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New Takedown Trailer Reminds Us of Classic Rainbow Six and SWAT

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  • New Takedown Trailer Reminds Us of Classic Rainbow Six and SWAT

    Most of you may have no idea about the original Rainbow Six or SWAT titles that were released. They were challenging, offered no reprieve if you screwed up, and included a very robust planning stage. A new trailer for Takedown: Red Sabre from 505 Games and Serellan certainly looks like a great throwback to the classic tactical games of yesteryear.

    TAKEDOWN: Red Sabre is a deadly tactical shooter that is perfect for the player who chooses to engage in deliberate and methodical gameplay as opposed to gamers who want to run in with guns blazing. Gamers experience lethal, close-quarters battles as a member of the elite Red Sabre team and each scenario is designed to emulate the tactics employed by SWAT teams and SOF units in taking down small numbers of dangerous adversaries. Non-linear environments allow for multiple routes, tactics and added replayability. TAKEDOWN: Red Sabre is in development by Serellan, a team of veteran developers who have worked on acclaimed titles in the Ghost Recon, Halo, SOCOM, SWAT and F.E.A.R. franchises. The team is led by Christian Allen, the former creative director of the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon franchise.

    If you pre-order the game you also unlock the Red Sabre Deadly Killhouse, which is a single-player Tango Hunt map crafted by Christian Allen. The game will be released this September for just $14.99 (USD) and can be pre-ordered through Steam. The game is being developed by a super small group of just 15 people.

  • #2
    I'm glad you didn't say DLC Zips, because that was a Steam template mistake. Mr. Allen had to quickly mention in the forums that the Killhouse "DLC" is actually an unlockable. Yes, an UNLOCKABLE. Those things still exist apparently. So if I'm understanding Mr. Allen correctly, eventually everyone should get the Killhouse map regardless of whether of not they pre-ordered it.

    Fun facts: The voice actor for the Scout in TF2 works at Serellan. Small world. Also, the whole company at Serellan is fully aware that Red Sabre in the title is green, but won't explain it; least the patches on the uniforms are red.

    Spoiler: 
    As someone who plays the Rainbow Six and SWAT series (including the N64 version of R6 and uses the pre-mission planning), I've been following this title very closely since the Kickstarter campaign. These are the guys who believe in three things: Transparency and honesty (similar to Unknown Worlds Entertainment's "open the kimono" style), gaming nights with the community (Rogue Spear, so these guys are hardcore), and cameos of snowmen and bears. The things I like about them the most is how they share how the Kickstarter money was spent through photos of their tiny cramped office, and how they're willing to risk everything on a niche audience, as they focus on the hardcore gamers of the previous generation, instead of making it accessible to all audiences and slightly disappointing everyone in the process.

    Did I mention Mr. Allen posts in the forums on a nightly basis? He's that reachable. Please please please make this game a success and buy it. Rainbow Six has been so derailed into an action shooter (I have blind fired and killed 8 terrorists in a row in Terrorist Hunt in Vegas 2, let that sink in), and SWAT left the PC to become some weird version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown that I can't find a similar experience anymore (I'm also a non-lethal player who prefers to arrest over kill). Heck I had more fun with the original SWAT game than these modern tactical shooters, and that was a Police Quest point-and-click spinoff with live-action video clips.

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    • #3
      Don't worry K-16, I'm considering this highly. I need to see its system requirements, maybe I could be able to play it even now if I had money.

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      • #4
        Thanks. Funny how you mentioned the system requirements. Initially it involved awkwardly named hardware such as "Processor: 3.2GHz Power PC Tri Core Xenon" and "Graphics: 500 MHz ATI Xenos." Thankfully Mr. Allen quickly changed that to 2 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 3 GB HD, and a Shader Model 3.0 video card. Heck it still supports Windows XP SP3 (32-bit only, though Windows 7 64-bit is supported) and Direct X 9. Basically if your computer can run Unreal Engine 3, you'll be fine. I should also mention the game is moddable using UDK, especially the Killhouse map.

