Did you know that as well as a games, music and pointless-format movie player, the PSP also works as a time machine? Or so it seems when you're playing SWAT: Team Liberty. Boot up this game and you too can journey back, way back, to a time when it was okay for videogame characters to be implausibly stupid, capable of saying only three different things, and called names like Kurt Wolfe. Unfortunately it's 2007, and these sorts of things are not okay any more, and SWAT: Team Liberty is not much fun at all.You'll probably be familiar with the SWAT games as a series of PC first-person shooters. The first PSP instalment, however, is a tactical squad-based game with a top-down perspective. It stars the aforementioned Kurt Wolfe, who becomes embroiled in some rubbishy old plot about Korean gangsters and nuclear weapons. This is explained via sub-PSone cut-scenes featuring characters who talk without opening their mouths.

SWAT: Target Liberty is a top-down tactical shooter (think Killzone: Liberation). You play the role of SWAT Leader Kurt Wolfe, called in to command a three-man SWAT team in an effort to diffuse an ongoing conflict between two rival Korean gangs, the Jopoks and Gangpehs, currently wreaking havoc across New York City.

At least you can skip them.Kurt is accompanied on his adventures by a couple of team-mates. They have nicknames like Python and Hollywood, and specialist skills like interrogation, intimidation and observation. At the start of each mission you can choose which SWAT operatives make up the team, according to what skills will be needed and your particular approach to defeating the Korean gangster-related nuclear threat.That's the theory, anyway. In practice it doesn't seem to make much difference which men you pick. Or which weapons you equip them with.

Or which of their skills you choose to build up, using the experience points you earn for subduing rather than shooting enemies. Regardless of the decisions you make, all the levels tend to play out the same way. Wolfe whistling Kurt wears a hat like Benny out of Crossroads.

Which sort of spoils the whole look.They go a little something like this. You lead the way through interminably grey environments, frustrated by the fact that even when 'running' Kurt moves at an extremely slow pace. As do your team-mates.

They're easily distracted and sometimes, when there's been a bit of action, they'll forget to follow you. You'll need to press the square button to make them 'fall in', and they'll respond with one of three stock responses about having your 'back'. Then you'll need to wait while they wander, extremely slowly, to your position.As you and the team amble about you'll come across enemies to try to subdue or shoot. Subduing is preferable if you care about experience points.

It has they advantage of allowing you to interrogate suspects so they give you useful information. They'll just say things like, 'The Gangpeh are a joke and will never command the same respect that we have.' Righto.It's altogether less tedious to take the shooty approach, despite a confusing context-sensitive targeting system.

You can switch between enemies by holding down L and pressing the various shape buttons. This is fiddly when you're being fired at though, and you'll most likely end up blamming away wildly while your team-mates, who are decent marksmen, do most of the work.In fact you can make your team-mates do most of the work most of the time, if you feel like it. In the tutorial, there's a load of gubbins about entering rooms with caution and looking under doors with mirrors and using flash grenades to confuse enemies and so on. In-game, it's often easier just to open a door and send your pals in to sort things out while you retreat to safety.You can get quite far in the earlier levels simply by walking on through room after room, leaving the rest of the squad to follow you and take out gangsters in your wake. It helps that enemies are spectacularly stupid and won't see you until you're just feet away or, in some cases, won't start shooting till you've walked past them. Taking liberties Grey, grey, grey. They say it's New York, but it might as well be Orpington.A pattern quickly emerges: enter room, shoot things, restrain any surviving baddies, continue to next room, repeat.

The whole squad-based thing doesn't work very well, and not just because your squad will often hang around having a lovely chat instead of keeping up with you.Your team-mates are good at shooting people, but they'll do this without you having to tell them to anyway. You can get them to restrain or interrogate suspects for you, but commands are context-sensitive so you have to be next to the suspect to issue the order; if you want something doing you might as well do it yourself.The game doesn't look too good either. Everything is so grey you wonder if they're trying to start a new trend and whether brown videogames will be a thing of the past come spring Y2K8.

You and your SWAT pals are also grey, and far too tiny. It all feels like you're manouevring a team of very slow, armed ants across a series of car parks.In short, there's not much to like about SWAT: Target Liberty.

The squad-based mechanic is imbalanced. The levelling-up and weapon selection systems don't have significant effects on how things play out. The plot is silly, the cut-scenes are rubbish and everything's so small it makes your eyes hurt. Unless you live in 1992, this game is highly likely to disappoint.4/10.

