Socom is a game brilliant in concept but doesn't achieve the high standard it was designed for...
First of all Socom delivers a harsh learning curve to anyone new in the series for the simple fact that there is absolutely no single player mode or training to try before tackling the online community. The controls at first are a bit awkward and different then other shooters but you can gain the hand of them after your first couple of matches. This can be a frustrating experience for the simple fact that almost every game in Socom has no respawn, so it may take several failed matches and early deaths before you can gain enough skill to gain a kill to your name.
The graphics of Socom are mediocre and fall short of the other online games that are on the market. The animations and movements of your character are good and feel appropriate for the game. The level designs themselves are split into desert missions, urban missions and night missions with none of them featuring any other locations such as snow, mountain or forest levels (which is quite a disappointment). It will take a while to memorize them for the fact that some of them are massive in size and sometime too mazy to navigate properly.
Network issues are still a problem after the many patches and updates and you can still encounter your team mate running in circles in one place while he is actually half way across the map, or mic interference from the other team that blocks you from saying anything. These glitches that happen more commonly then they should which takes away from the overall enjoyment of the game.
Socom is a military based game and because of that it has realistic looking weapons, armor and most importantly sounds. The sound affects in this game are one of the best aspects of this game. They make you feel totally immersed in the universe and take you right into the action. You'll be able to know which entrance and enemy's frag came from by just the sound alone which is a big plus for the game.
Like any other game, customizing is a fun experience but the novelty wears off quickly. As you gain rank you don't unlock any new or better gear and you will usually stick to one set of equipment with the occasional test of something new. The game features a good selection of guns but the majority of people will chose the same guns from the assault rifle categories which really lower the diversity of combat. The occasional person will choose a sniper or shotgun for their weapon but these are rare and almost annoying when encountered.
The only time Socom is any where close to enjoyable is playing with a group of friends. This enables the game to be played how it should, with squads and tactics that make the game surprisingly fun and interesting. You can discuss strategy, switch weapons to balance each other out and create tactics to win the game effectively. Unfortunately the network problems and map problems still damper the actual fun factor of the game and usually leave a bitter taste in your mouth when events like the enemy you been scoping for the last two minutes suddenly glitches out when you got that perfect shot occurs.
Many patches have been released with promises of more but with so many problems and bugs in the game it is unlikely that these will be truly fixed for a long time. At best Socom provides an adequate experience which is heightened with friends but is still never achieved because of the many glitches and problems still involved with it.