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SOCOM is one of those franchises that pretty much every gamer knows about, regardless of whether they’ve actually played any of its iterations going back to its debut on the PlayStation 2 several years ago. The series became a mega hit by offering players insanely fun and intense multiplayer action that rewarded teamwork and required strategy to be successful. Fans will be happy to know that these ideas are still very much alive and well in the series’ PS3 debuts, SOCOM: Confrontation. Unfortunately, you’ll have to look past and put up with a ton of glitches, bugs, painfully long load times, and plenty of other technical issues in order to find that solid multiplayer experience the game so desperately wants to provide. In short, expect to be very disappointed.

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Single Player!

Unlike previous installments in the series, SOCOM: Confrontation is a strictly online affair. There is no single player mode or even an offline or online co-op campaign mode. Instead, it’s all about the multiplayer, which wouldn’t be a problem at all if it offered a wide variety of maps and modes. Sadly, it doesn’t. There are seven maps to choose from, five of which are just small and large versions of the same map. Hell, even SOCOM II for the PS2 launched with 11 maps. For a game that’s supposed to be all about the online action, Confrontation is disappointing right out of the box.

There are also seven multiplayer modes, and they are your standard fair. There are two team deathmatch options (Suppression and Elimination), a king of the hill-type mode (Control), two escort scenarios and two plant bomb/defuse bomb modes (Breach and Demolition). There is nothing particularly wrong with these modes, since many people will be happy playing team deathmatch and nothing else. But in terms of variety, it comes off as just good enough, and good enough just doesn’t cut it anymore, especially when you consider how many high-quality games that are either out already or on the way.

The maps themselves are easily the best-looking part of the game. Each one feels unique and includes impressive amounts of detail. They are also laid out well and offer plenty of ways to defend or attack positions. And with 32 players, battles can get quite intense. Although, some of the maps are a bit too large, so even when you are playing with 16 or 32 players, you’ll still find yourself running long distances before firing a single shot. This can get even more frustrating if you die often, because you’ll end up spending more time finding fights than you will actually fighting.

Suit Up and Load Out

Before you jump into battle, you have the option of customizing your mercenary and/or your commando in a variety of ways, from their physical appearance to the color of their camouflage to their clothing. The most important options, however, are what weapons you use. Each of the weaponry options (primary weapon, secondary weapon, gear, etc.) can be modified during matches as well.  There aren’t that many options in terms of weapons, since each category only has a couple variations, but each side has unique versions within those various weapon classes, which mixes things up.

The weapons all handle as you would expect, but they have some balancing issues as well, with some guns being far more powerful or far less powerful than they should be. There were at least three or four moments in every match I played where I would be exchanging rounds with someone, each of us riddling the other with bullet after bullet for a ridiculously long time, without either of us dying. Our armor (and poor aiming) obviously helped, but no armor is that strong.  And for a game that’s supposed to be about somewhat-realistic, tactical fighting, there are far too many of these super-solider-type moments. Now obviously, this has a lot to do with the players. After all, a single headshot results in an instant kill. But even in other games that lean towards realistic combat, like Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon, it only takes two or three body shots to put someone down. In Confrontation, falling from a ledge can often be deadlier than a firefight.

The controls certainly don’t help matters either. Switching between camera views and navigating the awkward inventory screen are two great ways to ensure you get killed quickly. Also, because the aiming system never feels as tight as it should, even after tweaking the sensitivity setting, you’ll end up seeing a lot of spraying and praying. And, again, for a game that’s supposed to favor skill and tactics, it sure doesn’t play that way.

Hoo-blah

Now, a lot has been said about the game’s many technical issues. And while Sony has released two patches (the most recent one was released before I wrote this review) to address several of these issues, I’m sorry to say that there are still a ton in the game. Severe texture pop-in and character glitches, like holding an invisible gun, are just the beginning. During matches, players will often teleport to and from other areas of the map for no reason at all. This not only means you’ll miss out on a kill, but it can result in your death too, since someone can just appear out of nowhere and blow you away.

While lag was somewhat held to a minimum, the game more than made up for it by constantly stuttering and occasionally freezing up entirely. There’s nothing quite like the added tension that comes from never knowing when a kill will be ruined because of a graphical hiccup. I understand that because of bandwidth issues, playing online isn’t always going to be 100 percent smooth. But when the stuttering comes from the game itself (i.e. engine problems), that’s just inexcusable.

However, these problems aren’t even close to as frustrating as the game’s incredibly long load times. The whole mess starts at the main menu, where you have to select the channel (or server) that you want to play on. You might as well ignore how many players each server says it has on it, because oftentimes selecting a channel with dozens of empty spots will result in a message that says it’s full. The same goes for selecting matches. Once the matches screen finally comes up, you can sort through them using a typical filter, which lets you search by number of players, game mode, etc.

You can also sort the list according to how many players are currently playing a particular map or how many players the map supports. Sorting games this way ended up being one of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced. Not only does the list automatically update every few seconds, it reorganizes itself as well. So as you’re scrolling through your recently sort list, the whole thing will suddenly reshuffle, leaving you to scroll back up and reorganize the list, only to have it all happen again a few seconds later.

In addition to having to wait far too long just between menu screens, you’ll also have to wait a good amount of time once you’ve selected a match to join. Times obviously vary between servers and connections, but at one point I waited almost three minutes from the moment I picked a match to the moment I was finally playing. That was by far the longest I had to wait, but even the fastest load times were excruciatingly long compared to other games out there that offer online multiplayer on top of substantial single-player modes as well.

Go On Without Me

SOCOM: Confrontation isn’t the worst game I’ve ever played. Not even close. At its core is a solid, multiplayer experience that offers heated gun battles, expansive maps and a huge community of players. There are probably fans out there who will sink just as many hours into it as they did with past installments. And perhaps after many, many more patches, it might even end up being a fantastic game. Sadly, I don’t review games based on what they might eventually become. This is the game the developers put out (and already patched twice), and this is the game that was reviewed. It still feels unfinished, it has tons of technical problems, it takes forever to get into games, and given the number of high-profile titles coming out over the coming months, there just isn’t any room for eventual quality.

Article by: Jake Gaskill