Download SWIV 3D

Blue Thunder and Airwolf.. what do these shows have in common? Well, a few things. For a start, they were all made in the eighties. Secondly, they were both about people zipping about in well armed helicopters, taking out criminals. And finally, despite the current Hollywood trend of converting old shows to the big screen, they have yet to have movie versions made of them. Why is this?

Admittedly, Airwolf was pretty cliched, each episode being more or less a carbon copy of the last one, usually involving international terrorists, Russians, or both. Airwolf definitely had a high 'anti-ruskie' factor. And the special effects were more than a tad dodgy. And so was the plot; this bloke's brother was missing, and he refused to give back Airwolf, the big helicopter, till the government found him. All it needs is a good scriptwriter, a massive budget, loads of gratuitous explosions, and a star, and hey presto, you've got an instant hit. They certainly shouldn't have any problems with slaughtering the premise; just look what happened with Mission Impossible.

But what does all this have to do with SWIV 3D, the latest game from S.C.I.? Well, not all that much. Except that in SWIV 3D, you fly a heavily armed helicopter, a little like those in the aformentioned eighties series, as you blast your way through a number of hostile territories. You see, SWIV 3D is no sim; there's no fuel level to watch, no throttle to fiddle with, just pure blasting action. And why? I'm afraid you've got me there.

SWIV 3D isn't exactly strong plot-wise. There's about 10 lines about the plot, and that's it.. I couldn't make head or tail of it, myself. Something about blasting rebels. Except that later missions take place on Mars.. alien rebels, perhaps? Anyway, you're not exactly going to be communicating with the bad guys. And just to make sure you've got enough firepower, you also have access to a jeep, though you can't use both of them at the same time. Which is just as well. I'd probably manage to blow the jeep up with the helicopter, or vice versa.

SWIV 3D is a follow up to SWIV which hit the Amiga a few years back; a top-down shoot-em-up which had you blasting your way through several levels of aliens, usually watching your efforts go down the toilet as the end of level boss blew you apart. And with SWIV 3D ,SCI have turned the game on its head, and kicked it into touch for the PC market.

Instead of the top down view of the the original, you get a proper 3D view, from behind whichever vehicle you are controlling, which looks damn good. And you're no longer stuck with flying one way, towards a fiery death. You can now roam all around a 3D landscape, in whichever direction you want. Imagine Magic Carpet with missiles, and you have some idea of what SWIV 3D is like. To complicate things, it's no longer a case of mindlessly blasting whatever comes towards you, and trying to survive till the end of the level. You now have a number of objectives which must be completed. These are mainly of the 'seek and destroy' variety, which have you nipping around the landscape, taking out an enemy installation, before flying off to your next objective. A compass is provided, which automatically points to the direction of the next objective, avoiding any embarassing 'stopping and asking for directions' situations.

In SWIV, you picked whether you wanted the helicopter or the jeep at the beginning of the game, and then you were stuck with that throughout the game. In SWIV 3D, you change modes of transport throughout the game; you start off in either the helicopter or the jeep, and there's usually a point somewhere on the level where you can change over to the other means of transport. This adds a tiny bit of strategy to the game, though not enough to deter shoot-em-up freaks. The helicopter is fast, with a wide turning circle, and can move from side to side, to avoid incoming missiles. This means you can usually get away with flying over a base, letting lose your weapons, and zooming over a hill before the enemy can retaliate. If you're in the jeep, you have to use different tactics; the jeep isn't very good at climbing big hills, and can't dodge; you have to make damn sure you take out the missle launchers before you try to destroy a base. You usually end up circling the base, blasting the guns, before moving in closer to take out the objective. This is definitely a good thing; it makes you think just that little bit.

However, there is one related gripe I have, and this is the only thing I could find wrong with the whole game; the helicopter and the jeep share the same shields. What this means, is that if you have about one point of energy left in the jeep, and you switch to the helicopter, you've still only got one point of energy left, and one hit will be enough to take you down. If there had been different shields for each craft, it would have given you a reason to change craft, till you could find more energy. It's not all that annoying, though. To make things a little easier, there's the obligatory selection of weapons to pick up. These include homing missiles, smart bombs, napalm, power-ups, and a smart bomb. The latter unleashes a nuclear explosion, which sends a shockwave across the ground, taking out most things in its way. Except you. And you can take weapons from one level to the other, so if you finish one level with four homing missiles, you can keep them for the next level. And you'll need them. The default weapon is a not particularly effective blue plasma gun. Not what you want to be armed with when you're being chased by six enemy helicopters.

SWIV 3D excels in most areas. The sound effects and graphics are excellent. There are a number of thumping CD soundtracks, and the graphics run in 320x400 mode, which while not looking as good as full SVGA, are better than your average blaster. All the baddies, along with your ship, are made out of texture mapped polygons, and the landscape looks great, with hills and valleys rolling beneath you, with impressive speed. Both the scren size and detail levels can be adjusted to make the game run on a lower spec machine.

SWIV 3D is fun to play, too. It has that 'just another go' factor, and the difficulty is pitched just right. While you might get your arse kicked the first time you play it, you'll find that each time your getting your arse kicked less and less, as you get better at the game. In conclusion, I'd like to say 'Die, invader scum! Die! Die! Die!'. Sorry, what I meant to say was that SWIV 3D is an excellent game, easily one of the best if not the best shoot-em-ups available. Get it, or regret it.

Review By Games Domain

SWIV 3D is a fun follow-up to SWIV, classic Amiga overhead shoot-em up which was in turn the sequel to Silkworm.