A review by Michael Santovec for KEGS (Komputer Enthusiasts of Greater Seattle) - February 1998

Special Weapons Interdiction Vehicles

It's the 3rd year of a civil war. You are a former military person who couldn't stand the guilt of fighting friends and relatives. The only way out was to get yourself dishonorably discharged. But after the rebels attack your home town, you can't wait to get back into action using some top secret assault vehicles to make those filthy rebels pay. You'll find that out if you read the manual. But none of that really matters. As the package from Interplay says, this is an Action Shoot 'em-up. Plot isn't important and none is evident in the game play. It's only destroy before being destroyed.

This is a single player game. But you can define several pilots to the game. Each pilot's progress, score and input device selection is stored. That way different people can play the game at different times.

The action takes place in 5 environments, with 1 to 8 missions (levels) per environment for a total of 25 missions. You start as a rookie in the Temperate Zone. This consists of mountains, valleys and streams. The other zones are Arctic, Lunar, Martian and Alien.



Each mission has several objectives to be completed. Each objective consists of several adjacent targets that you must destroy. Once you complete all the objectives in a mission, you move on to the next, more difficult, mission. If you are destroyed before completing all the objectives in a mission, you start that one over. You can blow up trees, buildings, attacking vehicles, etc. as you are so inclined, for more points. You can go back and replay completed missions if you like.

There are several land and airborne vehicles that you use. These vary based on the zone you are in. Each mission will start with a particular vehicle. In some missions you use that vehicle throughout. In others, there are stations where you can switch to an alternate vehicle.

The land based vehicles use simple movement controls: forward, reverse, turn left, turn right. The vehicles have limited power and won't make it over high hills, at least not without a running start. You mostly have to stick to the valleys. In the Arctic zone, traction is a problem. And you are a sitting duck for the airborne attackers.

The airborne vehicles use much the same controls as the land based. They have automatic altitude adjustment over the terrain. However, you may not have the lift to make it over higher mountains. In addition to the forward, reverse, turn left, turn right controls, the airborne vehicles also have strafe controls to slide left or right. You stand a better fighting chance in the airborne vehicles than the land based ones.

You have two firing controls. The primary weapon is rather wimpy. It does fine against trees and empty buildings. But it takes a lot of rounds to do any damage to the enemy vehicles or gun emplacements. For those, you need the special weapons. These consist mainly of missiles and bombs of varying intelligence. You have to find these, as well as other power-ups, throughout the terrain. If you have more than one type, there are keyboard controls to select which one is the active special weapon. Or if you use up all of one type, the next available one will automatically become the active special weapon.



Look and Feel

There are DOS and Win95 versions of the game on the CD-ROM. Win95 users, if they like, can install both versions, and in the same directory (by default they would go into separate directories). Other than the executable programs (about 1 MB each) they will share the data files (about 55 MB), including the saved games. So you can play some missions in one version and continue in another version. The DOS version is VGA only (320x400 stretched to fill the screen). There are two Win95 versions: a VGA version for most people, and one optimized for those with a 3dfx video card. The Win95 versions require DirectX version 5, which is included on the CD-ROM. All versions will take advantage of an MMX capable CPU if available.

The game uses 3D graphics with texture mapping. Game controls let you adjust the detail and image size to get acceptable performance on your system. On a Pentium/133 (no MMX), no 3dfx video card, and the details set to the maximum, the scenery looks pretty good, except for the water which looks a bit strange (kind of an undulating blue plaid). There isn't any significant difference between the DOS and Win95 versions.

The view is always an overhead shot with your vehicle in the center (I would prefer a cockpit view). Informational displays around the edge of the screen are a radar/compass control (shows nearby enemy weapons, targets, power-ups, and direction to nearest objective), health status (if this drops to zero you are destroyed), current mission score, and currently available special weapons.

They game can be played using just the keyboard, and that works reasonably well, although you may get a hand cramp after awhile. You can also use a mouse, or a game controller that acts as a standard 2-axis joystick with 2 or 4 buttons. The Win95 version requires that any game controller be configured in the Win95 control panel. The DOS version also has special support for a Gravis Gamepad. Using a game controller will still require some keyboard use. And using a mouse will require even more keyboard use. I used a steering wheel with foot pedals that acts as a joystick with 4 buttons. That worked very well and required only minimal keyboard use.

The sound effects are mediocre. There is some engine noise. There are also explosion sounds, but they don't always synchronize with the screen action. The CD has 7 music tracks. These vary from the SWIV Theme to a couple of classical pieces, including Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. (It would appear that the developers saw Apocalypse Now.) You don't get to select specific tracks, but rather one of 3 themes. The game will then cycle through the corresponding tracks. All of the tracks are good and they work very well with the game. There are separate volume controls in the game for the sound effects and CD audio. But there is no option to turn either off, you can only set their volume to a minimum.

Help and Hints and More Information

The manual leaves something to be desired, as is typical. You need to play the game awhile in order to figure out how some parts work. For example, there's no mention of the colored dots in the radar control. As it turns out, the red dots represent attacking enemies, the yellow dots targets, and the barely visible blue dots power-ups.

The Interplay SWIV web site has some screen shots and a demo that you can download (about 3 MB, 7 MB after unzipping). This is for Win95 only (no DOS version is available) and requires that you have DirectX version 3 or later installed. This playable demo is similar to the second mission in the retail version.

Cheats codes for the game are available on the Internet. Some allow you to play the mission of your choice rather than having to work your way up. Some allow you to get power-ups when desired. The codes are different between the demo and retail versions.

System Requirements

The minimum requirements include: MS-DOS 5 or above, or Win95, Pentium/90 (Pentium/120 recommended), 16 MB of RAM, 60 MB disk space, CD-ROM (4x recommended), Local Bus VGA video card, and most sound cards.

The 4x CD-ROM is required to properly play the cut-scene animations (game introduction and introduction to new zones). Slower speed CD-ROMs can't keep up. The animations will break up, or possibly crash the program. There are two workarounds. You can cancel the animations when they start (e.g. press ESC key). Or you can copy them to the hard disk as an installation option (about 110 MB additional disk space).

The entire playable program is loaded to the hard disk during installation, so the CD-ROM speed will not affect game play. But the CD must be in the drive to play the game, and it does play the CD Audio tracks during the game.

The game was tested on a Pentium/133 with 32 MB of RAM and 16x CD-ROM. I tested the DOS version under DOS 6.22, Win95 MS-DOS Mode and a Win95 DOS session. All played well. As expected, the Win95 DOS session was a bit more sluggish than MS-DOS mode, but not significantly so. I also tested the Win95 VGA version. That also played well and about the same as the DOS version in MS-DOS mode.

Ratings and Recommendations

The game is rated: Kids to Adults (ages 6 and up), "Animated Violence". Lots of things get blown up, but no people are visible.

It's an enjoyable game. But other than the music, there is nothing much to distinguish it from dozens of similar games.

Some stores are selling it for as high as $49.99, which is odd, since Interplay sells it from their web site for $29.95. I've also seen it in stores for under $20. At that price, it's worth a look.