SOCOM Confrontation isn't without flaws, but still provides a great online experience that only gets better with time.
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, an online only game from Slant 6, allows you to join up to 31 other players online in one of the 7 different maps that range in size and location from a small oil rig to a giant crumbling city. Each of the maps is beautifully designed with lots of great detail and life-like atmosphere. There is plenty of cover to hide behind from fallen debris to crates or trees as well as shrubbery to lie down in and snipe from. The cover provided feels more natural and less like it was placed there specifically as cover. 5 of the 7 maps have two versions of them: a smaller, centralized map for smaller groups and a full large map for when you have more players. The variety in the maps and their sheer size provides multiple strategies for every situation. Add that with the ability to climb up on the many crates, vehicles, walls and other objects in the maps and you can discover even more places to get to in order to achieve your goal or snipe from. The different game modes will also vary depending on which size map you choose making it seem like there are actually 12 different maps.
In addition to the beautiful atmosphere in the levels, the sound design and music is absolutely superb. There are enough layers of sound detail that it actually gives life to the world and creates the feeling of actually being there. The gun sounds are dead-on accurate and the echoing and volume is perfect allowing you to often pinpoint where the shots are coming from based on the sound. You will also hear birds chirping, rocks and dirt falling off buildings, gunfire in the background and debris being blown around. There are so many audio details that it will truly immerse you in the world.
The dialog sounds great too and fits in well with the characters, even though there isn't a ton of spoken dialog outside your "command" issuing orders or giving status updates. There are a limited number of taunts, none of which are extremely memorable, as well as a few other commands for those who may not have a headset. If you create or join a clan, different dialogue options will become available for your character. For example, if you're part of a clan whose faction is RPIMA (French), you will have a French dialog option for you Commando's voice.
Being an online-only game, newcomers will have to deal with the "sink or swim" aspect of the game. Quite often, people will create custom rooms which have respawns allowed where you can go and learn the basics and get used to the game. Custom games are much more laid back than the Ranked games and newcomers will find it more enjoyable to start with them. A simple solo-training mission through one of the levels to teach you the controls and basics would have been a great addition. It is also disappointing that there isn't any kind of campaign considering how great the campaigns usually are in SOCOM games.
As many people out there will tell you, this game does have its issues and bugs. However, a great number of the issues that were present in the game at the start have been fixed with the later patches. I knew some people who have played it since the beginning and loved it once they got in. I also know a few who could never get in and wound up returning it. When I began, the 1.3 patch had been released and I have never had many issues. During my gameplay experience with Confrontation, it has frozen up only once and other than that time, I have never been disconnected. There are still some lag issues occasionally, but not that often anymore.
Another big issues it the horrendous AI given to the Hostages and VIPs in Extract and Escort game types. These guys you're supposed to be getting to safety or protecting are just plain stupid. Quite often, you'll find them walking into walls and jumping up and down in place trying to get going instead of turning a little bit in one direction or the other and walking. It makes these two game types even more difficult to actually play. On the positive side, they do dive out of the way of grenades faster than you can.
Despite the terrible AI, the biggest issue I currently have with the game is the loading speed. Everything about Confrontation is extremely slow to load, even navigating around the menus. After installing the approximately 3GB of data on the PS3's hard drive, one would hope it would operate faster. At the same time, things did speed up a minute amount with the latest patch (1.41 at the time of writing). It is just a price to pay for the huge amount of detail the game has. On the up side, it is fast going from round to round once you are in an actual game.
Confrontation does have Trophy support as of the 1.3 patch. There are 37 trophies total. All of the trophies need to be earned by playing Ranked games and playing the different game types. Playing over a period of time should make getting most of them fairly simple to do although it will take thousands of kills and just as many games to earn them all.
Communicating with your fellow players via headset is great and almost always crystal clear. It is especially helpful, and hurting, when your mic goes "open" while you are close to another player in the game, but this just adds another layer of realism to the game. Otherwise, you have to press L2 to talk to your team, even in the main lobby.
SOCOM: Confrontation should have taught Slant 6 one big lesson: make sure the game is ready when it is released. Yes, they have worked hard to get the patches out to fix their issues. Yes it is a much better gaming experience now. However, players expect a playable game from the start and not several months after release. Confrontation failed to deliver this at launch.
But, as I said, it is now a great experience and very fun to play for hours on end. Each game type is varied and offers unique challenges. The maps are huge and very well detailed and offer a variety of challenges themselves. Overall, SOCOM: Confrontation has turned out to be a great experience that any shooter fan should try.