Socom 4 BETA: Keep your PSP close.

I have been playing the Socom 4 beta for about 2 days now. First off I have to say I am having a blast, Most of the time....

Maps: There are two maps in this beta. One that's on a naval ship yard, and one that's in an insurgence base in the jungle. Both Maps are large with multiple levels to them. However right off the start there are two choke points per map, on opposite sides. The Spec Ops have one easy to reach choke point, and the Insurgents have one. Most of the kills take place at either of these choke points. If they add a standard team death match (respawning allowed) these choke points would lead to extreme camping.

Guns: There are a ton of weapons. Shotguns, Assault Rifles, SMGs, LMGs, and Sniper rifles, with something like 4 or 5 guns per category. While there is a noticeable difference between say an LMG and an SMG there really isn't much difference between an MP5 and a KRIS. As far as modification of guns goes, the more you use a weapon the more mods you get for it. The ACR (first assault rifle has 5 levels of modification. 0 has a reflex sight on it, 1 has an extended magazine, 2 has a acog scope, 3 has a silencer, and 4 has a grip. So the more you use a gun the better it gets. I'm not sure if I like this yet. When I first jumped into a game I was playing against some people that were rank 20+. If the game doesn't have some sort of balancing brand new players could get put into a game where a more experienced player has a fully maxed out gun. Side note: I'm not sure what good the silencers really do. Even guns without silencers don't appear on radar. It seems that silencers are only good against people playing with gaming headsets.

Graphics: I don't need to say much here. You can go look up videos or pictures of this and see. However I can say the game looks, and sound better than in the videos.

Gameplay: This is where the game both shines and falters. The gameplay can be both fast and energetic, but slow and monotonous. The maps are big and right at the start when the gun play starts it's exciting and fun. But once it comes down to 1 or 2 people left on the other team it can take forever to find them. My biggest problem with the gameplay in the beta is that there isn't just a standard respawn allowed team death match. When you die it can take up to five minuets before the next round starts and you can respawn. This is really where the game drags. Watching someone else run around looking for that one person on the enemy team so you can win the round is just mind-bendingly boring. Thankfully I had my PSP with me and could play that when I died.

Bugs: I didn't really encounter to many bugs when playing. In fact, I only encountered one, twice. The next round would start and, but only 4 people would spawn. So i was stuck watching an entire round and didn't even get to play. This bug happened twice in one game of 16v16. I'm not mad, it's a beta. Bugs are suppose to happen. That's what a beta's for.

Overall: The game is fun, but lacking. There wasn't really much difference in the weapons, an ACR felt like an AK103 felt like a Famas felt like a Scar and the balancing could be a problem in the real game. My biggest concern is that if the real game doesn't have a respawn allowed DTM it's not going to reach levels of success that it has the potential to. Only the Hardcore gamers are really going to find enjoyment in this game.

FINAL: 7.5/10 C+

(Look for my next blog post: Death of video game journalism on April 24th. I'm going to release statistics about the number of Troll, or flamebait articles, on N4G, compared to real journalism.)

[soundslike]

Its hard to get a sense of whats actually right/wrong with the game so far from your post as most of your complaints aren't very solid. Not having re-spawns is something that a LOT of people will be looking forward to, the last men standing failing to find each other sounds like a problem with the map, or the players.

Not trying to defend the game as I haven't played it, but most of your complaints come off as "things that aren't like COD", whereas I think a lot of people want to know how it compares to SOCOM and other tactical shooters where there's no such thing as "camping", only players who lose to the same tactics over and over and refuse to adapt.

[lex-1020]

While I agree with you, that not being able to respawn is something HARDCORE Socom fans will be looking forward to, I am not a Hardcore Socom fan. I enjoy the games greatly but have never really enjoyed having to wait five mins to start playing again. If that's your cup of tea than more power to you, but with only those types of game modes Socom 4 is never going to reach an audience outside of the Hardcore Socom fans. If they had a mode where respawns were allowed they would have a game like UC2+MGO but better. It would blow both those multiplayer out of the water. The maps are large, which would make it hard to find people. I like what you say about camping is just people who refuse to adapt, and I only said camping would be a problem if there were respawning allowed.

Like I said, If you enjoy the super tactical game play and no respawns that by all means you will probably love Socom 4. However Socom 4 is NOT going reach it's highest potential without a respawn game mode.

[soundslike]

Well, for starters, I'm pretty sure they will have respawn modes. There you go.

