Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2017
SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition
Developer Sierra
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle is a 1999 tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Sierra Northwest and published by Sierra Entertainment exclusively for Microsoft Windows. It is the seventh installment of the Police Quest series and the third installment in the SWAT subseries. Set in the then-future year of 2005, the game follows the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Metropolitan Division SWAT unit as… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
185 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 2, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
66
Fresh
116 positive · 60 negative
95% range 59–73%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 116 | 60 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
9 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
244 of 369 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 185 · most liked firstLets not bandy about. If you don't have GOG, get GOG. Then buy SWAT 3: Tactical Game of the Year Edition over there - because this game does not work for modern hardware when purchased through Steam. What would require, at least half an hour of messing about in the config/directories folders for the Steam version in order to get operational - GOG manages to do 'for you' right out of the gate. Great game - Awful-terrible platform support on Steam. Intel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz Windows 10…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best tactical shooter ever made! Even better than SWAT 4 because the AI in SWAT 3 is much better. That's saying a lot because I love SWAT 4. Buy it, even if it's not on sale. Don't be put off by the Mixed reviews....most of the negative ones are made by people that can't get it to run on Windows 10 and that refuse to spend 15 seconds to search for a solution. Just Google it...or better yet, I'll link my guide at the bottom of this review. There, now you have no excuse not to pull the trigger…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SWAT3 IS EXCELLENT - AMONG THE BEST GAMES EVER! However, the Steam version isn't. Hard lesson learned; buy older shooters on GOG.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →no work window 10 i angry i sad me caveman grrrr
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A+ artificial intelligence for first-person, tactical, close quarters simulation. If you're sick of playing with goons and goofy bots from other FPS games, here is the cure. The AI is the best that I've experienced. Physics is well modelled. Ricochet, material penetration, jacketed hollow point effects, full metal jacket effects, wall bang, push doors, escalators, door breach, etc. Downloads: SAS_REALISM_MOD_V1.4.zip SWAT_LAPD.zip vi_deadly_force2.zip Last_Resort_Setup_v074.exe…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SWAT 3 is absolutely one of the best tactical shooters to date and as a game I could not recommend it enough... But if you're going to get this game and don't want to spend ages going through the config or directories files trying to get it to work beforehand, get it from GOG where they've got it optimised for you already. Can't recommend the Steam version, sadly.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Corrupted gang of police motorcyclists breaks Geneva convention and ruins my score But seriously though, this is the best tactical shooter in the history of men, at least among the CQB ones! Yes, even better than the incredible SWAT 4. Don't be scared of it's clunky UI and outdated graphics, because this is certainly the game which deserves to be finished. The AI of your teammates alone is some sort of black magic! Friendly bots scan every corner, shoot very accurately and proceed with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Swat 3 is a game that was (still is) ahead of it's time. This is a game that was made in coorperation with actual LAPD SWAT police officers. Which means tactics and arresting the suspects is primary thing and not guns blazing like today. It's a slow, clear room by room, throw tear gas to incapacitate suspects, yell at them to drop their weapons so that you can arrest them. This is from the game that was made in 1999 ! Today with outdated graphics will be a no-go for players. Which is ashame…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Dont listen to anyone who says that SWAT 3 can't run on Windows 10. Follow Nightbreed's walkthrough and in no time you will be playing the great classic. See attached link for walkthrough. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=937035975 All credit to Nightbreed for making this possible!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →doesn't work properly. The GOG version is better.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →honestly, my mistake was thinking it was like swat 4
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game, install the last resort mod and dgvoodoo2 and it runs flawlessly
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really solid tactical shooter, incredible AI for the time and great level design (other than the sewer level lol.) Below is a step-by-step guide to run it on modern hardware. 1. Get the game 2. Install it on Steam 3. Download the LAST RESORT mod --> https://www.moddb.com/games/swat-3/addons/last-resort-setup-v087 4. Download dgVoodoo2 --> https://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/bin/dgVoodoo2_86_5.zip 5. Install LAST RESORT by running the downloaded setup. No, it isn't a virus but your pc may…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Here's another classic game in need of a remaster.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A masterpiece of tactical police simulation, SWAT 3 is one of the best shooters ever made and is one of the swansongs of the classic Sierra. If you ask me, it's even better than SWAT 4. It'll take some tinkering to get this to work well in widescreen on a modern operating system (but Last Resort has you covered), but it's worth the hassle - this is a fantastic game which does not hold your hand, does not allow Rambo run & gun to go unpunished and will challenge your strategic abilities.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"Uncompromised duty, honor and valor." More like quick cash grab. There was no attempt to update the game to make it even compatible with modern computers. As the end user, you can download multiple sketchy programs and change multiple settings and overwrite key game files etc. to make it playable, but that is not the players responsibility. This game should never have been allowed to launch in this current state. Any developer with even low skill could spend a few hours and have streamlined…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved this game back in the day. Unfortunately the framerate is so abysmal that's its completely unplayable. It's really unfortunate because this is a fantastic and unique game when it runs properly. Games like this shouldn't be sold on Steam unless they've been SOMEWHAT optimized for a newer PC. Selling a game that runs at 5 FPS or less in unacceptable. If this even ran around 20 FPS I would've kept it. Such a disappointment.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I absolutely loved SWAT 3 when growing up and I thought I'd revisit it once again 20 years later from when I first experienced it. The game still holds up as a sublime tactical shooter with excellent AI and authentic missions. Sadly this has to be one of the most broken out-of-the-box old titles and it needs a considerable amount of work to get it running whether you opt to play outright modded or a patched vanilla version using 3rd party tools. It's great to see classic games like this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Forget Tom Clancy The sheer tactical depth of this game, guys. Seriously. I don't care if it's 2018 - if you are fans of hardcore tactical challenge, buy this game and get the Last Resort mod. You'll have to tweak a little bit for compatibility with Windows versions older than Vista, but it's worth it. No game was able to give you this level of tactical depth so far, not even Swat 4, which is ruined by a worse AI than its predecessor. I'm talking AI keeping seriously smart corners, moving with…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love to commit police brutality
