So I Tried... SWAT 3

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the PC version of SWAT 3.

What I thought it was

An older game where you control a team of SWAT against crooks, villains and ne'er-do-wells. I’m guessing FPS, but I haven’t checked the screenshots. I’m trying to go into these a little less informed, though I suppose it leaves these sections a little blank when I do… Cops and robbers, before I assume Rainbow Six did it better. After all, SWAT isn’t a franchise anymore, is it?

What it actually is

A team-based FPS from 2001, with average graphics. Oh, the United Nations were going to abolish nuclear arms as of 2005, according to this! Hah! But yes, the opening spiel talks of how the country needs to be calm whilst these UN discussions go on, which apparently means that SWAT has 7 days to stop crime. Yes, all crime.
You’re given various missions which involve you going into places to arrest dangerous criminals. Snipers, bombers, blah, blah… Okay, so I only played the two missions… Various weapons and items such as breaching charges, a mirror to look around corners, a multitool and such.

Will I keep playing

No, I won’t… There was no tutorial of any sort in the campaign, which meant I wound up failing objectives, despite stopping the sniper and finding the weapon, then stopping the bomber and his accomplice. I didn’t even shoot the first guy! Commanding the other members of the team is easy enough, with the number keys assigned to issuing all of the commands. You can do it solo, but as I couldn’t work out how to open the door without using a breaching charge, I could not. The handling is fine, the character models are good - but I don’t have the patience to learn how to control a game that doesn’t open the door when I press every single button.