SOCOM I was a masterpiece in itself by introducing compatibility with Sony’s new USB headset. With this cool thing, you can give your team orders in single player and you can communicate with people online through it. Now that SOCOM II is out, it really makes quite a few improvements compared to SOCOM I. To give a more detailed review, it will be split up in three sections: Single Player, Online, and Overall. Single Player and Online are very different from each other, so I feel the need to split up a few things about it. Before I continue, this game is rated M for Mature. It has blood and war violence in it, but the blood shouldn’t freak you out because it only occurs when you shoot someone. Seriously, it should be rated T, but ESRP looked at it as a war game, so there you go. Anyone can basically handle this game. It’s not like a GTA where you have more than just violence and blood. Enough with the ratings. Let’s continue. Single Player If you expected this single player to be like SOCOM I’s single player, well, you’re pretty much right. The mechanics of the single player mode haven’t changed much, but it adds a lot of new goods, too. Like SOCOM I, this game has 12 total missions, 3 in each country. These missions are in places like Albania, Brazil, Algeria, and Russia. All of the missions are near the same length as SOCOM I’s, but they are a lot more involved. Instead of having one clear objective for you for the entire mission, it does change a little bit. For single player, you take control of the team commander, Specter. Including Specter, you are in charge of 4 SEALs. Yes, 4 is a little disappointing of a number, but many SEAL teams have 4 people. You and Jester (notice how these guys were in SOCOM I’s Bravo Element) are the Able Element while Wardog and Vandal are the Bravo Element. You can use commands in the in-game command screen, or by talking in your headset. I prefer the headset because it adds a bit of flavor to the game. Your teammates will talk a lot more and they can give you hints on where to go and what to do. None of their messages are annoying and I think you’ll enjoy how much they communicate. A nice improvement is the ability to give more orders to Able, known as Jester. Remember in SOCOM I how annoying it was to have Jester follow you everywhere and you couldn’t tell him where to go? Those times have changed. Jester has the same orders of Bravo Element and with the addition of “Overlook” which involves him scanning the area ahead and basically covers you. While this addition isn’t too great, it’s only useful in one mission. However, it’s not like you can go far away from Jester. Standard SEAL pairs are ordered to have a “tether”. That means that once you go beyond 50 meters of your teammate, he will come back to you. It can be annoying at times, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Bravo has the same commands as they did in the last game. The cool thing about Bravo is the fact that you can order them to go to a certain area and wait there or have them hold back to cover you. Ordering Bravo to go to a certain NAV point doesn’t play a huge role unlike SOCOM I where it was very useful to send Bravo to a certain NAV point. The only thing Bravo is good for is clearing out rooms and shooting. Still, they are very useful and use them in any way you can. A cool addition to the commands besides telling your team to Hold Position is the Get Down command. This command can be incredibly useful at times since it orders your team to go prone and stay where you are. Otherwise, the commands have been tweaked by a little bit, but not too drastically. They have added a bunch of new weapons and suits. These suits are very detailed and it is easy to distinguish between each SEAL. They have the same weapons from the last game, but they have added foreign operative weapons, more SEAL weapons, more Terrorist weapons, and *gasp* RPG’s! You must be thinking that RPG’s are the coolest addition ever, but that will change your mind pretty quick. Seriously, the RPG is only useful in two or three missions. You must not move while you’re holding an RPG or else it will automatically give you control to your assault rifle. There has also been the addition of turrets, but like the RPG’s, they are only useful at certain times. A very awesome addition to this game is the extras section. By completing single player on certain difficulties, it will give you extras that you can just use for enjoyment which include weapons on single player, new characters for online, music tracks, and production videos. This feature is definitely worthy of praise, so check it out. They also added about 30 minutes worth of dialogue and cutscenes, which are great. They aren’t long at all, so you won’t get bored seeing them. I know how many of you have been sick of seeing nothing but rural missions, this one has a lot of urban missions and a few indoor missions. The urban feel is excellent. My #1 complaint about SOCOM I was no urban missions. I knew SOCOM II was going to have a few, but they are far better than I thought they would be. It offers you some very intense battles and cover at times. For once, this actually feels like an urban war game. With these 12 missions, 4 of them consist replacing your Bravo Squad with foreign operatives. Two of them consist of the British SAS and the other two consist of the Russian Spetznaz. This is an excellent addition to the game as you can notice they’re different styles of doing things. They handle the same way as Bravo, but you’ll enjoy hearing to what they have to say. Another cool edition to the missions is bonus objectives. The bonus objective count towards the mission completed rating and can affect future missions if you get all of them. I have two complaints about single player. The first one is the lack of missions. Sure, there are 12 missions that can take 20+ minutes to complete each one, but it’s time for more missions. 