The Music

A stupid idea for music implementation as a gameplay element of Swat 4:

A full orchestral arrangement follows the player through the tight corridors and volatile encounters of the game. Choir whispering when enemies are near, breaking into an epic theme when the action starts. High horn sections among the shrieks of 'Get the hell outta here!' and 'Police!'

As the ten or so NPC members get decimated in the crossfire, so does the density of the harmony. Your violin detail didn't make it out of the hallway in time? Then you won't hear them. Other members of the The Music will glance dismayed at the brutal death of the colleagues only for a moment between breaths on their brass notes. They won't get in the way - immediately pressing to the walls as you pass backwards by them - and will otherwise stand in formation as much as possible, tallest behind. Keen musicians, they seem surreally oblivious to the seriousness of each encounter. The deep red on a fallen soloist's bright white garments. Perhaps they're just trying to cover for a hidden terror.

Either way, they cost a zero point deduction when killed by enemies, and a minor one when eliminated by your own hand - in case some morose player had the juvenile inclination to silence them with an MP5 at the start of a mission. Enough to effect your performance if you killed them all, but not enough for you to worry about them, or mind catching one by accident as you aim over his shoulder.

An increased visual intensity to the charged urban situations of Swat 4, The Music would be a dark, surrealist joke. Hilarious.