Playstation 3...it only does everything...: 2011

Good day gamers, I’m here to post a simple review of SOCOM 4, I played the beta, and I loved it, so I thought of making a mini-review for this game.

Setting:
Asia

Characters:

Good guys:
Cullen Gray - Ops Commander
Schweitzer
Wells
Chung
Park/Forty-Five

Bad guys:
Naga
etc...

Story

Single player mode

The campaign is comprised of 14 missions, which you will accomplish in “6” days, battling Naga forces and another group, which I will not mention. (spoiler).
You will play as the Ops Commander, battling Naga forces etc. The story revolves around lies, deceit, lots of action, the usual stuff from shooting games.
Nothing fancy, some twists, and a major event will definitely shock a loooot of SOCOM followers.
I finished the game on hard mode in roughly, 5.5-6 hours, lots of action, some stealth missions, 4 to be exact, which I really liked. Story could have been better, anyways, what's done is done, nothing to rejoice about, nothing to whine about either.

Gameplay

The game is a third-person squad-based shooter. You (Ops Commander), can give orders to your team/teams, labeled as blue and gold, you can choose from being stealthy, tactical to slam bang action. I prefer the latter though.
You can set waypoints, you can command your squad to take out op-fors while on their way to their way point, you can have your team take cover on certain parts of the map for a more tactical approach.
One fo the main characters, Forty-Five/Park, is a South Korean special forces operative, naturally, some missions are solely hers to tackle, and it involves stealth.
I loved the stealth missions, though, a bit frustrating at times, especially in the higher difficulty settings, no Rambo type of gameplay here...

Giving orders to your team. (Blue icon)

45 in action (stealth missions)

Graphics

Graphics are great, colors are vivid and alive, explosions, especially smoke is very nice, as well as the trees, grass etc. Movement is smooth, just what the doctor ordered.
I posted some pics below for you to judge. :agree:

Audio

Awesome! A-W-E-S-O-M-E!
Sound of weapons, plus your enemies screaming in agony, grenade explosions, from reloading to firing full auto...WOW!

Overall

3.5/5

Summary

I encountered some bugs, especially in the first mission, which was a bit of a turn-off for me, but after that, everything went smoothly.
Story was nothing to rejoice about, but nothing to whine about either, graphics are great, I remembered Uncharted when I first played the jungle settings, although, Uncharted is better of course, as for the sound, awesome is the only thing I can say, game controls, a breeze.
Enemy AI is super excellent, if there is such a word, they flank you, charge forward, throw tons of grenades if you camp on a spot, occasionally, do all of these, your team AI is a bit lacking though, infact, they suck, the only gripe I have for this game aside from the first mission bug.

Now, on to the multi-player:

Gameplay

SOCOM 4 has a lot of options to choose from...

Standard Mode

Best out of 3 Rounds
30 Minute Time Limit
Respaw
Air Strikes

Classic Mode

Best out of 11 Rounds
5 Minute Time Limit
No Respawn
Faster Movements

Custom Mode

User created, unranked, friend/clanmates can join up, lastly, a looooooot of fun!
Zipper created, ranked

Custom co-op

You can create upto 4 maps in custom mode, with varying difficulty and number of enemy AIs.

Weapons galore!
Upgrades/mods are excellent!

Game Modes

Last Defense:
One of my favorite modes, this is an objective based game, wherein you need to capture sectors placed on certain points of the map, if you capture all the sectors, you need to assault and “take their base”, a lot fast paced slam bang fun!

Uplink:
SOCOMs version of capture the flag, which I think, 99% of us knows how to play.

Suppression:
Team deathmatch, a favorite among players.

Bomb Squad:
Very similar to search and destroy, but in SOCOM, a player is tasked to don the bomb suit, and play the role of bomb tech, to disarm bombs, the other team, defends the bombs of course. Requires teamwork for you to win, and of course skill.

A list of some more modes which I haven’t tried yet...but of course, I will in the near future.
SCRUM (Custom)
Sniper Alley (Custom)
Last Defense Run ‘n Gun (Custom)
Community Day Classic (Custom)

Graphics

Same as in SP, great overall.

On-line multiplayer.

Audio

Same as in SP, A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

Value

Hell yeah!

Overall

4.5/5
If not for the grenade bug, I'd give this a 5!

Summary

One thing that irritates me though, is the grenade bug, sometimes, when you throw your grenade, it bounces back to you, killing you and your teamates if they are near enough, I killed 3 of my teammates once, and it sucked!

Online multi-player truly shines for me, very refreshing from hoards of FPS games released recently.

Well, that’s it, hopefully you enjoyed reading, and hopefully you pick up the game, and include me (camiencalvin :ashamed: ) in your friend’s list, for more fun filled action!