Yes, it's in Early Access, but these are problems that plague the game for over a year now. I hope they will tone down the AI a bit. It has the potential to be something amazing.
Ready or Not 1.0 is out, and it's not any better unfortunately.
Yeah, as some dude put it, SWAT 4 feels like a real police and in some way a horror game, RoN instead is just a glorified FBI HRT’s wet dream of extremely violent suspects and mag dumping everything with “tacticool gucci” equipment, hope they can fix it
As a fan of both RoN and SWAT4, I agree with your take
SWAT 4 is a simulation of ideal policing. Ready or Not is a copagandic snuff film generator. It's everything from what the game decides to detail (guns, violence, etc.) to what the game's scenarios are (turning the Pulse Night Club shooting into some sort of organized Islamic terrorist attack with literal suicide bombers as part of the insurgency). It's fetishistic and revolting.
THIS THIS THIS THIS
From what I’ve seen, mechanically Ready Or Not looks like a real successor, but I haven’t seen this level of environmental storytelling throughout. At least while it’s in early access
RON has the potential to be a huge disappointment. I wouldn't count days or get hyped at all. It has gone through multiple phases of development, at times a disappointing Rainbow Six Siege clone. It has been in development for nearly five years now with no end in sight.
@@neattricks7678 I've played the ea steam build and it still feels like it may need another 2 or 3 years in the oven. Its a great foundation for something bigger, but as of now the AI is messed up in a weird way, their reaction time is insane and their behaviour makes no sense sometimes. The environments are still not good enough for such an ambitious projects and there is a feeling of overall jankiness to the movement, customization and gunplay. Your AI teammates are way too stupid to be even remotely competent on their own. Couldn't get thru a single level without them refusing to shoot an aggressive suspect and dying like a bunch of amateurs stuck in a doorway. Also whats with the first level crackheads having every doorframe rigged with frags? Seems a bit of an overkill for a bunch of poorly armed junkies lol.
@@olegdemianenko3054 Just like Zero Hour, while the game mechanics may seem nice at that foundation level like you said, there are many problems that prevent it from being what SWAT set out to be. Besides getting everything beyond the basics right they have to build an actual game on top of it. And after 5 years if they have done neither of those things I am personally fine with leaving it off my radar until something big changes.
There are bits of environmental storytelling in RoN. For instance, on the Hotel level, there is a secret room with a one-way mirror peering into a bedroom. That and the props in mind, you could definitely tell what was going on in there.
@@olegdemianenko3054 you ever been in a crackhouse? they have some pretty crazy traps
SWAT 4 and FEAR 1's cities are some of the strangely comfiest in any games I've ever played.
if you're interested, I've been uploading SWAT 4 atmosphere: ruclips.net/video/URe7l5oYR-c/видео.html
You an odd fellow for FEAR interiors
@@DogeickBateman Honestly the interiors just feel unsettling, then again thats what the game wishes to do to the player so he's checking his back and is listening for any noise that doesnt sound like the game's ambience, one of the prime examples are the amarcham headquarters and also that one abandoned compound your helicopter crashes into
Deus Ex also got some comfy cities. Especially the Hong Kong level.
@@blknmongl342 I love Deus Ex's cities.
I have never felt this exited upon seeing something, like witnessing a ressurection. Glad you're back.
have you ever felt this entry-ed before?
@@vodago i think the word is "Entered" xD
@@dudearlo i am making a joke. He said EXITed instead of excited. Entry is the opposite of exit.
@@vodago
I totally got the joke. Idk what i was thinking when i posted o.O
This vid made me go back into swat 4 and i gotta say, to me and only “Me”.....
Swat 4 is a better “swat” game than “ready or not” currently.
However, “ready or not” is totally in its infancy. Its like trying to compare a properly aged wine to a newly formulated craft beer inspired by the wine.
But i own both and i plan to keep playing both. I hope the devs take their time. Rushing a game never leads to anything good.
Im totally fine with staying in early-access/alpha for a year or two even if it takes that.
But i hope it reminds people that, yes there is a market for complex tactical shooters. They just need to make it right.
Rainbow six 3 was made right :D
Random as rant end.
Check out Rainbow six 3 if you haven’t.
