SOCOM: Special Forces Review

The SOCOM series has always been a third-person tactical shooter which has allowed the player to control their squad quickly and easily, to get the job done. The emphasis in all the previous games has been to make the game more about using a squad to their advantages and not using them as human shields as you plough your way through the game: as a team, rather than a one man army. SOCOM: Special Forces is the latest game to come out of this series and we feel that, on the whole, the game stays true to the original SOCOM series.

The graphics on the game live up to PlayStation 3 standards and all the cut-scenes using the in-game engine rather than being pre-rendered is a nice touch. As well as great graphics, Sony have also 3D options so if you are rich enough to own a 3D television you can now play the game with it popping out of the screen at you.

Before you begin a mission, you are asked to pick which variety of weapons that you want to use. Throughout the single player you can collect new weapons during the mission and as long as you are still carrying them at the end of the level, these will be unlocked to use for the rest of the game. As well as this, the weapons have a perk system attached to them, and like with most games, the more you use this gun the more customisable parts you get for it.

As well as your two weapons you pick at the start of the mission, you can pick any guns as long as they aren’t the same type. You cannot pick up two assault rifles or two sniper rifles for example. You can also pick up a range of grenades to assist you, from flash bangs to smoke grenades. As well as all these goodies the game will also allow you to call in air-strikes at certain times to help in trickier situations.

While this latest version of SOCOM does stick to its roots, there are a few things that have changed giving it more of a casual feel to it owing to the new features that have been added to the game. One big example of this is the health regeneration that is used throughout the game. Health regeneration, is not only for your player but for your squad as well. With this in the game it feels like the tension has dropped dramatically, allowing you to now hide away and recover health rather than having to use med-kits to heal not only yourself, but squad members too.

That being said, the tactical system in the game is still wonderful to use, allowing you to use the D-PAD to issue commands and even mark enemies or way points before actioning the “GO” command. This system will become second nature to you, however make sure that you have correctly issued a command as unfortunately sometimes the AI does seem to go a little crazy. An example of this is when issuing move commands to certain squads in the midst of the battle. We had a few squads who decided to camp at the opposite side of the wall we just ordered them to move to, meaning they were an easy target for the enemy. You may also find that squad members will run in front of you and basically suck up all your bullets into their back. You may also find that sometimes commands just don't seem to register with a squad, and you will end up bashing your head against the controller at the sheer stupidity of them getting caught in walls.

The storyline itself in the single player is one we have seen before. You control Cullen Gray, a dark and quiet character that has a mysterious past which you get told along the way. You control your five-man squad and basically run all over the Strait of Malacca trying to contain the raging war which is erupting around you. While the storyline is nothing new the gameplay gets split up between standard missions using your squad and taking out enemy installations, or just simply trying to move around the island without attracting attention in stealth missions. Stealth missions require you to creep around enemy installations sabotaging equipment and adding GPS trackers to follow the enemy to the next mission.

The break-up of the gameplay into these two mission types is interesting and the stealth missions do require you to think about where to go and what to do. Unfortunately, again, we have seen this all before and the constant repetition of a few normal missions then a stealth mission gets old rather quickly.

Within the stealth missions there are times where we found the paths we had to use were simply just too scripted and didn’t have enough variety. Like most of the game, we felt that you were literally moving from point A to point B without much of a path change not allowing you to play the game your own way.

At this point we should have had time to experience the co-op or online modes of the game, allowing us to see if the multi-player is up to scratch. However since the PlayStation Network has been down. This means that any multiplayer aspect of the game can’t be reviewed. Once the PlayStation Network is back online we will endeavour to correct this review and its scores to include the multi-player aspect of the game.

The single player side of SOCOM doesn't bring anything new to the table that hasn’t already been seen many times before. With the single player not taking too long to do and most of the storyline explained within the first half of the game, this then leaves you to just tidy up the rest of the action and you’re done. We feel the game was probably more based on the multi-player aspects, giving you a range of modes and even co-op that would sort out the problematic AI issues. That being said, what the game does, it does well.