isnt clear yet, far too many obstacles stand between you and playing SOCOM: Confrontation. And once you finally do get started, youll discover that it wasnt worth the trouble.
On the PS2, the SOCOM series was the consoles most substantial foray into the world of online shooters. It was Sonys answer to the Halo games, and for the most part the SOCOM series satisfied PS2 gamers with reasonably compelling single-player campaigns and engaging multiplayer experiences. By the end of its stint on the PS2, the series had found its bearings, made important gameplay tweaks, and found its own unique niche.
Now, almost exactly two years into the PS3s lifecycle, the SOCOM series enters the current generation. Unfortunately, you would never know it. Not only does the game scarcely look better than its PS2 predecessors—which werent particularly well known for their graphical prowess—but remarkably little of the gameplay has changed in the meantime.
Gone completely is the single-player campaign, which is all to the better since that had always been the series weakest link. But the multiplayer mode hasnt taken up the slack. It looks and plays like the cast-offs from the military shooter gene pool. More crudely said, playing SOCOM feels like digging through the waste of Call of Duty 4, Metal Gear Online, and Gears of War. Every once in a while you find some undigested piece of something recognizable in SOCOM: Confrontation that may once have been fun, but mostly its just crap.
Similar to Call of Duty 4, you can customize your default weapons, add-ons, armor, and appearance. However, in stark contrast to CoD4s smooth and easy-to-use set-up, the menus in SOCOM: Confrontation are extremely clunky and non-intuitive, and theyre plagued by frequent pauses for texture and object loading as you browse through the many weapons and accessories.The stats for your weapons and armor arent easy to read, and some stats will only change after youve equipped a particular item.
To be fair, the basic gameplay itself is solid enough if also terribly cliché. There are seven different possible modes of play scattered across a handful of maps. All the play modes are directly lifted from prior SOCOM games, which in turn were directly lifted from Counter Strike. Expect no substantial variations on basic deathmatch games, hostage rescues, escorts, and bomb defusion play types.
Weapons are believably responsive, and offer the standard variety of rifles, submachine guns, pistols, and specialty weapons youd expect from the genre. In addition, the use of ambient noise—footsteps, gunfire, and talking—fits seamlessly into your battle strategy. Beyond the more typical voice chat, the use of proximity chat adds an unexpected layer to your fighting methods. This keeps the chatter to a minimum during matches and helps to quell the inane talk that runs rampant in most other online multiplayer games.
Overall, SOCOM is a far slower-paced and more strategic game than most other shooters. Youre more likely to spend a few minutes camped out in a corner getting the lay of your surroundings than you are running down an enemy. Choosing when, where, and how to attack is the heart of SOCOM and is what sets it apart from all other multiplayer shooters. Its few moments of greatness come from executing well-planned and carefully staged attack and defense strategies.
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