Have you ever seen a death so realistic in a game that it made you cringe? Nope? Neither have I. I’m sorry to inform you that you won’t be seeing it in this game either. What you will see though is the exact opposite- the crappiest death animations of this generation. Okay, so you might be wondering why I’m being such a jerk about something so small, so minute, so un-important. Why pick this little detail to point out among a sea of greater flaws??? Well, my theory is that when something trivial, like a death animation, is done poorly, it pretty much reflects the state of the rest of the game. 

Even so, is this game worth picking up?

 

STORY = Awful

The basic premise of the game is that you are given 6 days to save a country, or a man, or both. I don’t really care because judging from just the first minute of cutscenes, the plot had “generic” stamped on its friggin face. I have to give it to Zipper though for trying to add some back-story to the commander, an attempt to puff up this flat character- it almost makes me want to care about the character, almost.

At the end of the day, it’s your typical ‘80s action B-flick, and you probably won’t have a clue as to why you have just killed hundreds of soldiers.

GAMEPLAY = Meh

For an exclusive third-person shooter sequel that is making its debut on the ps3 (as a full-fledged sequel), Socom 4 doesn’t really impress us with anything new. But, there are some elements that do stand out.

 

 

THE GOOD

+Tactical elements-> You are given 2 squads through most of the game (consisting of 2 soldiers). One squad specializes in close combat and heavy fire, the other in long range and silent weapons. You can command these squads to do different tasks. You can make your squad move to a specified position where your crosshair points or you can command your group to stick with you. Also, you can command your troops to kill a specified target. With these basic commands you can set up an ambush for an incoming convoy, or you can strategically place your squads during a firefight. Unfortunately, that’s about all you can do with them.

+Covert ops- >A lot of the missions are actually stealth missions. These are by far my favorite. You are given a meter that tells you how noticeable you are to the enemy. It takes into account the amount of light around you and how much noise you are making. It’s no Metal Gear Solid by any means, but the stealth is actually not bad and adds a different type of challenge to the game.

+”Bosses”- >The game does have bosses, sort of. Every couple of levels you fight some military vehicle that greatly overpowers you. A touch of the old days of gaming.

 

THE BAD

–Lousy AI-> Yes, this game has a bit of the ol’ retarded-AI syndrome. Often times you will probably have to give your commands 2-3 times to your squads before they actually get to where you want them. Sometimes when I gave them kill commands, they would stand behind an obstacle blocking their view and set up there, therefore not being able to execute the shot. There was also inconsistency in some of the stealth missions, though few. For example, sometimes I would get caught while prone in complete darkness, other times I could walk right next to an enemy and they wouldn’t notice.

 

–Not enough variety- >You can pretty much run-and-gun through the whole game if you like. The game really only has 2 types of levels- stealth and shoot everything you see.

 

–Weird grenade throw->Who taps for grenade throws nowadays?!? I was like wtf! Threw me off completely, not going to lie. (I’m picky sometimes aren’t I?)

 

–Horrible cover system-> Cover is called cover because it’s supposed to cover you- from bullets and such. Apparently not so much in this game. I actually died behind cover a couple of times. However, I appreciate the realism of having bullets go through thin objects and the effects bullets have on certain objects. Also, you can’t run and slide/jump into cover in this game, for some odd reason.

 

–Nothing new-> Besides the tactical squads, we’ve pretty much seen everything else in EVERY other shooter.

MULTIPLAYER = Pretty Cool

You can actually play this for a while. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. I know most people play Socom for the online aspect, and those people will probably not be disappointed. Playing a 32-player match is awesome. Personally, I didn’t have the same feeling as when I played past Socom games, but it was still fun.

GRAPHICS = Meh

So-so. Obviously it looks better than any other Socom game. The good thing is that the game runs smoothly and I never saw a leg fall through the ground.

AUDIO = Meh

Again, nothing special in this department. It still includes the option to have your squads transmission to be heard through your headset- which you have to have on- just because.

WHAT’S THE WORD: PLAY IT!

Whaaaat?!? After all that I’m going to recommend this!?! Well it so happens that I tried this game a different way also –with the ps3 move gun, AKA the sharpshooter. It’s a playstation move gun attachment. Instantly made the game more enjoyable. It turns it into an arcade shooter, sure, but that’s a good thing. Considering there aren’t many shooters out there supporting the move (Killzone 3 being the only other good one I can think of), this is worth trying out.

Kevin Butler shows off the sharpshooter:

If you are going to buy Socom 4: U.S. Navy Seals however, I would have to recommend the Full Deployment edition. You get everything in the move bundle, but also with the sharpshooter attachment and the game. When it comes to playstation move prices this is the best deal out there right now.

You can check the prices yourself on Amazon :

Click here to check out the full deployment edition or see more reviews.

P.S. Did I mention it does 3d…