One of the biggest disappointments in the Socom Franchise, an overall poor representation of previous Socom games...
First off this new Socom game misses its mark on representing the unique gameplay that Socom originally brought to war games. It seems as though all the thinking, patience and skill have been taken out of Socom and replaced it with mindless run and gunning, and very narrow campaign maps. By narrow i mean that there are very few options in which to complete a mission, for example in previous Socoms, with great patience and skill, you would be able to sneak up on virtually any enemy and stealth kill, or you could snipe them, flash them and capture and the list goes on... In Socom 4 they have preset stealth kills just like in COD that makes it a part of the actual objective, then usually a massive gunfight will erupt in which you just shoot everything and kill everyone. Then they have sneaking missions which is built solely on stealth, which is annoying because previous Socom games had multiple paths in which to take unlike this one.
Another major aspect that was changed was the health system and basic physics and gameplay with the actual guns. I guess the new creators of Socom 4 decided to be cheap sellouts with the health regeneration system present in flashy games like COD. What happened to the whole tactical aspect of staying hidden and picking your shots? It was annihilated with the presence of health regeneration that hindered the players mindset to me more careful and tactical. Another contributing factor is the removal of recoil and replacing it with an enlarging reticule, along with the super human ability to absorb massive amount of bullets with no impact on user aim. The previous Socoms needed precise aim or patience, and most of all steadiness when aiming, most of the time it was very helpful to lay down, however in this game all you see is morons running around at full speed spraying everywhere. There is no more tactical gameplay as seen in many other Socoms, it's been replaced by massive explosions, flashy gunfights, and overall no skill.
Lastly the graphics in this game seem so cartoonish and pixelated, just overall garbage, and i would much rather do with the crude graphics of Socom2 for PSP. I can't comprehend the point of changing so much in a working game.
This game is a win for players who wish to buy a mindless run and gun game similar to COD, otherwise its garbage and hardly even worth 30 dollars. There was too much "fixing" going on in this production and as a consequence Socom took a leap backwards with its crude and absence-of-skill gameplay. Please save yourself from this game and go get actual classics like Confontation, or Socom2 for PSP, which is my favorite, to understand what tactical is