The planning is daunting but, its freedom essentially :]
I felt exactly the same
I love the everloving heck out of your videos man! But the ashtrays on 33:47 are actually gorilla hand ashtrays, an (illegal) product of poachers in the same vein as banned ivory trading. It was hilarious to me to hear human hand though, ahhahaha cheers mate
Been looking for this comment.
Shit man, that never crossed my mind. Makes sense and fits with the rest of the props brilliantly. It even has fur at the edge. My bad.
@@FaceFullofEyes it's okay, maybe they were just some VERY hair human hands right?
@@XSniper74184 The CEOs disarmed (literally) Harambe?
1:02:11 I just now am realizing Laurence built this tunnel using the equipment he stole from his job site. In the mission briefing, it's mentioned he has a job as a carpenter which he lost after being caught stealing from the job site. That's why this tunnel is covered in plywood, and it explains the lights and other things that look like those you'd find in a construction site
30:04
The long silence followed up by "glue is spilled on the floor" is weirdly comedic
"glue"
"glue".
"glue."
Glue is spilled on the floor
"glue"
I like how mods have addressed the issue of "OP" less lethal weapons. Like less lethal shotguns can kill if you hit someone in the head with the bean bag. This game really shines when played with mods.
Most noticeably SEF mod. beanbag shotguns can incapacitate, flashbangs or stingers too close can be fatal and tasers can cause cardiac arrest when used on elderly or people with poor heart condition
As good as vanilla 2005 SWAT 4 is, this game really shines with a MOD like SEF
@@bloodywankarr2764 You can even kill with a flashbang, if the room has an explosive
Or how unreliable they are, tazers don't nearly work like you'd think, oc spray is extremely hit or miss, beanbags aren't going to do anything to someone that is on hard drugs and in a demented state.
@@gofuckthyself420IF youre playing on normal diff i would recommend shooting the legs, me preferably since i have 14 smokes 3 flashbangs and 3 stingers i just use one if they dont comply.
Ken Levine(who worked on this game too) talked about in the Bioshock director's commentary how he and another designer would go around and create a backstory for every little scene or piece of set dressing. How did this gun get there? What conflict killed the guy who's body you see now? et cetera. Then they would adjust the scene based on their story. You can see some of that approached used in this game. Seems like a really effective way to create a believable world.
Little touches like that really enhance immersion. If you can look around a room and piece together what happened before you arrived, you feel like a small part of a much larger, living world.
@@joeyf9826 Exactly. It makes your game world really interesting. That's why I love STALKER. Sometimes you come across bodies of random NPC's and you can see dead animals, zombies or another faction soldier lying around. Also Kenshi. Any game that has it's world alive ... regardless of how harsh you get punished for mistakes, makes you go and press that damn play button again.
The amount of detail and work they put into SWAT 4 with such a small development team is amazing.
@@FromUpNorth9345 So many devs try to make games that are as wide as possible, when they should often try to make them as deep as possible.
The Last Of Us also has something like that. Sometimes when you see a corpse on the floor you can know what happened by looking at bullet holes on a wall, shell casings and blood marks.
Your content is easily on a whole different league of quality it’s good to see you back!
Thanks!
Swat 4 definitely did their research. When this game was released in 05 oxycontin was taking over and people would pay $80 for an eighty milligram oc. Or maybe some of the devs were having fun on the weekend and knew from experience 🤣
Damn dude. Fast forwards to '19 and I get my wisdom teeth out. I get one and a half days oxy for my broken jaw, non-prescription ibu after that. Was spitting out bone/tooth shards a week later taking the same pills people take for headaches
The days before the regular 80s were replaced with the indestructible OPs.
"Element, Open and Clear. Sting it."
"Copy."
This game was the first PC game I played when I was 6. I will always remember this game and how sick it was. The first level of this game really sets the mood for the rest of the game. There is nothing like prime swat 4 with friends
Sir, you're in my spot.
"I want my lawyer"
"Shut up"
"You know I took a girl on a date here once"
"Door's locked sir"
"Musta been a blind date"
"why are you trying me up?"
"Quiet you"
Central BCC to Adam Boy Truck-1 on tac-1
"AAAAGH! YOU FOOL!"
The most immersive solo fps experience I ever had in a shooter was playing swat 4 with voice commands on. If you have a mic, try it out: this game is a masterpiece and voice commands remove the only unimmersive aspect which is the order menus.
I didn't try that. Yeah, if it recognizes the voice commands well then there isn't anything that keeps you out of the world.
