SOCOM 4 Review
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SpectralShock
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SOCOM 4 is the first full featured game in the tactical shooter series on PlayStation 3, following the online-only SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation in 2008. The SOCOM series has now spanned many years and platforms, but has remained an exclusive Sony brand. SOCOM 4 continues the trend, introducing players to the role of a squad operating in the middle of a civil war conflict. The game puts players in command of a squad of soldiers with varying specialties, allowing you to control their every move. As expected from the series, multiplayer is robust but is also rather fast paced and not without some problems. The campaign gets better as it progresses, and while there are some gameplay issues worth mentioning, the overall experience can be rather enjoyable.
In the single player campaign, players assume the role of Cullen Gray, also called the “Ops Commander” by his squadmates. He is the leader of a NATO team deployed in Malaysia, where a civil war has broken out. Commander is accompanied by two operatives from NATO, as well as two South Korean operatives that they meet along the way. As the team works to resolve the conflict and stop rebels from launching various missiles, it is revealed that the mercenary group who is assisting NATO in this conflict may have plans of their own.
While the campaign never covers any significantly memorable ground (save for the ending), it’s still an enjoyable ride that gets better with time. The only characters on your team that are relevant to the story are Cullen and Forty-Five, as you’d be hard pressed to even remember the names of the rest of the cast. Still, the two leads have enough chemistry and suitable dialogue to carry the narrative forward. The plot stretches over a six-day period, spread across 14 missions, which takes roughly 6 hours on normal difficulty. Since the missions are linear and don’t often offer many tactical approaches, there isn’t much replay value.
The player remains in control of Ops Commander throughout the game. SOCOM 4 plays like the usual third-person shooter, though there are notable differences. For example, the camera loves to hang fairly close to the back of the character, which could often leave you disoriented to the action. It’s also not fixed – meaning it can sway closer and further away as it pleases, and that only compounds the problem. In some sections – especially when the character’s back is up against the wall, the camera actually forces itself right beside your character. You may as well be playing a first person shooter. Given that the controls are designed for third person action, having to shoot in first person brings notable responsiveness issues.
There is a wide variety of weaponry in the game, and a unique system to obtain them. Some of the weapons come standard, so they are always available to loadout with, but others require the player to find them in-game and have them at the end of the level. Once unlocked, the weapons can be used in later missions. It may seem like an unrealistic mechanic (NATO doesn’t have prototypes to provide these rifles before you find them?) but it actually works quite well and makes for a unique unlock system. There are five categories, from shotguns to machine guns, each offering between 2 and 10 individual rifles. The guns in different categories handle accordingly, but you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between those in the same category. The shooting itself is often satisfying and pulling off headshots is a great, if a little too easy.
All of the weapons have various stats, from accuracy to magazine capacity. In order to upgrade the stats on a weapon and unlock various attachments, the player must simply use this particular gun to kill as many enemies as possible. All weapons have 5 tiers of progression, each providing a stat bonus that can be used. The stats don’t cross-transfer in any way – having fully unlocked one machine gun, all other weapons are not affected, even those in the same category. This means that it could take a while to unlock all upgrades for every weapon – however there isn’t enough difference between guns in the same category, so having one fully unlocked rifle in each class is enough.
To protect the player from the gunfire, the game includes a cover system that allows you to stick to any object. Most of the cover is destructible, which adds up to some dynamic firefight as you scramble to find new cover. However – even solid cover seems to have a nasty knack of letting bullets fly through it. For things like concrete blocks and buildings, enemies often find a way to sneak in shots at your character from rather steep angles. As the top of a concrete road barrier deteriorates for example, your character begins taking significant damage even though he is fully concealed in cover. This leads to many frustrating in-cover deaths, as you’re shot from odd angles with bullets that seem to just pass right through you cover. Having said that, the players’ inability to blind-fire from cover will also prove to be a constant annoyance.