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While the game is fun,it will eventually just get absolutely screwed up with the fullscreen not being centered and not being able to fix it. Game should not be sold if it doesn't even work
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My First PC Game >Superb AI >TOC this is entry team(classic)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ignore negative reviews, you can play the game by only installing last resort mod and dgVoodoo2. AI in this game aged like fine wine. Devs really don't have an excuse when a game from 1999 can have an AI this good. The game only has 2 flaws. Firstly, you can only give clear command on edges of the entrances, this causes some issues for very long tunnels that only have one direction. Secondly, officers can't open that damned kitchen door in the last level by themselves, it's also not…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Does not work on steam.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's the same game you fell in love with in the 90s
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Does not work in modern windows
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I know that swat 3-4 are definitely amazing games. I am just not some sort of computer scientist to be able to install 3 without it being so unplayably buggy that I cant navigate off of the first menu. I tried installing those mods that everyone is talking about. I'm a humble man. I don't know how to hack into the mainframe and that. (steam aint even got 4, Had to install GOG. Dodgy. first game download I've had to trust other than steam. Don't like it.)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horrendously broken. Invisible weapons and menus, and this is after screwing around with compatibility settings to get the game to even work. Why would you sell an obviously broken title without updating it to make it run properly? And ten dollars? For a twenty year old game?
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was one of my favorite games growing up, but the steam version is a real crapshoot. I was hoping to see SWAT 4 on here sometime in the future, but if so little attention is going to be made to ensuring the game works properly...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →HEED MY WARNING! this game does not run properly on windows 10 DO NOT BUY all you will be doing in 10 minites after buying is getting a refund. i did :( ye be warned
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It’s a pain in the ass to get working on modern-day hardware, and pretty much nothing is explained to the player, including many of the core mechanics which weren’t a part of any other game at the time and generally still aren’t today. That said, after about an hour of troubleshooting and familiarisation, you’ll be able to properly play what I’d consider to be one of the best tactical shooters on the market. It’s leagues above any entry to the Rainbow Six series, and as much as I like Ghost…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Poor compatibility with new systems Windows 7/8.1/10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do not buy if you're running Windows 10. This game is now broken.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is great fun. Due to this being a pretty old game it's not going to work on all the newer systems. But if you put the time into getting the compatability set then you are destined to have a good time!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Need non-official patchs to work properly on the new versions of Windows (anything later than Windows 2000 I suppose). If you have more than one monitor the game glitchs and is opened in a weird resolution. If you Alt+Tab the game it also brokes to never again work in a descent manner.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Absolute classic that deserves a remaster. I used to own the original CD version 15+ years ago.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Put 'em on safe and let 'em hang boys we're good to go
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game does not start, also after reading and trying the fix hints. sad.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I remember when this came out. My dad had bought it for me and I spent hours playing this. I just recently remembered this game and thought id look it up. Was glad to see it was in the steam store. Its a bit more boring now that im approaching my 30s but I still enjoyed this blast from that past. Is it super emersive? No. Is it super fun? Not really. But it holds a place close to my heart so I mean for me its worth it. But for someone who just randomly happened across it, id say stay away.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is trash. Go to GOG.com and get SWAT 4 instead. 100% better in every way.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game in I don't know 2001 and it was a blast and a real challenge for a 17-18 year old gamer to play these missions without "swatlord" ;) Got this game back in 2017, I still love it. It has some realistic "police-work" aspects (calling in suspects on the radio, procedures, rules of engagement, just killing) simulation aspect and I still enjoy playing it with the GOTY upgrade. GREAT GAME, probably one of the best tactical shooters.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SWAT 3 is a classic and just fun to play.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SWAT 3 was the third Police Quest: SWAT game. The first to drop the title of the franchise it was originally part of. It switched from being a pseudo adventure game to being an FPS. It takes a more Rainbow Six inspired approach only with a greater focus on police procedure. The player needs to report suspects, collect evidence and most of your missions deal with small scale engagements. One of the first missions for instance is a suspect barricaded inside his house. This gives the game a great…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →New on the blog: Tom dives into newly surfaced E3 2000 footage featuring an interview with former Sega of America president Peter Moore - with trailers for cancelled Dreamcast games like Half-Life, Deer Avenger, SWAT 3 and Game Room playing behind him 👉 www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2026/02/this...