'SWAT: Target Liberty' (PSP) - Weapons List

by Judy on Sept. 17, 2007 @ 11:24 a.m. PDT

SWAT PSP is built upon the classic and highly acclaimed SWAT franchise. Penned by script writer Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield), SWAT: Target Liberty is set in New York City where the SWAT team is tasked with thwarting an ever increasing number of international terrorist threats. Players will take on the role of Kurt Wolfe and his New York City SWAT Team in the only true Tactical Squad-Based Shooter on the PSP. Life and death decisions is the norm faced everyday by real-life SWAT teams and gamers are faced with an elite terrorist group that is planning to detonate a nuclear weapon in New York City.

SG551 SWAT

• Caliber - 5.56mm (.223 Rem.)
• Weight (Empty) - 7.5 lbs
• Length - 36.4'
• Cyclic Rate - approx 700 rpm
• Magazine Capacity - 30
• Standard issue for this SWAT team, good accuracy, with an average rate of fire.

SG552 Commando

• Caliber - 5.56mm (.223 Rem.)
• Weight (Empty) - 7.05 lbs
• Length - 28.74'
• Cyclic Rate - approx. 720 rpm
• Magazine Capacity - 30
• Upgrade from the SG551 has a higher rate of fire and does more damage per round.

FnH P90

• Caliber - 5.7x28mm
• Weight (Empty) - 6.0 lbs
• Length - 19.7'
• Cyclic Rate - approx 900 rpm
• Magazine Capacity – 50
• The FnH series has a larger clip size and faster fire rate than the SG series but is less accurate overall.

FnH F2000

• Caliber - 223 Rem. (5.56x45mm NATO)
• Weight (Empty) - 7.95 lbs
• Length - 27.32'
• Cyclic Rate - approx. 850 rpm
• Magazine Capacity – 50
• Upgrade from the FnHP90 does more damage and has slightly less recoil.

Benelli NovaPump

• Weight - 7.2 lbs
• Length - 40'
• Magazine Capacity - 7 + 1
• Lightweight, high damage, close quarters weapon.

Benelli M4 Super90

• Weight - 7.2lbs
• Length - 45.6'
• Magazine Capacity - 7 + 1
• Upgrade from Nova Pump with increased damage per shell with less recoil.

Benelli M2 Tactical - LTL

• Weight - 6.7lbs
• Length - 39.75'
• Magazine Capacity - 7 + 1
• Fires less than lethal 'beanbag' ammunition designed to incapacitate or knock out its target.

Benelli SuperNova Tactical - LTL

• Weight - 7.8lbs
• Length - 40'
• Magazine Capacity - 7 + 1
• Upgrade for the M2 Tactical LTL; fired rounds are more effective, and have less recoil.

FnH FN 303

• Caliber - .68 FN303 Airbank projectile rounds
• Weight - 5 lbs
• Length - 29'
• Magazine Capacity – 110
• Delivers a debilitating chemical agent from a distance, in a manner similar to a paintball gun.

FnH FN 303 Modified

• Caliber - .68 FN303 Airbank projectile rounds
• Weight - 5 lbs
• Length - 29'
• Magazine Capacity - 160
• Upgrade from 303, has larger hopper, automatic fire mode and longer range.

Stingray

• Max. Range - 20'
• Voltage - 200 kV
• Magazine Capacity - 4
• Stops suspects by shutting down muscular system using electric pulses delivered via projectile delivered wires.

Stingray SI

• Max. Range - 30'
• Voltage - 300 kV
• Magazine Capacity - 4
• Upgrade from stingray, has greater range

Sig Sauer SP2022

• Caliber - 9mm Para
• Weight - 26.81 oz
• Length - 7.36'
• Magazine Capacity – 15
• Standard issue secondary weapon has fast rate of fire, a large clip, and average damage.

Sig Sauer P226

• Caliber - 9mm Para
• Weight - 30.69 oz.
• Length - 7.72'
• Magazine Capacity - 15
• Upgrade from SP2022 with a faster rate of fire, and a slight increase in accuracy.

FnH HP-SFS

• Caliber - 9mm Luger (9x19mm NATO)
• Weight (Empty) - 32 oz.
• Lentgh - 7.9'
• Magazine Capacity - 10
• The FnH pistols do more damage and are more accurate, but have a smaller clip and slower rate of fire than the Sig Sauer models.

FnH FNP-9M

• Caliber - .45 ACP
• Weight - 1.55lbs
• Length - 7.06'
• Magazine Capacity – 10
• Upgrade from HP-SFS that deals more damage and is slightly more accurate.

Flashbang

• 1,000,000 cd
• 170-180 dB SPL
• Short employment of range grenade

C2 Doorcharge

• Detonation Range - Approx. 26,400 ft/s
• Breaching charge

CS Gas

• Density - 1.04g/cm3
• Grenade Weight - 6oz.
• Disperse Radius - Approx.
• 23,000 ft3/min
• Used for temporary incapacitation