@@FaceFullofEyes you definetely must try it out then, the voice recognition is quite remarkable for a game this old. Nothing better than shouting the usual lines such as "RED go there, cover that area, BLUE on me, flash and clear" and then storming a room. I really hope "Ready or not" will implement voice commands too sometime in the future.
@@Nnnope yeah hopefully with the mod support that’s coming to RON, new maps and infinite possibilities
@@FaceFullofEyes SWAT4 SEF with voice commands is the ultimate tactical shooter, period. No other tac shooter immerses you like that. The feeling of executing simultaneous assault of a room by saying "Element: go." Is incredible. It also recognizes basic compliance such as Police! Get Down! to the same effect as pressing the use key
(buys mic immediately)
Top notch video, as a lover of the swat 4, this video is an absolute treat. There's a lot of detail in that game I never noticed before, like the element that the diamond wholesaler's top exec is a prolific hunter and that they were employing child labour.
Thanks for another excellent analysis!
Thank you, glad you liked it
I never played this game. I'm blown away by the detail in the environments, they look amazing and are incredibly thought out.
I played this game since I was but a child. It's great, although a bit dated.
Ye very fun if a bit crusty
@@interweebs7408 that's true but that also works in it's favor at times, like the graphics being old/bad really adds to the atmosphere and makes it feel that much more realistic
You definitely should get it, the environmental atmosphere alone is second to none.
The graphics look great in my opinion, just Run it in HD resolution with fxaa and you are good togo, the gunplay might need some adjustments but those are pretty quick tweaks you can do in INI files
SWAT 4 has stuck with me for a long time, I haven't seen anything like it ever since, not even the earlier Rainbow Six games felt like it.
I'm glad Ready or Not is inheriting SWAT 4's feel, even if it's a little rough around the edges in it's current state.
edit: as of Dec. 8 2023
its ok rn, cant wait for the 1.0 update
@SpyegleYes, but I'd argue PC Rainbow Six games at the time namely Rainbow Six 2 Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six 3 Raven Shield were pretty similar to Swat4 . Which is not a bad thing, since R6:3 - Raven Shield and Swat4 are some of my all time favourite games. I'm beyond exited of what Ready or Not can evolve in to, it already is almost an updated copy of Swat 4, it just needs more meat on the bones - meaning more levels.
ps. the console versions of R6:3 and later R6 games are another matter, they're something between ghost recon and COD
@Spyegle Yeah, R6 was never about the minutiae of policing - evidence gathering and stuff. It was a tactical action game about counterterrorism. Sad what it has become, along with Ghost Recon. You can only really appreciate the atmosphere of SWAT in singleplayer is the problem. In a cooperative or competitive environment, the tension really falls apart. I think it's why the genre goes underappreciated in general. To really capture that feeling of no respawns, no bullshit, I think something needs to be taken from the old GR/R6 games which I can't remember if SWAT4 had. In GR and R6, you really wanted to keep your Ghosts and Rainbow soldiers alive throughout the campaign. If you had a pool of officers with their own skillsets in Ready Or Not, and players selected them upon entering your lobby, and their death meant they had to be replaced with a less developed/specialised officer, that would make the campaign feel more rewarding by the end if you keep them alive for the more difficult final missions. Games really need less meta progression and match-based gimmicks, and more focus on the classic campaign, the last game I feel did that was Left 4 Dead maybe. But obviously you don't unlock special characters or have permadeath in that game. Either way, some innovation/iteration would be nice on RoN's part instead of just trying to be "that swat4 remake with modern graphics" I agree - definitely needs more than that to succeed, as more than a cult classic.
SWAT 4 with the SEF:FR mod or BTLA still has more features and better gameplay than Ready Or Not. I'm excited for RON to become SWAT 5, but they are a long way from doing so.
@Spyegle Yeah Wildlands was ok. Strictly okay and nothing more imo, and I got it for $15 on sale so I don't have to sit with much buyer's remorse over it lol. They tried to blend every game together and then Siege just fell into the unfortunate trap of becoming a bog standard 5v5 competitive game. There was a great idea there and they just blew it :(
Look i get it that you are going to a tacsim shooter drought, but comparing RoN to SWAT4 is disingenuous, it's alpha was reworked greatly from being more R6 to copy more of SWAT4 without doing it's own thing, that's bad because SWAT4 ALREADY EXISTS, even on the atmosphere part it falls flat, gore even.
and what irks me is the damn paid shills going everywhere saying the same bs that "RoN is SWAT5" when playing the EA game will show you it's not and it doesn't look like it will ever be, the team doesn't really know what the hell they are doing besides wanting money from starved gamers, you can easily call RoN the Scam Shilltizen of the tac shooters.
