[Gamers' Day 2007] Time For A Tactical Strike
SOCOM is returning to the PSP, but not in a form you'll recognize...
Published: May 17, 2007
It's possible that Sony is trying to go for a record with their titles in the venerable SOCOM franchise. While the newly-announced PS3 version has nice, tiny title, the newest PSP outing is saddled with the impressive string of SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike. Now, excusing the fact that someone just one a massive office pool by guessing that the words "strike" and "tactical" would appear in the next SOCOM game name, things here are surprisingly different.
For one, longtime series developer Zipper Interactive isn't working on either the new PSP or PlayStation Network titles (instead, they've got something else cooking). For another, this isn't a streamlined, semi-stripped-down, slightly more arcade-like experience as the Fireteam Bravo SOCOMs have been. Instead, it's a tight, strategic shot in the arm to the series that has, some would say, started to atrophy just a bit.
Rather than trying to patch things up and send them on their way by bolting on new modes or gameplay types, it appears Sony just decided to strip things down to the barest levels of similarity to the previous games in the series and just go with the core themes while creating a completely new type of game. The result is that you're still dealing with four-man squads (it's now an international affair, though, with everyone from North Korean to French to British to German Special Forces joining the fight). Things are still broken down into Alpha and Bravo sub-sets of the team, and you can issue orders to individual members, but the idea now is that you're juggling the whole squad rather than controlling one player and issuing orders to everyone else.
To this end, you squad will have defined roles, and while we're sure we'll see pre-mission loadout options and the like, how the actually characters use their weapons is, at least on the most basic level, up to the AI of your squad. You can help along all the members by spending Command Equity points accrued just like in the previous SOCOM games, but having direct control over things isn't the idea. Toggling between groups is as simple as using the shoulder buttons to pick a sub-group and then swap between those members, and of course the same context-sensitive actions are still in place, allowing you to tap a button for a common order or press and hold for a more varied set of actions like breaching or attacking to crosshairs.
The whole orders system actually impressed us with how elegant it was. There are quite a few options for everything from moving to attacking (moving in particular dripped of Full Spectrum Warrior or perhaps more appropriately Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter where you could see a basic outline of your squad before sending them over, helping to better gauge cover). The press-and-hold options let you maintain stealth, forego it for maximum protection, and so on. The most common actions are nearly always a single button press away, which is important because you're almost constantly cycling through the squad to tap the individual talents (like, say, sniping) of each member of the unit.
It's the one area that felt the most innately "SOCOM" about the game, but even here, it was more reserved, more strategic. Because the game isn't something where you can pause and get a bird's eye view of things, each movement feels more tense, and we actually found ourselves leaning slightly to try to get a better view. The tension, too, came from how the AI was more than willing to use the level to flank and surprise; we actually got capped when leapfrogging from section to section because we didn't bother to check to see if anyone could sneak in from the sides or back.
Though it was briefly touched upon, with mentions of 16-player (four squads of four) online in both Infrastructure and Ad-Hoc, plus voice chat support, the actual online experience seems to be something Sony is saving for E3. Even still, with a little bit (or a lot) or practice and getting our heads around the idea of quickly tabbing between units and teams, we could see this being a SOCOM for people that don't even like SOCOM games. We'll make sure we update things with more info as it comes in. Check back soon.
For one, longtime series developer Zipper Interactive isn't working on either the new PSP or PlayStation Network titles (instead, they've got something else cooking). For another, this isn't a streamlined, semi-stripped-down, slightly more arcade-like experience as the Fireteam Bravo SOCOMs have been. Instead, it's a tight, strategic shot in the arm to the series that has, some would say, started to atrophy just a bit.
Rather than trying to patch things up and send them on their way by bolting on new modes or gameplay types, it appears Sony just decided to strip things down to the barest levels of similarity to the previous games in the series and just go with the core themes while creating a completely new type of game. The result is that you're still dealing with four-man squads (it's now an international affair, though, with everyone from North Korean to French to British to German Special Forces joining the fight). Things are still broken down into Alpha and Bravo sub-sets of the team, and you can issue orders to individual members, but the idea now is that you're juggling the whole squad rather than controlling one player and issuing orders to everyone else.
To this end, you squad will have defined roles, and while we're sure we'll see pre-mission loadout options and the like, how the actually characters use their weapons is, at least on the most basic level, up to the AI of your squad. You can help along all the members by spending Command Equity points accrued just like in the previous SOCOM games, but having direct control over things isn't the idea. Toggling between groups is as simple as using the shoulder buttons to pick a sub-group and then swap between those members, and of course the same context-sensitive actions are still in place, allowing you to tap a button for a common order or press and hold for a more varied set of actions like breaching or attacking to crosshairs.
The whole orders system actually impressed us with how elegant it was. There are quite a few options for everything from moving to attacking (moving in particular dripped of Full Spectrum Warrior or perhaps more appropriately Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter where you could see a basic outline of your squad before sending them over, helping to better gauge cover). The press-and-hold options let you maintain stealth, forego it for maximum protection, and so on. The most common actions are nearly always a single button press away, which is important because you're almost constantly cycling through the squad to tap the individual talents (like, say, sniping) of each member of the unit.
It's the one area that felt the most innately "SOCOM" about the game, but even here, it was more reserved, more strategic. Because the game isn't something where you can pause and get a bird's eye view of things, each movement feels more tense, and we actually found ourselves leaning slightly to try to get a better view. The tension, too, came from how the AI was more than willing to use the level to flank and surprise; we actually got capped when leapfrogging from section to section because we didn't bother to check to see if anyone could sneak in from the sides or back.
Though it was briefly touched upon, with mentions of 16-player (four squads of four) online in both Infrastructure and Ad-Hoc, plus voice chat support, the actual online experience seems to be something Sony is saving for E3. Even still, with a little bit (or a lot) or practice and getting our heads around the idea of quickly tabbing between units and teams, we could see this being a SOCOM for people that don't even like SOCOM games. We'll make sure we update things with more info as it comes in. Check back soon.