Police Quest: SWAT 2

Police Quest: SWAT 2 (1998) is the sixth game in the Police Quest series (and the second game in the SWAT series). It is an isometric view, squad-level RTT game in the mold of the classic X-Com or Jagged Alliance games. The game takes place in real-time, with the player issuing orders to individual SWAT team members from a three-quarter overhead view of the level. It was the sixth and last game of the Police Quest series. Later SWAT games dropped the Police Quest title turning SWAT into a spin-off series.

Many of the game's missions were based on real life events, such as the North Hollywood shootout, and a small scale riot that can be seen as a parallel to the L.A. riots that followed the Rodney King incident.

The game was later rereleased under Police Quest: SWAT Generation collection (with SWAT and SWAT 3).

Early releases of the game were listed as Police Quest 6 (PQ6) in the file names and folders. The number does not appear on the title screen.

Plot
The game's story revolves around a conflict between SWAT and a fictional emerging left-wing domestic terrorist group called "the Five Eyes".

As an homage, Sonny Bonds, the protagonist of the original Police Quest series, is one of the SWAT officers available for the player to send into missions during the SWAT campaign. Sonny's high initial stats — some of the best in the game — allow him to become certified as an element leader.

Game Play
The game features two separate campaigns, one in which the player control SWAT and another in which the player take the role of a lieutenant in the Five Eyes terrorist organization.

The player assumes the role of Police Chief John De Souza, and direct control of the SWAT Elements on the mission map. He’s aided on site by the CNT negotiator Sgt. Michael Alvarez. At the end of a mission, the player is debriefed by Sgt. Griffin Markossian. The Five Eyes is controlled by Basho, a high-ranking officer in the Council of the Five Eyes. Basho provides all briefings via a TV screen. Basho’s right hand man is Dante, a self-proclaimed Bellwether of the Second Order. As a terrorist there’s no specific persona the Player assumes. Instead they merely control all terrorist units during a mission. The game play in the Five Eyes scenario is slightly different, as members have to be recruited instead of being readily available, and killing a hostage (in lieu of capturing a suspect) is acceptable and encouraged.

The weapons are also different, but still have the same purpose, such as the terrorists' primary automatic weapon being the LR 300 instead of SWAT's MP5A2.

With much more positive reviews than the previous two games, it still had several flaws, such as the overly complicated interface and imperfect AI, and a simple trick of selling the sidearms of unused characters that allowed players to ignore the budgeting aspect of the game.

There are 30 missions in total, fifteen each for SWAT players and for the Five Eyes scenario. They are independent storylines and neither affects the game of the other. Both scenarios can be played from the start of the game, simply by selecting the option at the New Solo Game interface window. The terrorist missions have a similar interface, though with fewer options and the basic premise is comparable. One important feature is often a mission may come to an end when all police are killed. This may or may not be favorable depending on how many mission objectives have been completed.

The first two missions in both scenarios are training missions. Subsequent missions greatly impact the budget (see above), and outright failure in certain missions may end the campaign altogether.

SWAT Single Player Missions
As in the case for both scenarios, the two initial missions are meant for training but the game acts as if they are real, with real world consequences. Meaning police who misuse their weapons are suspended and terrorists captured by police are arrested.

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