Something you mentioned that I think Ready or Not actually gets right is that the rules of engagement varies by scenario. As an example, on a raid mission where there has already been a lot of civilians killed before you arrive, you're allowed to shoot armed suspects on sight unless they surrender. This gives a lower score compared to arresting them, but doesn't give a penalty.
I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. Thanks for S-tier content, Face Full of Eyes!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I remember opening the map at the A Bomb nightclub and seeing how it was hastily scribbled on a bloody napkin. That right there put me into the world. It also doesn't make a perfect layout of the building either. Things that make sense are shown like the parking lot, entrance and bathroom.
Holy shit rewatching this vid I noticed you changed the thumbnail to add the handedness thumbnail to the opti wand bluescreen fucking amazing sir 👏
😁
I love how just seeing a weapons collage around the edges of a thumbnail immediately tells me you've uploaded a new video without even reading the text. Glad to see you still around and Belated Merry Christmas.
Your videos are so thorough and detailed, and yet you make 90 minutes feel like 20. Speaks to how good your pacing and editing is.
Thank you, glad you like my work!
This is where Ready or Not falls short on SWAT 4.
The environments are built incorrectly, they are built from a tactical problem scenario and then furnished / garnished.
From watching this the base building was to make a classic house / building from what you could expect to find and then start fleshing out the story and building on it.
Which does lead to very good story telling and environments and things that makes sense, unlike Ready or Not that features a ton of loopback routes here and there that causes issues with it being a house or hotel.
You can feel the game isn't out to let you fight crime, but camouflage tactical challenges to throw at you.
Well, it's still in development
@@lambda-m1676 The layout of levels isn't an issue of development time, it's an issue of the creators goals.
Swat 4, One of the last remnants of a love letter to stupendous game design..
Every aspect is made to fit into a greater scene.. The tension of being a SWAT Officer, How the AI Teammates react to Suspects
-He s not complying...(The Sheer tone of suspicion with professionalism of An Operative)
-Stay Down...
- Shush...
It feels very alive for a game that was made 15 years ago
Regarding the part of killing or not killing a perp..
Swat gives you a multi tude of tools to edge on your enemies.. Looking behind a closed door, gassing, flashing and stingers, pepper spray Tasers.. Each tool is situational..
You lead a team of Swat operatives, you manage your team for a well done mission
Also surprising a perp by behind also the amount of officers demanding surrender affects if they are going to surrender or not
Swat 4 is one of my favorite games of all time. Recently I've been playing Ready or Not, which is very good, but they could really learn a thing or two about some of SWAT 4's details from this video.
Merry Christmas indeed! New FFOE!
Great video as always, I never expected SWAT 4 of all things to be covered
My favorite thing about it’s aesthetic is that it depicts crime more realistically than any other game I’ve seen, there’s no superhuman criminals mowing down armies of cops like action heroes or anything like that like in most games, but you’re tackling ordinary, everyday crime that most people don’t talk about, and the suspects could be anywhere from ordinary people fighting to survive all the way to radical lunatics, like you covered
Your channel is one of the most underrated on RUclips, keep up the good work
This is an issue I have with Ready or Not. It seems to confuse sheer grittiness with realism. All suspects present are incredibly unsympathetic at best if not outright monstrous. Whereas in SWAT 4 the addicts robbing a convenience store are portrayed as unfortunate people who are desperate in Ready or Not the equivalent mission has the addicts murder a man in cold blood, shoot and injure others, and murder a dog before you arrive on scene.
truly a game worthy of praise, i remember when it had just come out and my pc could barely handle it and i was thinking to myself; "in 10 yrs this'll still be the shit" and only until the release of ready or not a few days ago, 15 years later ,this game was still king of its genre.
Really nice video, it’s unfortunate how little is noticed in the average playthrough, but your attention to detail was really eye opening as to what made SWAT IV so memorable
This is a really great look at the sort of thing that's commonly missed in gaming - aesthetic immersion. I've just started playing SWAT 4 again (yes I have RoN), and it is those little details that add so much to the levels.