        Oh and whoever read the spoiler wall of text (which wasn't a spoiler, just me whining), I should mention that SWAT 2 was an isometric strategy game similar to XCOM, so the other games that weren't SWAT 1, 3, and 4 were basically a return to SWAT 2's style of gameplay. By all means, it's more popular than SWAT 1, but as a personal choice SWAT 1 is my cup of tea. Still, SWAT 3 and 4 were the best in the series of all-time; there really is no game that combines co-op first-person shooting with strict rules of engagement for a challenging, yet satisfying experience. While I doubt Takedown: Red Sabre has non-lethal weapons to avoid killing tangos, I do believe this is the next closest thing I can get to having a tactical shooter experience without resorting to pulling out an old game and finding people to play it with. It's also our one and only shot to revive a dead genre and make publishers more open-minded to these niche audiences. I mean, Rainbow Six sure as heck isn't going to do it if they're still following the Patriots direction (which we won't find out until the next-gen consoles are out).

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        • #5
          Yeah saw them, wasn't too steep. Hopefully an AMD 1.9ghz quad core APU can run it.

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          • #6
            Rather than shooting yourself in the foot and impulse buying for something that may not run, simply check the list and see if you've played any of these games on PC. Takedown doesn't really look very beautiful so it's not really pushing the engine's full potential, thus if you've played games like Bioshock Infinite or Borderlands 1/2 on PC, you'll have no problems with Takedown, which is easier on the computer in comparison. For instance, they avoided things like picture-in-picture and split-screen as it involves rendering the screen twice and using more memory budget as they call it. It's meant to be as accessible to lower-end computers as Unreal Engine 3 allows it (honestly, I think Vegas 2 uses more advanced graphical features than Takedown and that was 2008).

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            • #7
              I really enjoyed Swat 4 single player back in the day.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by K-16 View Post
                Rather than shooting yourself in the foot and impulse buying for something that may not run, simply check the list and see if you've played any of these games on PC. Takedown doesn't really look very beautiful so it's not really pushing the engine's full potential, thus if you've played games like Bioshock Infinite or Borderlands 1/2 on PC, you'll have no problems with Takedown, which is easier on the computer in comparison. For instance, they avoided things like picture-in-picture and split-screen as it involves rendering the screen twice and using more memory budget as they call it. It's meant to be as accessible to lower-end computers as Unreal Engine 3 allows it (honestly, I think Vegas 2 uses more advanced graphical features than Takedown and that was 2008).
                I have played Spec ops: The line and The singleplayer of MoH:2010 actually. May work.

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                • #9
                  I checked the two games. Aside from using the same core engine (as you already implied), they also contain very similar requirements so this looks very promising (strange, I thought Spec Ops would've asked for higher requirements). I'd say you're ready for Takedown: Red Sabre without any need for upgrades. Welcome back to the return of tactical shooters.

                  Stilla-killa: I personally prefer multiplayer with non-lethal teammates, because the singleplayer AI are too retarded to protect you, though it is nice to be able to have the hacked in PIP sniper support (with their stupid inside joke of Sierra 1 and 2). I've actually seen my whole team killed because all they did was stand still, begin a staring contest, and shout to cease and desist while the tangos casually shot them in response.

                  The only real benefit to singleplayer was expanded grenades (since you control when they throw them), and Irrational Games' dumb decision to make the physics of mission critical items client-side. What I mean is there have been more than several instances where the mission is impossible to complete, because I don't know where the evidence bounced off to since my computer is telling me the wrong location (while my screen tells me it's on a table, my friend needs to guide me to the invisible item on the floor half a meter away from the table, since he had the "correct data," but he's dead and can't pick it up himself).

