(Ps3) Socom 4
3Socom 4 is mostly a duck and cover single player shooter. Multiplayer lacks the appropriate server structure of prior games. When you have an ACOG scope it is a scope shooter game with cover. Without a scope it is a frustrating game of chance if your shots will hit or not. The guns get an overall passing grade mostly for uniqueness, but the maps get a giant F. Nice try though Zipper Interactive. The problem with the maps and the multiplayer portion of this game is this. Slowly walking is not a good idea in a war zone. Slowly walking from hiding behind this crate to that crate is a bad idea cause you get picked off (see Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan when at the end he is shot on the bridge) Walking slow is nice at times and works very well in Socom 4 (slow as it may be) but walking slow playing a fast moving shooting game will probably never be a good idea. Add to that, that transitioning from moving to shooting is a bit hard until you adjust your look speeds and factor in the spray of these guns and overall Socom 4 is something of a novelty.
I seem to remember Socom as being a bit more open world gameplay wise, but as I think there have always been maps with junk strewn about, so with that in mind Socom 4 is really a game built off of the map Sujo from Socom 2. Interesting map, heavy camping, could go either teams way, but in the end most players would prefer another map a large majority of the time. Socom 4 gets a nice review score for being a nice game. Single player is replayable and the guns work ok in that regard but in multiplayer I caution you to not rank up a lot of guns. Just check them in the weapon load out for a gun you might like with all its options and stick with that for the entire time you play Socom 4. using any other gun to just rank up for fun will leave you dead dead DEAD dead on a constant basis. Pick up guns, find one you like and stick with it or you will get very very angry from being a walking target. Going 5 for 19 is not fun. 5 kills and 19 deaths. Lots of grenades to worry about and even mines, and rocket propelled grenades and snipers, etc... it is a blood bath and not very enjoyable a lot of the time. A gun with a scope verse a gun without a scope; the scope will always win. FYI and the Kurtis 45 submachine gun is a must have on small maps. The large machine guns are garbage - don't waste your time. M4A1 with Acog, Kurtis 45 and a 50. cal sniper rifle. Done. Enjoy.
ADDITION: Seven months later and I still say pick it up for the single player and the custom campaign, which I didn't really get into in this review. There are various missions to pick and you just get to run and gun in them. Well not run really, but it is fun and the entire offline experince makes Socom 4 a good purchase and a game any shooter fan will enjoy. Also the custom campaign can be played online co-op for up to 4 players. The online portion of this review still stands. It is just not a game that can played online for long periods day in and day out. The guns are to random firing and the majority of the maps are annoying after sometime in game.
So mad at the guns, mad at the maps, mad at the inability to find the map you wanna play, and Socom 4 is a fun offline experience and really only a online 'experience.' It is AAA triple A in its mechanics but it is not classic Socom. QUESTION - Zipper? How is it you have the word Standard for the respawn servers name, so Standard means respawn? Also how is it that in addition to the Classic servers, the third servers called Custom do not allow custom rooms. Basically my question is why is there no custom room hosting in the 3rd server named custom? Standard / Classic / Custom - but custom is premade map stuff all of which is pretty much the same (except multiplier or movement speed) as any in the other 2 servers. Killing custom rooms, even though you have a server called custom is killing this game. Overall Socom 4 makes no sense to me or to itself, but it does have a lot going for it in the end. You can create rooms and set all the options the game has which is a lot of choice, but you need 31 friends to fill up the room you create. Not strangers, you actually will need to invite 31 friends or have 16 friends in a clan and go for a clan war to do anything custom. Socom 4 gets A's in places and F's or at least D+'s in others. F when compared to all other Socom servers.
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