12 is just a number that isn’t real satisfying anymore. Even though the missions are fun, it left me wanting more. The second one is the fact that foreign operatives appear in only 4 missions. This one is basically affected by the lack of missions, so if they inserted more missions, there would be more foreign operatives. Online Online play is what makes this game very popular. I am writing about online play separately because it is very different from single player. Before you play online, I’d suggest that you are 13 years old or older, or else people can tell how old you are by your voice and you will be insulted badly. Also, other people WILL swear and other stuff, so if you’re offended by swearing, don’t play it. You need at least 4 MB of memory card space, network adapter, HDD (optional, but recommended if you want to play the new maps), headset (optional, but recommended), keyboard (optional, but recommended), Ethernet cord, and broadband internet. Which means AOL and Dial-Up is NOT allowed for this game. If you don’t have broadband, then stop trying to conserve your money and get it. Also, you will get very frustrated at times and this mode is highly addictive. The online play from SOCOM I have changed quite a bit in SOCOM II. The menu is similar, but more organized. You can go into briefing rooms that can hold a maximum of 256 people to find a room to play in. The allowed space in a room can vary, but all server made rooms will have the 16 person limit (which is the most people you can have in the room, anyways). Also up to 8 people can spectate a game and that amount can change, but be aware that you might be voted out if you’re spectating. Note that it isn’t a personal issue, but people do it for lag issues. Usually if there’s 1 person spectating, they won’t vote you, but if there are 4 spectators, you will be voted. A new addition is the friends and ignore list. I doubt you’ll even use the ignore list, but the friends list can be very helpful. More options are player and clan rankings, and autoplay. Autoplay isn’t a big deal. Only use it if you want to go to a random game. Clan rankings aren’t a big deal either since they are determined by everyone’s rank in the clan. You can use player rankings to check your rank and other people’s rank. The ranking system is a new addition. It can be helpful or not so helpful since people have found exploits that can boost their rank way up. Otherwise, rank can determine someone’s skill. Another awesome addition is player profiles. You can now view someone’s stats and rank in their own profile. This can be a good and bad thing, but I won’t get into that. Clans are back and you can only allow 16 people in one roster. A cool, new addition is clan tags. Instead of changing your name to let people know what clan you’re part of, the clan tag automatically appears in orange text. Still, clans are cool, but it’s mainly the leader’s since he/she is the only person that can edit any part of the clan. If the leader is never on, then it isn’t worth being in the clan. One thing that is lacking is an official war system. Even though gambattles.com runs 4 ladders for SOCOM II, it would have been nice if Zipper included an official war system. The way you play online is a lot different than single player. In most cases, stealth is not an issue. It’s okay to run and fire your weapon, but taking cover and camping in some places can be incredibly helpful. Of course, stealth can help at times if you have a silenced weapon and found a good spot with cover. You are either SEALs or Terrorists and you will try to win by doing something on a certain map. There are the 3 returning game types plus 2 new types. Suppression is when it’s a deathmatch where you must eliminate the other team. That’s the only objective. You can trigger respawn which is 20 minutes of just killing the other team to see how many kills you can get in 20 minutes. It can be boring and fun, but you can decide that for yourself. Extraction is when the SEALs try to rescue the hostages. The terrorists will start out with them in their base and you must try to get them out of there and to safety. Demolition is when each side will try to demolish the other team’s base. The bomb is always in the middle of the map, so you can expect huge firefights near it. One of the new types is Escort. Escort is when the SEALs start out with the VIP’s and must extract them to safety while the terrorists are trying to kill them. If the terrorists kill all the VIP’s, they win. Note you can only extract them if you have at least 2 in the extraction zone. If there’s only 1 remaining, extraction is no longer an option and you must try to keep him alive. The other new mode is Breach. Breach is when the SEALs start out with the bomb and must breach the terrorist base and plant the bomb. The terrorists are really trying to protect their base, so watch out when you try to plant C4 on their gates. If no team wins, then it will result in a draw in most cases. For Suppression, Extraction, and Demolition, if the time counter is at 0, it will result in a draw and no team will win the round. For Escort, draws are not an option. If the 1 or more VIP’s are still alive when the counter hits 0, the SEALs will win since the terrorists failed to eliminate all of them. For Breach, draws aren’t an option once again. If the SEALs fail to plant the bomb within the time limit, the Terrorists will win. Note that if everyone is eliminated on the other team, you will win regardless of the match type. While a lot of people play this way, still note that the other team can take the opportunity to complete the primary objective. Overall The way the game plays varies. Single player is fun, but the lack of more missions makes it a little disappointing. Still, it’s very fun. Online however, is not a bit disappointing. Lag can plague it a lot, but it isn’t terrible. An official war system would have been nice too. The graphics in the game are outstanding. The building details and landscape is just amazing. It has been greatly improved compared to the last game. You can see almost every detail on a SEAL, enemy, or building. Nothing looks blurry and all the images are very sharp. The vehicles could have used some tuning, but you don’t see them often, so it’s not a big deal. The sound is suburb. Each song was recorded live and it definitely adds a lot of style to the game. Unlike other games, none of the music gets annoying. Each single player and online map has a certain and unique music track. The gunfire sounds have been improved and really do sound like the real thing. The grenades could use some sound improvements, but not much. There are quite a few distinct accents, so it gives the game a real feeling instead of everyone speaking one language. Overall, SOCOM II is a must have. Every console that has online compatibility needs a good war-based online game and SOCOM II definitely takes that role for the PS2. With over 30,000 people on at peak hour, you can expect a lot of rooms and there is always a place to play. If you aren’t a big online fan, single player is fun, but is not even close towards the satisfaction of online play. Online play is the absolute core of this game and it would be a total flop without it. In the end, SOCOM II is a highly addictive game that should not be missed by anyone.
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