unlabelledView post →I tried to play SWAT 3 and I just dont like it. I feel like a glorified babysitter for my 4 swat members in this game. Going into combat yourself is basically suicide cus the enemys shoot the moment your a pixel in their vision. Im at a level I just can't beat because I lose my team ungodly fast.
unlabelledView post →Buy and Play it for the sake of Nostalgia. If not dont touch it with a ten foot pole. (This game has a lot of technical issues and needs a lot of unofficial patches to run properly)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →cant recommend purchising from steam if you want swat 3 get it from GOGA sadly i forgot how to refund a steam game
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →SWAT 3 is a lot of fun. However, unfortunately the vanilla game will not run well with newer Windows machines, an easy fix for this is to download the "Last Resort" mod and Dgvoodoo, these will let you run SWAT 3 on the normal graphics settings smoothly on modern computers. Once it's all set up, the game runs really good. 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →very fun for windows users who have strong computers
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I could not play this GAME, the game forced me to play the game in a zoomed in point of view, I tried to fix it but i had to download 2 mods, and spend an hour just trying to mess with the game file. I just gave up, if im spending 10 bucks on a game, i shouldnt have to deal with this bocrap. this mess of a game should have never been put on steam without a patch. If i get a game that wont let me play it, i expect a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ refund. Just a disappointment :( :( :( :( :( :(
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →*10/10* I dare you to play this game with the outcome of 0 kills and 0 officers down. Bean bags and tear gas, Modern Warfare this is not! \ Not Saying I have but i try to get as many arrests as possible.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. It reminds me my chilhood.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →RIP OFF ALERT, AVOID AVOID AVOID. This game has a bug where it will erronously demand a CD Key on launch that is not supplied with the game, making it unplayable. The current owners of the IP do not care about this and will not supply you with a CD key. 0/10.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Despite SWAT4 taking the eventual crown of tactical coop game due to it's impressive ease of access and simple controls, in my opinion SWAT 3 is the truely groundbraking achievement that to this day set the bar so high, modern titles can be measured by it's standards. This is the best of the series, hands down, due to one thing that transforms SWAT series into the masterpiece - the AI. No other game, not even Rainbow Six series has ever come CLOSE to the levels of proficiency squad AI presents…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is the same as the GOG version. You sadly have to use Last Resort (for higher resolutions) and dgvoodoo (to improve performance) to make it run properly. But it's still my favourite tactical shooter.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →doesnt run well on steam comparing to other platforms, but is a great game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great game Much rather this than many games. Problem is I can't get it to work on windows 10. Any suggestions ty.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still the best tactical shooter ever. Playing this game already for 20 years now and still is as good as in the begin. Does need some work to fix things in Windows 10 but its not much. Much better then SWAT 4 for me. Younger people might not enjoy this game because for them it will look and feel very dated and to much hassle to proper setup things. Back in the days i played this on a Pentium 3 and Geforce 2 if i remember correctly and it still ran pretty good back then so yeah this game can run…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Read the reviews before buying this game, while it is a really good trip back to the good old days it does take a considerable amount of work to get there, you have to download and replace the movie files, download a last resort launcher that upgrades the graphics by a little less than potato, and then finally a dgVoodoo thing to even play it. If you like the game as much a i did then buy it and search for a guide to help you install it and get it running. Its running great since then but if…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best single player, tactical fps ever made
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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