To assist in combat, players can utilize their team of operatives. As mentioned earlier, Ops Commander has control of two tactical teams, with two members each. As the SOCOM series has always claimed to be a tactical shooter, the interactions with your squad are rather limited. When compared with Ubisoft’s GRAW series or SWAT 4, SOCOM 4 is more about action than tactical combat. The player can order his teams to regroup, move to a specific area or attack a particular target.
This presents a fairly limited tactical ability to your squad – sure, you can chain actions together by continually issuing commands in a certain order. Your teammates’ AI will blindly follow them – even if it means trying to “sneak” from cover to cover in plain sight of the enemy. The allies are also not very balanced in their ability – if not given specific orders, they will open fire in the enemy’s general direction and will be marginally successful in getting things done. However, should the player specify a target – the squad will perform some great shots and often take out the enemy in an instant. The enemy AI functions at a similar level – enemies will often do a good job of finding cover and flaking, while other times will run out in the open trying to get to another piece of cover.
There are also a couple of missions in the game where players assume control of FortyFive, who is a stealth operative. Consequently, her missions are all night-time stealth recons into the enemy territory. During these missions, a stealth meter indicator is added and becomes a crucial part of the gameplay. Though these levels are full of enemies, the progression is still often linear as there are only a few paths that won’t alert the guards. Taking out enemies is both risky and often unnecessary, unless the game specifically points out targets to eliminate in order to progress. The stealth missions are fairly easy and don’t require much thinking, only a little patience, and do well to break up the usually action-packed story.
The game also features a customizable mission mode, where players can play offline or in online co-op. There are 6 maps to choose from, and two different objectives to be set. Things like difficulty and number of enemies can also be tweaked, but that’s about it. Though this means that the experience can be made unique enough each mission, enemies will continue to spawn in the same locations and most firefights will play out the same way, when the settings remain unchanged. Still, given the amount of variations that can be had with the online coop, it’s likely the best multiplayer-type mode that the game offers – classic, strategic gameplay that brings the ultimate satisfaction when the team succeeds against all odds.
Competitive multiplayer, on the other hand, is a bit of a different beast. What the campaign and coop teaches players about strategic maneuvering and slow paced combat, online multiplayer throws out the window. It is a run-and-gun grenade spam fest out there. Everything unlocked during the single player is also for naught, as you’ll have to start leveling up your weapons from scratch. Developers Zipper Interactive included a few variations that apply to multiplayer modes, such as Classic and Standard modes. These are meant to appeal to classic SOCOM fans, who wish to have no respawn, faster movements and other elements from the previous games in the series. While it’s a nice touch, it remains to be seen which settings the community will prefer.
The standard modes included such as team deathmatch, control points, and capture the flag all function well enough, but without any deterrents, spawn camping is a big problem on all maps. Though there are multiple spawn points available, constant grenade spam and spawn killing remain an ugly reality. Up to 32 player support is nice – but it mostly just adds to the problem. It is only the Bomb squad mode – which requires players to protect a VIP while he attempts to disarm a bomb – that causes some fluctuation in the online mayhem. Needless to say, competitive multiplayer offers enough genre-standard features to hold up on its own, but it lacks enough unique factors to create a long lasting playerbase.
As the game is set in a tropical environment, the game’s graphics look bright and diverse, a nice change from the brown “gritty” setting of other titles. From the jungles to small villages, the game’s setting works well and looks good. There are some problems with the draw distance and complete lack of AA on some objects, but overall it’s a nice looking title. Characters aren’t perfectly animated, but the high resolution models and good voice acting make up for it. Explosions and gunfire also look underwhelming at times, but they’re not bad enough to detract from the overall experience.
When it comes down to it, SOCOM 4 has enough pull with both series fans and newcomers to warrant a closer look. The game’s single player campaign gets better as it goes along, and though not very memorable, provides an enjoyable narrative to follow. The batch of customizable coop missions is great, and though not as diverse as could have been, can provide many hours of tactical gameplay. Mulitplayer components offer enough features that work as intended, but in-game issues are currently at the forefront of the experience. Overall, SOCOM 4 is an enjoyable, if at times rough around the edges, third person shooter than may appeal more to action fans than hardcore tacticians.