Old Granite Hotel is the twelfth mission in SWAT 4 and the nineteenth mission in SWAT: Elite Force. After James Betincourt and his general contractor Lawrence Adams were taken hostage, the militia group America Now, responsible for the aforementioned captivity of the two men; demanded for a ransom of twelve million dollars to be payed by midnight. Following these series of events, the SWAT team was dispatched for a hostage rescue after several gunshots from seventh floor were heard being fired.
Introduction
Ok, man, this one’s a zoo, and it isn’t going to get any better. The self declared militia group America Now has taken real estate heir James Betincourt Junior and Lawrence Adams, his general contractor, hostages. Apparently they was in touring a government a current project, the Old Granite Hotel, and were taken while inspecting Adams’ work. Now the suspects are holed up on the top two floors of the hotel, demanding twelve million dollars ransom by midnight. They claim that Betincourt Investments owns this as a “down payment on their debt to American People”.
America Now is a small but active domestic militia group. They are fiercely isolationist, opposing immigration, free trade, and foreign owned interests. Most of their previous actions have been against foreign owned properties, either sabotaging them in the building stage or engaging in serious vandalism, making them the properties, too expensive to maintain. This is their first kidnapping, and it may indicate a shift in the group’s tactics. Given the public nature of the incident, the group is clearly looking for publicity as well. We’ve spoken with the media, and received some co-operation, however, it is not clear how long that will last.
Expect the America Now suspects to be well equipped, and to act as a group, but their inexperience with hostages may make them even more dangerous to the civilians. Take extra care.
Now on to the victims. James Betincourt Junior is the son of the CEO and majority owner of Betincourt Investments, a French based property development company. Six months ago, they purchased the Granite out of bankruptcy for twelve millions dollars, and have been renovating it ever since. Junior has been in charge of the renovations, and was doing an inspection of the renovation work when he was captured. Lawrence Adams is the general contractor and the architect in charge of doing the renovation work.
The suspects are on the top two floors of the hotel, the sixth and the seventh. You’ll find the blueprints on the board. We’ve cut the power to the elevator and it trapped between the fifth and sixth floor. You can either go up the stairs, or down the elevator shaft. Recent gunshots were reported coming from the seventh floor, so it’s time to go in.
Entry and Snipers
The building offers two points of entry, one from the elevator shaft and the other from the stairwell. The stairwell entry provides the player with the choice of completely ignoring the lower floor and immediately continuing into the upper floor of the building where all of the map's timed bombs are located.
Sierra One covers one of the rooms (623) of the hotel on Side 3, Level 6, while Sierra Two covers an exposed portion of the building on Side 3, Level 7. (See bugs for more information)
Background
Old Granite Hotel is a seven-story hotel that currently is under construction. According to the reporter on the radio, this hotel is a local landmark that has been owned by one family for a hundred years. However, bankruptcy forced the owners to sell the hotel to Betincourt Investments, and they started the renovations. Floors from the first to the fifth are not explored but they are assumed to be already finished and fully equipped. However the half of the sixth floor and whole seventh floor are being renovated. The hotel's hallways in the finished parts are rather elegant. In the hallways there are various pictures, potted plants, and carts for bathrobes, coats and other clothes as well as carts filled with cleaning supplies. The sixth floor contains four rooms, with numbers from 622 to 625 that are fully equipped hotel rooms with bathrooms. Room 625 is rather unfinished and is in a raw state however. Each of the rooms has various amenities such as TVs, small refridgerators, tables and chairs. There is also room for hotel employees such as maids and it contains various items such as vacuum cleaners, towels, washing machines, etc. The renovated part of the sixth floor is in a raw state. There are various items that are needed for repairs and construction such as cement mixer, tool boxes, and helmets. The staircase leads to other levels and is also unfinished. The whole seventh floor is under construction, meaning that there is an even bigger mess than on the sixth floor. Each of the rooms intended for hotel rooms contain something else. In one room there are furniture and equipment for bathrooms while the other contains various paints and wallpapers. It's worth to mention that some of the exterior walls are not builded yet and the gaps are protected by nets and scaffloadings. There is also makeshift office in one of the rooms.
Tactical Approach
On entering the building through the elevator shaft the team is lead into a long passage bearing numerous doorways each opening into their respective room of the hotel. Behind the elevator shaft, the passage is unfurnished and is generally occupied by at least one suspect, however, in certain occasions there may be two. The corridor is also attached to the stairwell through a narrow doorway and at the middle of the stairway between the two floors is located a timed bomb. When the team encounters it, an additional objective to defuse all of the bombs is introduced to the player that must be completed within a time period of exactly nine minutes and thirteen seconds.
The layout of the map is astonishingly relatively easier to clear compared to many other preceding maps since most of the rooms do not interconnect with other areas and possesses only a single doorway for both entry and exit. This restricts the ease in mobility of the suspects to flee from rooms that are in the process of clearing. Yet, despite these favourable circumstances it still proves beneficial to wedge certain doors. Most of the unfurnished rooms in the upper floor of the building adjacent to the main passage-way are relatively small and can be easily cleared with the help of a single grenade. CS Gas is the most effective less-lethal grenade since it occupies a large portion of the room and therefore successfully affects everyone in the room as long as they expose and position themselves in the effective radius of the grenade. On the other hand, in the Elite Force mod, the Sting grenades may also prove equally competent in clearing such rooms since the effective radius and the strength of the grenade was significantly improved in the mod.
The suspects are well-equipped but do not wear gas-masks, hence making the use of CS Gas a feasible and efficient choice for carrying out tactical procedures. The suspects are also less inclined towards complying with the Officers when ordered to do so.
If the player opts for the secondary entrance, he may choose to clear the upper floor entirely following the completion of the additional objective to defuse all of the timed bombs present in the level. On succeeding, he may continue to clear the lower level of the building and proceed to complete the mission. The reverse of the above stated procedure to complete the mission may be followed as well.
Bugs
- The Sierra teams for this mission appear to be positioned wrong. In the briefing text, they are labeled as Sierra 1 being on Level 7, whereas Sierra 2 is on Level 6. The snipers themselves also mention being on Level 7 and 6, respectively. However, in the base game, they are positioned on Level 6 and Level 7, respectively. This is corrected in the Elite Force mod.
Trivia
- The stub page on this wiki uses a graphic based on the signs in this mission.
- A different voice actress plays the dispatch character in this mission, for unknown reasons.
Elite Force Changes
- Two cut conversations were restored back into the game. They were - Jackson:"The bomb squad missed all the fun" and a few lines conversed when the player had successfully disabled a bomb.
- This mission unlocks the AK-47 in version 4 and below, and the MP5KA4 in version 5.
- Fixed the bug noted above with Sierra teams being in the wrong spots.
Gallery
