So, I am one of those people who has been waiting for years for a good CQB tactical game which is realistic and slow.

I found out about Takedown: Red Saber, which had been on kickstarter and which purported to deliver this. It got bad reviews but (I finally installed Steam and recovered my account) I was able to get it for less than 2 dollars.

I feel a bit bad for the Kickstarters who pledged $25, but for the price I paid, it was great. Basically it was like playing the original Ghost Recon with better graphics.

Basically you have super deadeye AI bots who run around like morons and an inactive squad which follows you around. But you slice the pie at each corner, and frag rooms before you proceed, because you are being very cautious.

I think a lot of the hate was really overplayed in the reviews. Basically the only thing the game is really missing is a good AI. If there were a good AI for the bad guys and more AI commands for your squad (besides for "Fall In" and "Cover Direction") the game would be fine. It's not nearly as bad as it's cracked up to be. It's definitely worth $2.

The game would probably even be satisfying if they let you carry more than 2 grenades. You wouldn't be getting aimbot-drilled by the AI bots all the time if you could frag and clear instead of clearing without tactical aids. Because in real life, people usually prefer to frag and clear or bang and clear, not just clear. No one is going to load up with like 10 magazines, expensive optics, specialty weapons with goofy ultramodern cartridges, body armor and breaching charges but then bring only 2 grenades. That's ridiculous.

To keep it in historical perspective it's not like the original Ghost Recon was any deeper. I mean, it got a lot deeper with all the mods that came out that basically gave you more weapons, but Takedown isn't worse than the original out-of-the-box Ghost Recon in terms of the difficulty and frustration of killing the enemy in CQB. It's really not and anyone who says otherwise has forgotten how it used to be.

Sadly though the game's days may be numbered. When I checked just a few minutes ago there was only 1 multiplayer server and no one was on. Since the AI sucks the game is really all about practicing your CQB tactics with other players. So if there are no people playing, that is pretty negative, if they don't patch it with better AI somehow.

EDIT: See, look at all the extreme negative reviews: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/takedown-red-sabre

I think they're really crazy. In my book, a game starts at at least 4/10 simply for not having regenerating health.

I would really like to see a tactical game in the vein of XCOM, with a realistic milieu. Anything like that out there?

The closest thing I can think of is that isometic RTS SWAT game which was endorsed by Daryl F. Gates.

EDIT: http://www.mobygames.com/game/police-quest-swat-2

Here you go.

Yay, I just finished the Bio Lab level playing by myself.

You know, the level where you look up the YouTube first peeks and the human teams are getting crushed?

A thought to realism...normally for buildings as big and complex as the biolab, in real life, you wouldn't send 4 guys in there. You'd send a lot more and probably there would be all kinds of political arguments between different departments about whose responsibility what would be. And then they would end up dividing the building into portions.

So, just saying that if 4 guys fail to accomplish the objective most of the time, that's probably not unrealistic.