The Stetchkov Syndicate’s additional weapons, aggressive suspects, and new multiplayer mode breathe new life into an already great tactical shooter.

“This expansion to Vivendi’s tactical shooter makes some great enhancements to multiplayer but is a little thin on new content.” -Yahoo! Video Games

While it was great fun while it lasted it felt a bit short and a little by numbers.

For instance while the new levels and such were welcome, I felt there was very little difference between this and the actual stand alone pack. With some half hearted story line tacked on about some Russian crime family and such.

Apart from the length everything else is great, the game is highly polished and the levels are extremely well designed with many nice touches made to the gameplay such as the other swat members dialouge during some instances in the levels and such.

Elements are easy enough to control; orders are straightforward and simply executed. However many times your boys will just drop the ball. The AI constantly does things like stand in the middle of a door to mirror the room (often fatal), or drop flash bangs right on the door threshold (occasionally missing the opening completely, and landing behind your team) which does little in areas larger than a prison cell. The ability to queue said commands for your element or red/blue teams was a welcome change, but not very solidly implemented.

What I want is complete control of a scenario. If I want my boys entering from a helicopter, done. If I want to try to negotiate first, great. If I want to deploy sniper teams, and use them as a tactical asset, super. I want to have to deal with Stockholm syndrome (hostages siding with their captors). Enough of this linear design.
Being the greedy man that I am, I also want to feel apart of the actual police force. It would be great to have to earn your place as element lead. Or have to qualify with your weapons, and participate in clearing exercises. Maybe I could earn attribute points, so I wouldn’t have to deal with the ridiculous aiming system for the whole game? There are so many ways this title could be improved, I can’t help but feel cheated.

About this game

Your team’s got powerful new weapons and equipment. You’re gonna need them. The Stetchkov Syndicate is putting big guns in the wrong hands. But now you’ve got bigger guns in yours-along with upgraded equipment. Real-time voice communication tightens coordination in multiplayer. Co-op multiplayer teams can now be up to 10-players. Whether you’re online or on your own in single player, you must employ all the SWAT tactics you know to bring down this deadly new menace.