I'm not a long-time socom fan. I played a bit but never got to own it. I do however want to own seperate games that do different things better than each other. Why buy GT5 and complain that its not arcade enough? Just admit the game wasn't for you and move on..

...but its not just 'hardcore socom fans' that like the 1-life modes. Did Gears of War alienate the mainstream because of the one-life modes?
No, it was part of the appeal. You're dead when you're dead. Makes being alive in the game more valuable and fun.

: In short: By playing the game on your terms, and not its, you're missing out on something important and lacking credibility. Unless of course, it never existed in SOCOM 4 to begin with.

[lex-1020]

@soundslike

If it had respawm modes I would be playing it probably obsessively. The game in it's current state is not for me. What you seem to not be understanding is the demographic. Go look at Black Ops for an instant. See how many people are playing TDM compaired to S&D. It's more than triple the number. Why because more people like being able to respawn. And like just straight TDM than other types of game modes.

Now like you said, Gears of War. Did it alienate the main stream? Yes. Again look at how many people still play Gears Online. Sure you'll be able to find a game but only the hardore Gears fans are really still playing. The more casual gamer (the one with limited time who likes to play fast and quick paced gameplay isn't playing Gears. They're playing a game like COD because they can jump into a game, get right into the action and go crazy. They don't need to worry about staying alive, and moving tactically. They just want to play a game.

I'm not playing the game on my terms. I'm playing the game on the game's terms and judging the amount of fun I have based on my terms. And let's face it they're MY terms. If you enjoy the super tactical gameplay then have it, like you said, "I do however want to own seperate games that do different things better than each other". But if the game does not include a respawn mode in it than it IS going to alienate a very large demographic of people. And as I stated earlier only the people who really enjoy that type of tactical game play are really going to be playing this game. With an overwhelming majority of people who enjoy the fast paced games Socom 4 is going to fall by the wayside with the "Mainstream" gamers and be a shinning gem with the Hardcore gamers.

[NoOoB101]

@lex
Idk how long u played the beta but there is a respawn suppression mode. Which is basically TDM. Right now in the beta they are switching up the modes you can play everyday. Some days it uplink and last defense..other days its suppression and bomb squad and other day it has custom made games like scrum or sniper ally.

[-Alpha]

I'm having a blast but feel bad for "vets" who are getting screwed.

While I never played previous SOCOM games I would love all that they are asking for to be in the game:

http://forums.socom.com/t5/...

Can't help but feel bad for them.

I love classic SOCOM, it's such a fun experience and I've already had the heart-pumping moment of being the last man standing and beating the odds.

I play lots of COD and love S&D, that mode required a lot of teamwork in CoD4 and I love seeing a whole game dedicated to that. No respawn modes in games like COD were so intense and SOCOM's system of focusing on this is amazingly well constructed. I can't believe I missed out on this franchise until now.

With that said, I agree about guns feeling all the same. They need to bring back Confrontation/old SOCOM crosshairs with recoil, fix the camera, give us grenade arch, lean, and whatever else being complained about.

They have the modes to cater to newcomers but I think they should just give their core fans what they want, I feel like what they are complaining about would make the game even better. If this is another matter of trying to please the lowest denominator of fans I think they did that already with the spawn modes, which I find fun, but totally opposite to classic mode-- I hope Zipper focuses more on the way SOCOM was built, they need to have confidence in what they originally built. I don't see why they can't give their original fanbase everything they are asking for if they are going to have two opposite types anyway. I hope S2 fans get what they want out of S4.

But besides that, as a newcomer with no SOCOM experience I am in love with the concept of this game.

[NoOoB101]

Nice post alpha.
I completely agree. they can cater to both since "vets" play classic and the newcomers will play respawn. They should listen to what all the vets are saying and change what they need to only in classic mode though. Then cater to the cod fans or whatever in the respawn. That way we can have both worlds happy.

The guns need to change a bit though..in confrontation everyone had there own type of gun they used because they felt so different. smg's ftw =D

Oh! and they need to change the damn mic system ><
either give us back the L2 to talk and beep when someone pressing it and lets go like in confrontation...or just give us open mic because pushing up on the d pad is very irritating and doesn't work half the time.

[Trroy]

There are respawn and classic non-respawn games in the beta. It's hard to tell the difference on the multiplayer mode screen, unless you look at the description of the game type, though.

If the game type description says "classic", its one-life-per-round. If it doesn't say classic, it has respawn.