Police Quest: SWAT 2

Police Quest is one of Sierra's longest running series, the most recent instalment being SWAT, which put the player in charge of a special weapons and tactics platoon. This now appears to have spawned a series of its own, with SWAT2 set to hit the shelves in October.

The original SWAT relied heavily on live action footage which, although visually impressive, inevitably meant limited gameplay. SWAT 2 represents a complete turnaround in gaming ethos, eschewing the perceived realism of its predecessor in favour of a more open-ended and hopefully more playable game.

With a Windows-based interface, SWAT2 now employs a three-quarter perspective, top-down environment with a resizable scrolling field of play. The obvious reference point is Command & Conquer, although the scenarios are far more delicate than requiring you to just kill everything on sight.

The 15 missions are as disparate as they are desperate, with the term 'life and death situation' proving more than an idle boast - anyone familiar with the television programme Cops will immediately feel at home. Take for instance the charming domestic scene of a despondent father who fights with his wife and wounds her: she runs out of the house, leaving behind their three year old, whom the father then takes hostage. There's also a violent bank robbery (much like the recent one in north Hollywood), with the SWAT team arriving while the robbery is in progress, Reservoir Dogs-style. One of the game's more bizarre scenarios to be faithfully replicated is based on the true story of Rainbow Man, a clearly disturbed man who checks into the Hyatt Hotel next to the airport and takes pot shots at aeroplanes on the runway, all the while listening to pounding heavy metal. A further scenario has the SWAT team called out to a trailer park where they have to negotiate the artificial plants and pink flamingos before taking out a gun-toting hick.

Again produced with the help of police chief Daryl F Gates, SWAT 2 could well turn out to be a game well worth spending some serious time with.