SOCOM: Confrontation Review [PS3]

09 Apr 2009 at 14:02:51 by
Systems used to review this title: (PS3)

Despite the catastrophic US launch of SOCOM: Confrontation, the European release proved less problematic.  Although the PS3 exclusive had its issues, it was still met with great anticipation, until players realised that, actually, they'd been taken for quite a ride.  As well as the game freezing, players were disconnected from the server, experienced graphical glitches and generally had a bad time.  By the time the game made it across the water, the issues had been resolved and European gamers, had it not been for the internet, would have been non the wiser.

So, without the technical drama that befell our North American cousins, SOCOM: Confrontation was met by a somewhat tepid response from European gamers.  Of course loyal followers to the franchise had been eagerly watching and waiting for the strictly online multiplayer game, but with all the negative press of its North American release, coupled with the multitude of shooters which have an incredible online following, SOCOM: Confrontation was never going to deliver as well as it had hoped.  Especially when the aforementioned shooters offer a much better multiplayer experience.

In Confrontation, you can play as either an elite military marine, or as a mercenary, and can customise your characters' features, as well as kit them out with weapons and equipment suitable for the class type you're playing.  The customisation options are enough to keep you entertained for a while, but like most things, it's not the customisation that makes the gameplay and, after the initial pleasantries of altering your player's appearance, you quickly start focusing on your weapons, equipment and uniform, which will really make the difference in-game.

Although you can kit out your character in a variety of armour, camouflage and weapons, you also have to consider your mobility.  It's all fair and well to be completely armoured up, but if you can't move, then you may as well have nothing on.  Equally, if you've not got much protection on, then you can count yourself out.  And don't worry, you don't have to unlock the kit piece by piece.  There is a huge variety available from the get-go.

I was a big fan of the earlier SOCOM games - I loved the innovative gameplay, the voice recognition, foreign-language voice acting that delivered localised speech, as well as some pretty impressive missions and weapon variation.  Moving on to the next generation of consoles you'd expect as much, if not more, innovative gameplay modes and features.  Unfortunately, SOCOM: Confrontation doesn't deliver.  Instead of innovating, carving out a new niche for multiplayer games and really pushing the envelope on what can be done on next gen machines, SOCOM is disappointingly conventional.

First up, SOCOM sports an extremely clumsy and dated lobby. It's not at all clear which game mode you are playing  or, indeed, on which map.  There doesn't seem to be any kind of match-ranking system and when you first start playing you'll be obliterated by more seasoned players stalking the maps they know oh-so-well.  Frustrating to say the least.  Not as frustrating as the game's objectives, which are nigh impossible to figure out.

The visuals in Confrontation are equally dated. Despite huge load times, it looks less than impressive and the animations are stiff and the character models don't feel like they have any weight to them.  Although the majority game's glitches have been sorted, there are random pixels and walls that you can't pass, or jump or even shoot.  It's not only that though, it's the whole feel of the game.  It doesn't feel finished, even with the bugs being sorted it still feels clumsy, frustrating and oh-so last gen.  SOCOM: Confrontation falls down because it does nothing new or different.  The game modes are standard - deathmatch, CTF and search and destroy all with a superficial twist.   You can play most maps with 32-players, split into teams of 16.  If there aren't that many players on the server, then you can play the mini-maps which support either two teams of four or two teams of eight.

And still, there is no tournament option, so at the moment you're continually playing skirmishes, if you're lucky enough to be playing at all.  Until you've got your bearings and know the maps a little better, you'll spend half of your time dead in the map, and without the option of re-spawning, you're likely to put the game down for a couple of days in the hope you'll do better when you next put it on.

This is where SOCOM: Confrontation really fails.  Instead of being hooked to the game because it's purely multiplayer and online, you're disappointed with what it could have offered.  There is no map editing, there are no rewards for racing through the ranks, there is no offline gaming option (not even a practice session with bots like Killzone 2), and there are only seven maps.

It's hard to understand how this game ever made it, and frankly it feels like a half-arsed attempt to revive a franchise which had run its course.  Cashing in on the SOCOM name might have been a gamble, but it's one that has resulted in a game that is really sub-standard, frustrating, clumsy and suffering from an identity crisis.

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