The Regiment is a 2006 tactical First-Person Shooter game released in Europe by Kuju Entertainment Ltd. and published for Europe by Konami with a North American release by Encore Inc in 2007. To portray the SAS realistically, Kuju sought the advice of actual SAS operators including including Rhett Butler and John McAleese, the latter being known as "Mac" in the game's live-action cutscenes.
The game takes place in the UK where players assume the role of a SAS operator deployed in domestic anti-terrorist operations, ranging from raiding terrorist hideouts to conducting hostage rescue missions.
Upon release in Europe and North America, the game's been criticized by players and critics for the bad AI, gameplay and problems with multiplayer. A Playstation 2 version was suppose to be released, but Konami chose not to proceed with it.
The Regiment contains examples of:
- Another Side, Another Story: By doing well in a mission, you unlock a variant of it where you play as a different team that participated in it. You can sometimes even see the previous team doing its thing.
- Critical Existence Failure: While played straight for the player, the trope is averted for the terrorists, who will often become incapacitated when shot, leaving them vulnerable to cuffing. If you're lucky, they'll stay unconscious until the end of the mission, but if you aren't and forgot to cuff them, they'll eventually get up.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: The title The Regiment is a reference to the SAS, which is the British military's known special forces/counter-terrorist unit.
- Excuse Plot: The game has no overarching plot that ties the levels together, except that the SAS operator (aka the player) is deployed on anti-terrorist missions.
- Hostage Situation: All the levels in the game have hostages captured by bad guys. The player needs to save them or they get shot.
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Market-Based Title: The NA title of the game is Terror Strike: Close Quarters Combat. - Middle Eastern Terrorists:
- The Embassy level has unknown terrorists being led by a man whose name is Kian.note
- The Metro level as a London Underground station seized by so-called Arab fedayeen terrorists led by Zafir Nasser.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Although for the European cover, it's a respirator-clad SAS operator in CRW gear who seems eager to knife the person looking at him.
- Western Terrorists:
- The Farm level has the Irish Republican Reaction Front having a farm bought as a hideout.
- The Parliament level has a British Neo-Nazi group that raided the Palace of Westminster.
- Urban Warfare: The SAS operators engage bad guys in a stucco-type building, in a London Underground station and in the Palace of Westminster.