Socom returns to the PS3 with all the tactical action you come to expect from the series.
The campaign has you filling the shoes of an Operations Commander. You and your 4 team members take on all of southeast Asia uncovering conspiracy and quelling an invasion throughout 14 missions that can take anywhere from 6-8 hours depending on deaths and the like. All pretty standard stuff with some pretty good narrative to hold it all together aside from a few cliché lines here and there. The main focus here is your character Cullen Gray, and your stealthy side kick Fourty-Five. Most of the developmental narrative comes from these two characters. The rest of the team is just there. I appreciate Zippers move to include some sort of actual emotion between characters, rather than giving you a few cut scenes showing how bad the terrorists are and having a stoic robot SEAL carrying out the mission like in the past Socom games.
The Socom games that came before offered a huge suite of tactical options and commands to issue to your team mates during the mission. While Socom 4 offers something a little bit different. You still can give your teammates orders but they have been dumbed down to compromise for the D-Pad functionality. You now have two separate two man teams in which their actions are tied to the left and right D-Pad buttons. Want them to move to a point? Tap the button. Want them to move to a point on command? Hold the button then tap up for them to carry out the order. It works well but I still wish there were a hold position command, and a rules of engagement wheel to discern between guns blazing and stealth. A small complaint but it is worth noting to all you Socom purists out there. As far as the other controls go they are pretty solid replicating something close to Call of Duty. The game also supports the Playstation Move setup with the Sharpshooter. It works well, but in hairy combat situations you may prefer the Dualshock to enhance your turning speed.
Most of the game will see you traveling through jungle, and urban areas. The environments really steal the show here as everything is detailed very well as high resolution textures are used throughout the game. Characters share that level of detail for the most part. The main characters look great while the other members of your team are lacking some texture work during cut scenes, another detraction is that the team clips right though the underbrush. A couple unfortunate hiccups in an otherwise fantastic looking game. The physics also are particularly well done with some realistic rag doll animations whenever you drop somebody. Another thing I really noticed is that when you get killed, you will see some realistic actions in your final moments. A nice touch rather than just having you fall where you stand.
Sound also scores some points here. The sound effects throughout the game are a real treat to behold and really add to the experience. The satisfying sound of an enemy's brain becoming mush is one that I will remember fondly from this game. Gunfire is accurate, the voice acting is terrific, and the score really intensifies firefights. Hearing your enemies shout jeers at you in mid combat makes you really want to take them down that much more. Overall a great audio experience as a whole.
The multiplayer is another staple in the Socom franchise and this game follows Confrontation with 32 player battles, but the core experience has changed a bit. There are now only four game modes to choose from. A few are Suppression is basically the deathmatch game type, Uplink is a variant on capture the flag, and then there is bomb squad which is new to the franchise. Basically you are the bomb technician that is being defended by your team to disarm three bombs strewn around the map. Very fun but challenging. Maps are well designed and equally balanced, but you do get spawned in front of your enemies from time to time. My only complaint about the multiplayer is that it's a real pain to get on a team with your clan members, let alone get in the same game as them. Socom 4 did away with the old style lobby system, where you select your region pick your lobby and sort things out from there. Instead they have a matchmaking system similar to Call of Duty. It works but half the time you get matched into a game that has one slot in it and if you do manage to get into a game with your clan members, it doesn't even put you on the same team half the time. Its frustrating, but nothing that can't be fixed with a patch for some type of party support. All in all though, matches are lag free and run silky smooth with all of the graphical detail of the single player campaign. One other interesting feature is that you can also do the cooperative custom missions that is part of the single player offering. A nice little addition to the multiplayer suite in case you aren't feeling up to playing against people.
In closing I have to say that this is one of my favorite Socom games yet. It gives you the full experience while not making it a carbon copy of the previous games. A lot of content will keep you coming back for more. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you are looking for a great tactical shooter with some good online to get away from Call of Duty, pick this one up.