I've heard the occasional mention of Irrational Games' SWAT 4 from several sources over the last decade, all offering very generous praise without much detail. Despite the ocean of acclaim, I never gave it much attention until today.
Your impressively thorough analysis of SWAT 4--and especially the deeper subtext in its world-building--has culminated in a professional, charming, and captivating video; a testament to the writing and storytelling prowess that both you and the creators of the game possess. This was quite the treat. Good work!
I feel guilty watching these videos for free. They simply have such a high production value.
Great work, keep it up
No need to feel guilty. Just go donate to his Patreon.
I did too, so much so that Face Full of Eyes is the only RUclips Channel I support on Patreon, even above all the other ones I watch. No pressure, of course, but it might be worth looking into if you want to support him.
It's not free. You're watching ads.
@@Retrohertz not with add block on
@@mistry6292 Okay. Other people are paying for you then, by watching ads. 😉
im replaying this game again with the elite force mod to remind myself where Ready Or Not got its inspiration from, and it reminded me why this game in particular is still my absolute favourite tactical shooter, because of the reasons you mentioned, but for me particularly, the act of killing is a conscious decision because you're always aware that killing is an option, not something you have to do
This game had always been at the very edge of my understanding, knowing it exists yet not much beyond that. Now I feel I've been missing out on a game I've wanted for years, as a fan of the original Ghost Recons, Rainbow Sixes, and SOCOMs and what have you. You've also made me excited for Ready Or Not, a game I had until now written off as just an aspiring Rainbow Six Siege clone. So thank you for expanding my horizons with another fantastic video.
Well, wasn't expecting another video from you, but this is a nice (after) Christmas gift!
You changed the mirror gun to show your latest video thumbnail. That is great attention to detail
Just messing around 😁
This is my favorite video of yours. It’s just so good.
Irrational made this game brimming with details and this guy here probably picked up all of them
Jedan od jacih videa bravo brte
The devs of Ready Or Not have a lot to learn
what's the environmental storytelling like now? I've heard really mixed things and it's hard to tell what is blind hating because new game bad and what is well meaning criticism
In my opinion it’s excellent. They’ve added a lot of incidental details, and there are micro-stories in pretty much every level. Ends Of The Earth legitimately made me tear up, and Elephant (the active shooter mission) is even more chilling. 911 calls are chilling, and the Evidence Locker adds additional context and human tragedy to many levels.
Frankly a lot of the complaining baffles me- 1.0 represented a massive jump in detail and quality, and as someone who played the shit out of 1.0 people who say the AI hasn’t been fixed have simply not been willing to take their time and engage with the game’s premise. Teammate AI was so improved in 1.0 that beta single player was like a different game.
Is it perfect? No. There are areas that could be improved- I think Void still hasn’t quite mastered use of suspect and teammate dialogue to the level SWAT 4 achieved, but they’re getting close. There are also a lot of unanswered questions about the overarching story. Occasionally AI can bug out. But all of these issues are being worked on despite a community that seems bizarrely negative to me.
I’m not a tactical shooter veteran and my aim is middling to potato, but I still S-ranked the campaign and am fighting my way through an Ironman run right now. I’ve racked up over 120 hours and expect many more. I’d definitely recommend it- I’d be happy to help you get to grips with the game in co-op too. IMO, Ready Or Not is a worthy successor and deserves to do well.
That clip at 1:13:58 might've been the most common occurrence in that level but carried so much weight in that section that its gonna be in my head for a while.
Your scriptwriting has become so much better, it's unreal. Everything is tight and focused, each topic flowing neatly into the next. And, of course, the editing is appropriately crisp. Your best one yet!
The peak experience of the game captured through all the aspects. It's not just gameplay, it's art. Very timely release with Ready Or Not hype, I never heard of SWAT 4.
When making accent on ambient sounds, please demonstrate them for few seconds please(actually there were really a lot in the second part of the video).
Not surprising since the average birth year of modern gamers is over 2006
@@kissaninja9700I was actually born early 2006! Grew up with strict religious parents as a child tho, so I never heard of it until I was 16-17
SWAT 4 is a pure and honest examination of humanity and you have done it great justice
You should definitely make an aesthetics of the Stalker series. One of the most thematically and atmospherically intriguing and unforgiving game series out there
This is a must watch for the devs of Ready or Not
Excitedly awaiting for the Aesthetics of Ready or Not (I kid but I would love a video about that as well some day!)
