Shooter Schmooter

I don’t think I’m alone when I sigh in exasperation while reading about yet another ‘squad based, tactical shooter.’ The market is awash with similar titles that, regardless of their pedigrees, have now molded into a mess where the joys of gaming are lost in the sameness of it all.

It doesn’t matter if the game offers first or third person action; it is still a case of ultra HD realistic graphics and character models with over 47,000 authentic weapons, vehicles and locations from around the globe. Multiplayer skirmishes and deathmatch play take over nearly all these titles, with any story elements severely lacking, resulting in a shallow solo experience.

Look no further than Rebellion’s recent re-imagining of Alien vs. Predator to see how a FPS with a more traditional construct can be just as effective and rewarding.

The SOCOM series is one such collection of games whose first forays were landmark titles. Yes, they focused on online play, but they also featured single player missions that were noteworthy for their considerable quality.

The third installment offered no such luxury, but still it performed well, selling 12 million copies worldwide for the PS2. Now, of course, with the Playstation3’s hardware, this exclusive title from Sony will look and play just like any other similar title today.

The quest to dethrone Modern Warfare 2 is being fought bravely right now by Battlefield Bad Company 2, and with the return of the Call of Duty series imminent, is there any room for a new Socom game, which at its very height still lacked the recognition and respect of said titles?

Not the Circus Type of Seal

Sony is certainly giving it a stab, and immediately the most noticeable element about Socom 4: US Navy Seals is the inclusion of an allegedly rather beefy single player campaign. Details of the story are thin so far, but some details have been leaked from returning developer Zipper’s HQ.

You play as a yet-to-be-named NATO operative in charge of a five-person Special Forces unit deployed within a shipping channel linking Indonesia and Malaysia with the Pacific and Indian Oceans. When all the other NATO forces in the region are wiped out, our hero heads in to fix the situation. Among your generic colleagues masquerading as ‘characters’ will be the first female operative to feature in the saga – a South Korean, mysteriously named Forty Five. Zipper says she is integral to the narrative so we shall wait with baited breath for some interesting and – hopefully – unique narrative arcs a female comrade may introduce.

The single player campaign consists of 14 missions with a reported completion time of 12 hours. Compared to Modern Warfare’s rather skimpy campaign, if there’s enough clever juice in the tank to spice out the entire time span this offers much more value.

A Spiffier SOCOM

The story arc is gunning for realism, so the missions are played out in a constant stream – there is nothing in the way of extra supplies and weaponry from HQ after your initial drop in. Everything else will have to be acquired on-site. As with a real Special Forces outfit, you are cut off from the safe trappings of the outside world.

Echoing Naughty Dog’s use of digital motion capture of its actors for Uncharted 2, Zipper has followed suit, which should inject some much needed realism into a title which - like some of its rivals – runs the risk of falling at the first signs of lost integrity when a robotic NPC utters some generic tripe.

The AI is apparently a huge step up from previous titles, something that is now expected of FPSs by an ever hungry and less understanding new generation of gamers who have been brought up on incredibly sophisticated teething titles. Your enemies are programmed to use suppressing fire and cover movements, and commanders will call air strikes on you lest you take them out early – it all sounds mightily impressive.

However, one new aspect that really catches my eye is the new ‘Command Mode’ whereby at the push and hold of a button, you can control your squad’s every move and objective, including all the usual suspects for a game of this type: waypoints, behavior and selections for multiple targets to destroy en route. So far familiar, but these choices are done in real time – albeit slightly slowed.

The idea of bullets flying past whilst you make those life or death decisions is one that should excite even the most brazen of FPS gamers.

Although my early rant suggests I do not care about the multiplayer aspect of Socom 4, the truth is that precious little information on it exist at the moment. Levels and classes, usable vehicles and multiplayer campaigns are all still a mystery.

Yet if the developers manage nail the single player aspect – which seems promising at the moment – Socom 4 should have little trouble hacking a slice of the multiplayer pie.