SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs Impressions

When it comes to developing a follow-up to a successful game, the most obvious and more successful approach is to deliver more of the same while pumping up as many different aspects of the game as you possibly can. Zipper Interactive appears to be going this way with its upcoming sequel, SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs, and the early results appear to be fantastic.

The 12-mission single-player campaign will feature three difficulty settings. The missions have more varied and deeper objectives this time around, and you'll see a handful of in-engine cutscenes as you play. This will provide more back story for your missions, and you'll even get to see the masterminds behind the game's terrorist activity this way. Your performance in one mission will also have an effect on how the next missions play out. For example, if you go loudly through a mission, setting off alarms and letting everyone know you're there, the next mission's enemies may already be on alert when you get there.

The AI for both the enemies and your SEAL team has been improved. Also, improved animation and speech will keep you informed about how the AI is reacting to your actions. Enemies will act surprised, your teammates will talk a lot more, and you'll generally have a better idea about why the AI acts the way it does. The AI is more responsive to your presence and will be more apt to investigate nearby noises, such as your team making its way through nearby underbrush. You'll also have more control over your teammates. With the new "overwatch" command, you can set up shop in a sniper spot and have your teammates act as spotters, calling out enemy locations to you as they see them.

Multiplayer is also a huge focus for SOCOM II, and Zipper seems very dedicated to improving upon some of the issues found in the original game. The biggest deal here is that SOCOM II will feature some pretty hefty cheat protection, but there are also quite a lot of gameplay and interface improvements that should please fans of the original. The original three game types from SOCOM return, as do graphically improved versions of all of the original game's multiplayer maps. These will be joined by 12 new multiplayer maps and two new game types. VIP escort works similarly to the hostage missions in the original game, but here the SEAL team starts out with three AI-controlled VIPs who must be protected and extracted before the terrorist team can take them out. Breach sets up one team as base defense and the other as an offensive team. The offense will use high explosives to get into the enemy's base, while the defending team must prevent its base from being overrun. Explosives can also be used to block certain routes, either by filling areas with rubble or destroying bridges.

The control in the game has been improved. Many SOCOM players found themselves accidentally pushing in L3, which would have the annoying effect of switching you from full-auto to single-shot fire--definitely not something you want to have happen in the middle of a firefight. Now, there is a short delay on the rate-of-fire change, so you'll have to push L3 for a half-second or so before it will have any effect. The stance-change control has also been changed. It's now handled in an analog fashion. Tapping the button will move you from standing to crouching, while pressing the button all the way down when standing will let you dive down to a prone position.

On the interface side, big enhancements have been made to the multiplayer front-end and reward system. You'll now be able to use voice chat in game lobbies, instead of just text. Support for clans has been bumped up quite a bit, and SOCOM II will keep track of clan rankings, allow for clan challenges, and have an option for clan-only practice matches. A friends list and an ignore list will let you keep track of other players, and rankings have been expanded a lot. The game now has a system called "medals of merit," which are postmatch awards that sound as though they'll lead to the unlocking of new player models and skins. All of the game's statistics will be viewable from any Web browser, as well as in the game itself. When using voice chat, the name of the player currently speaking will appear onscreen, making it easier to figure out who needs what. A new compression setting is being used for voice in the game, which should make the voice chat sound a lot better. Along with the 16 players in a game, you'll also be able to allow up to eight spectators to watch your online matches. Player and spectator modes can be separately passworded, meaning that you can let anyone watch your clan matches or allow only certain players to watch. Finally, you'll also be able to use a USB keyboard to use text chat inside of matches.

Along with the complete list of weapons from the original SOCOM, 16 new weapons will be added to the game. There will also be two new weapon classes: shotguns and rocket launchers. Weapons like the RPG-7 behave realistically in that they're only effective at longer ranges--the rocket doesn't arm immediately, meaning that if you use it at close range, the rocket will just bounce off whatever it hits without exploding. You will also be able to call in air strikes, using other players as spotters to figure out when and where to pound enemy locations.

Graphically, the game looks a whole lot smoother. The player models have a much nicer look to them, and the environments benefit from improved lighting, bump-mapping, reflective textures, and better, more natural water effects. Even with these improvements in place, the frame rate appears to be smooth. The team is hiring higher-caliber voice actors for the in-game speech, which should make it sound a bit more realistic.

SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs is currently scheduled to be released in November.