This really is a phenomenal video. Fairfax residence has lived rent free in my head since I played this game well over a decade ago
1:15:10 always cracks a smile to see Firewatch mentioned, recently just replayed it with developer commentary and boy oh boy it may just be one of my favorite dev-walkthroughs out there
33:48 that's a Gorillas palm, which follows the poaching theme of the area
Awesome review on probably one of the best games I've ever played! Just a little correction, the South Korean diplomat's bodyguards you mentioned did have a traitor. You are right that they were in a panicked fight-mode, but I noticed if you shout "police!" they usually comply, but there'll always be one guy who refuses and shoots on sight, that guy is the traitor. In fact the complying guards will always mention "Hope they (you and Element) get that traitor"
...and I was right. I played the game when I was a teen, I didnt notice all those nuances and storytelling cues left everywhere. Awesomely done video, I hope that ready or not will use as many of the narrative and exposition tools Swat 4 had !
Those videos are the definition of quality content. Observations going so in-depth that you could make a story out of anything. I feel like this is what RUclips was created for, and something that is so rare nowadays that you could consider this channel to be a true gem of the internet. I can easily day that one of the best things that ever happened to me while using this platform was encountering this channel.
Thank you
What a great coincidence that as I started playing Swat 4 this video showed up in my recommendations. This really makes me feel like I've just barely scratched the surface with what I've noticed in my playthrough.
The level of detail and thought and observation you put into these is so good. You are a phenomenal creator and I look forward to whatever you decided to do next.
I dont know if you will see this, but this is the best video put on youtube. I want you to know this video has gotten me through so much. I come back so often and I cant express how comforting you make your videos, especially this one. Masterpiece, thank you.
Thank you, I'm glad you like it so much, appreciate the comment!
I think what you brought up about psychology was fantastic. One favourite examples in a game I’ve played was weirdly enough in Titanfall, a game that is takes place mostly in a straight up death-match setting. Seeing and hearing the grunts stack up on doors, bark orders, banter to relieve tension, or run screaming from Titans and Spectres. Standing in your Titan in front of a grunt as they fire in futility and their rounds bounce harmlessly off your armour and shields will sometimes result in them dropping their gun and giving up. All of it helped make a 1v1 deathmatch feel more immersive than massive 32v32 multiplayer matches.
You're back ! Excited to dive into this one I have fond memories of this game.
PUT YOUR HANDS UP AND GET DOWN !
I was not expecting such a deep and intellectual dive into SWAT 4, I'm pleasantly surprised and I'll definitely watch your other videos!!
About to buy it and play through it all again.
This is a magnificent video essay, nice work.
As always, I'm thrilled to see that you've released new video! It's the exact moment when I know - next 1.5 hours will be spent seeing TOP_TIER cultural treasure. I want to wish you success in anything you start making, and thank you for your determined work in this kind of content. You're great!
Thank you for your kind words!
This was an amazing game, and still is
An absolute masterpiece.
I am so happy to see a video about SWAT 4 after such a long time. Still playing it along with 3 and PQ: SWAT 2 today.
Very impressive analysis, takes the topic seriously.
I keep coming back to this video. I love SWAT 4 and your analysis is absolutely impressive
Same!
So good. SWAT4 is one of my favourite games and you revealed so many details attracting me to this game that I didn't even realise in the first place. Professors of Media and Culture Studies at my university cannot present a case study more lucidly and comprehensively than you.
Crazy how good this video is, I was so invested from start to finish and learned so much
I absolutely love this video
So detailed, well edited and well written
I sleep to this video all the time because I find your voice relaxing to listen to
These essays are in a class of their own
Every time Face Full of Eyes uploads is a straight up holiday, each video is a masterpiece through and through.
I absolutely love your presentation, attention to detail, and takes. You are able to pick up on the little things that would never cross one’s mind and it’s amazing.
17 years later, and the horror of the tenement basement still sticks with me
I've never watched your stuff before but your descriptions and attention to detail during the Fairfax mission were incredible. Reminds me of how the narrator in Disco Elysium sets the scenes. Thank you for your efforts here.
THIS.