                  Another fun fact: Ken Levine/Irrational Games almost made a Left 4 Dead like mod to SWAT 4 as well, but their publisher said they wanted a sequel to SWAT 4 which meant zombies would not fit a tactical shooter genre, and so it was rejected. So they decided to abandon SWAT completely and moved on to BioShock and BioShock: Infinite... Go figure.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by K-16 View Post
                    Another fun fact: Ken Levine/Irrational Games almost made a Left 4 Dead like mod to SWAT 4 as well, but their publisher said they wanted a sequel to SWAT 4 which meant zombies would not fit a tactical shooter genre, and so it was rejected. So they decided to abandon SWAT completely and moved on to BioShock and BioShock: Infinite... Go figure.
                    So wait, would it have been like DayZ 4 Dead then? Even Before Day Z came out I always had an idea to have a Tactical shooter or Military Simulator engine be used as a Zombie game, with the limits on players those types of games have.

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                    • #11
                      Pretty much, if you mean "the limits on players those types of games have" are in regards to making a zombie mod out of most of the gameplay mechanics of the original game it's being made on. Just keep in mind there are no elements of Day Z whatsoever in SWAT 4's zombie mod (also known as Division 9).

                      Smaller scale to fit SWAT 4's gameplay. No open world (though map sizes would be expanded to have open areas), no crafting, non-lethal options available which is weird and dumb (such as a flashbang noisemaker thingie before L4D's pipe bombs existed), permadeath (including being infected), etc. I don't remember Vivendi ever warming up to this idea, since they wanted a SWAT sequel, but Shawn Elliot says otherwise.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by K-16 View Post
                        Pretty much, if you mean "the limits on players those types of games have" are in regards to making a zombie mod out of most of the gameplay mechanics of the original game it's being made on. Just keep in mind there are no elements of Day Z whatsoever in SWAT 4's zombie mod (also known as Division 9).

                        Smaller scale to fit SWAT 4's gameplay. No open world (though map sizes would be expanded to have open areas), no crafting, non-lethal options available which is weird and dumb (such as a flashbang noisemaker thingie before L4D's pipe bombs existed), permadeath (including being infected), etc. I don't remember Vivendi ever warming up to this idea, since they wanted a SWAT sequel, but Shawn Elliot says otherwise.
                        That sounds like it would have been interesting, even on the forefront of things. Sounds disappointing that it didn't get released.

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                        • #13
                          I wouldn't be. We got Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, and Call of Duty (Zombies). Division 9 was naturally too slow and tactical for any of this to make sense, and any major refinements from its original infancy would end up being some kind of variation between those three games anyways. If we didn't already have those better alternatives, Ken Levine would've resurrected the project after BioShock 1; he'd still abandon SWAT though, given how Vivendi owns the rights to that (at the time that is, since the rights now belong to Activision/Blizzard and we know their stance on shooters). Yes, I know Day Z (and The War Z if it was developed properly) is a slow, tactical game for proper survival, but I doubt Division 9's scope was that large to incorporate world exploration and massive multiplayer to appropriate slower gameplay.

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by K-16 View Post
                            I wouldn't be. We got Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, and Call of Duty (Zombies). Division 9 was naturally too slow and tactical for any of this to make sense, and any major refinements from its original infancy would end up being some kind of variation between those three games anyways. If we didn't already have those better alternatives, Ken Levine would've resurrected the project after BioShock 1; he'd still abandon SWAT though, given how Vivendi owns the rights to that (at the time that is, since the rights now belong to Activision/Blizzard and we know their stance on shooters). Yes, I know Day Z (and The War Z if it was developed properly) is a slow, tactical game for proper survival, but I doubt Division 9's scope was that large to incorporate world exploration and massive multiplayer to appropriate slower gameplay.
                            I guess, but a smaller-scale game would still be cool. Wonder if there was a mod made in that respect... but I don't know if SWAT4 had modding capability.

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                            • #15
                              It did. Tools were limited and didn't really support Total Conversions though. Pretty much all of them were still stuck as a tactical shooter. It would be a lot of work to change the AI and animations to act more like zombies using unarmed combat. On the other hand, Half-Life has plenty of smaller-scale games to choose from. But if you really want a zombie game using tactical shooter mechanics and force it to work (isn't Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City a tactical shooter?), then... Make it for Takedown: Red Sabre. Serellan supports modding through the UDK, and that should be robust enough to make Total Conversions. Not sure what UDK's scripting limitations are though.

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