SOCOM: Confrontation First Look

You knew it was coming. Sony's SOCOM online shooters have quietly remained among the most enduring franchises on the PlayStation 2, as well as one of the most popular reasons to suffer that system's disagreeable online sign-up process. What better way to bolster the PlayStation 3's cachet with the competitive online multiplayer crowd than with a new PlayStation 3-only edition of everyone's favorite Navy SEAL-oriented shooter series? Indeed, Sony has just taken the wraps off of SOCOM: Confrontation, the first game in the franchise for the PS3, and you might be surprised at the direction Sony and development newcomer, Vancouver-based Slant Six, are taking with the title.

We won't beat around the bush: Confrontation is going to be a downloadable game, just like the forthcoming Warhawk. But this new SOCOM will also be released on a Blu-ray disc in a traditional retail package. Sony isn't saying yet what that means for the scope of Confrontation's gameplay and content. They're also not saying if the two releases will happen simultaneously, but at least they've confirmed the game is being aimed at a "holiday" release window. We do know the game will lack a single-player component--it's also like Warhawk in that it's made for online play only.

The demo we got to see of Confrontation was said to be the result of only four to five months' worth of development, in which case it's looking pretty impressive. The trailer was set in a decidedly Middle Eastern town and featured what looked like American special forces doing battle with local militia garbed in ski masks and nondescript fatigues (think the terrorist characters in Counter-Strike). The action looked like what we've come to expect from SOCOM, with both sides running through the streets to take cover behind cars and in doorways, taking up strategic firing positions on balconies and rooftops, and trading fire with assault rifles and the occasional rocket-propelled grenade. Though the trailer looked to be using all in-game footage, little of it was actual gameplay, so we can't comment on what specifically will be new about the nuts-and-bolts gameplay in Confrontation.

Sony is saving the big reveal of SOCOM's gameplay specifics for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo--when we hope to get our hands on the game itself--but we did glean a few details from the brief presentation given at the company's state-of-the-art San Diego motion-capture studio (where a contingent of real Navy SEALs performed an impressive demonstration of the mo-cap process). The game will feature not just American troops but international special forces, though from which countries it wasn't said. You'll be able to customize those characters in appearance, though, and clans will further get to trick out their custom uniforms to create a unique visual identity. It sounds as though Sony will support the game actively after release, as online events like team tournaments and clan ladders are planned, along with for-pay content packs to be made available on the PlayStation Network Store that will include new game modes, special forces, and weapons, among other things.

Unfortunately, that's just about all we know about Confrontation at this point, as Sony (like so many other companies recently) seems content to tease us with a bare glimpse of the game now followed by promises of full disclosure at E3. The game is looking fairly good at this point, with nicely detailed character models and weapon effects. The environments looked a little sparsely detailed to us based on the brief trailer (can we get some more pixel shaders in here?), but overall, Confrontation looks like it's headed in a positive direction, and we'll always applaud a company as monolithic as Sony for experimenting with alternative distribution methods. Expect much more on the new SOCOM to come out of E3 in July.