As someone who has only ever played this game on Elite or Hard, your comment about games as an experience rather than just a mechanical challenge really stuck with me, and inspired me to play through the campaign in a way I've never tried before. I lowered the difficulty to allow for some mistakes, and tried to play through the whole campaign with no (or at least minimal) deaths. It was a really incredible experience. Every shootout, every arrest, every step - every single moment was fraught with tension. Having to clear a room that couldn't be fully checked with the optiwand put me on edge more than any horror game I've ever played. Thank you so much for this video.
You may want to try SEF First Responders mod. It disabled optiwand to make the gameplay more realistic. It has also many quality improvements for a super intense experience
Incredible analysis and commentary, very thoughtful and in depth!
this video is a perfect breakdown of level design and world building. honestly this would be perfect for college and even university design courses. as someone who somehow managed to get a diploma in game and graphic design, this video does and amazing job of explaining how subtlety makes or breaks a games atmosphere. doesnt matter how pretty your models, textures and lighting is if your level is bland and feels dead an abandoned. if this wasnt for a college/ project then i dont know why you put so much effort and detail into this analysis but im so glad you did.
These videos are insane! The quality is amazing.
Oh yes, I've been waiting for this since the announcement on twitter. SWAT 4 is one of the best tactical games I've played in a while, and this video brings it justice.
Absolutely. One of the best tactical games of all time.
I'm glad I found this channel. Your choice of words with their dustings of poetry teamed with the way you look at media make for a really captivating watch.
Swat-4 is such a detailed environment game.When I first played the game.I look at thr environment for hours to see what it is about.Such a good game honestly.
the legend is back.
Keep up the amazing work, your honestly my favorite RUclipsr.
Guess I'm just gonna smoke this blunt I rolled all by my lonesome...
After re watching this for the 3rd time and knowing a few week ready or not getting another big update making me all the more making ready or not more of a ideal swat 4.
One of my game design teachers was one of the devs for this game, and one of the things he used to rave about alot in class was environmental storytelling. I really should tell him to show his own game when trying to make this point. Its absolutely littered with amazing examples.
Honestly one of the most intresting and best videos ive ever watched.
Instantly subcribed and bought the game.
What an incredible coincidence - I only just recently completed SWAT 4 after having played it many years ago without ever getting past the tenament level (due to being scared out of my mind). Your video essays are a real treat to watch, and encourage me to think more critically about the way in which we consume games today.
This video is so good I’ve watched it like 8 times over. Keep it up!
Absolutely fantastic deconstruction and review of all the elements that make SWAT 4 so immersive and interactive. I particularly like chapter seven as exhibiting what I consider to be the most important element of the game, the suspects themselves in all their variation, in well delivered commentary and it is followed up with the similarly excellent chapter on the voice acting. If only VOID understood the game as well as you've done here, then we might have had a better successor to this game than we do. A job well-done.
Thank you
Feels like much more of a complete package than Ready or Not. RoN feels unfinished presentation-wise. The lifeless police station is a good testament to that.
Man the amount of effort these devs put into it, what a legendary dev team.
Tony pfp based
thank you for this video, i remember this game when i was about 10 years old its one of the first game that really immersed me the environment made me scared so much and yet so fascinated at the same time, it was unlike any other fps game i played
I knew this game before, but never was aware of the level of detail it has, both in mechanical level and level design. This is the kind of "review" that actually makes me want to play a game, the level of analysis that I wish I had when talking about a game I like. Can't wait to play this game.
Another great video, me and my friends have been playing Ready or Not since it went up on steam and we played SWAT 4 before that, I've got a lot or respect for both with how they're willing to portray the rigors and violence of tactical police work. With how suspects react, the only games I can compare them to are something like Halo, since the Covenant act like a foe who has some capacity to defeat you instead of just running into your bullets. It's different of course but I think they accomplish the same idea, selling the player on them being real sentient beings who can pose a threat. I think mechanically Ready or Not is already on par with SWAT 4 (aside from the AI's pinpoint accuracy and animations, a problem the devs have already mentioned is in the process of being fixed).
holy shit you're back again and now you're covering one of the games i love the most from my childhood next to san andreas and the burnout series
i couldn't ask for a better semi-late-christmas gift than this
merry christmas man, i can't wait to see what you do next year!
Thank you!
Stopped pretty short way into the video. I need to play this first, you've already delivered what makes it great so well to me in the first 20 minutes.
Another really strong entry in the aesthetics series, happy holidays!
Thank you! To you as well!