Hands on with SWAT: Target Liberty

Sierra's SWAT team may have liberty in its sights, but it also has PSP firmly targeted. One of two handheld iterations planned for the elite police series, SWAT: Target Liberty aims for a unique style of play on Sony's handheld, as we witnessed at the recent Sony Gamers' Day.

Target Liberty takes an isometric perspective for its portable debut, enabling you to control the leader of a small three-member squad. You can issue orders to your two subordinates via a cursor, and sophisticated cooperative intelligence also enables them to behave in accordance with your actions. Equip a shotgun, for example, and they'll follow suit. You always act as the point man when infiltrating an area, with your subordinates following your lead.

The single-player campaign is the focus of the game, featuring a dozen missions set in New York City, while a story written by Scott Rosenbaum, executive producer of FX's popular US cop TV drama, The Shield, ties them together.

A number of different locations are promised, two levels of which were playable at the press event: Subway and DHS Distribution Center.

We tackled Subway first, a mission that stems from reports of Korean gangs opening fire deep within the metro transit system. Descending down into the subway tunnels using the analog stick to move our officer, we encountered a transit worker who provided information on how to get through to the gangs. Once contact had been made with the perpetrators, there was the option of detaining them or opening fire. In perhaps too rash a move for a real SWAT officer, we gunned down the Korean gang members while our teammates watched (presumably in shocked disbelief).

When encountering suspects, tapping the X button fires your weapon. Contextual actions, such as restraining with handcuffs or interrogation, are done individually by pressing Circle. Whenever you want your entire squad to perform an action, you can hit Square. A number of other functions are mapped to the D-pad and shoulder triggers.

Additionally, the actions available via the face buttons often change based on the situation. The sheer number of actions available and general unintuitive nature of the controls made it pretty difficult to jump in and play – this is a game that will require a significant time investment with regards to familiarity.

The second mission we played, DHS Distribution Center, required securing a warehouse which a gang had infiltrated to claim a stash of weapons illegally shipped in from abroad. Not too different from our earlier descent into the subway system, the level involved safely extracting hostages (of which there were many in the DHS center) and neutralizing gang members.

Along with the campaign, a team-based multiplayer mode is being worked on for up to four players. Randomly generated maps should do much to mix up the action, and should hopefully counter the seeming lack of other multiplayer options.

While we have concerns regarding how much longevity SWAT: Target Liberty may offer, given the short campaign and solo multiplayer modes, we're reassured by the fact it seems set to at least deliver consistently solid gameplay. It's also entirely possible that later missions become increasingly lengthier than the two we were able to try out, of course.

Clearly, we'll reserve a definitive assessment until review time. Slated for a US release this autumn, we hope to hear the sirens of the SWAT van in Europe soon thereafter. Click 'Track It!' to initiate your own surveillance.