SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs

6 Overall Score
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 6/10

Fun Multiplayer

Generic | Vaguely racist

Game Info

GAME NAME: SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs

DEVELOPER(S): Zipper Interactive

PUBLISHER(S): SCE

PLATFORM(S): PS3

GENRE(S): Third-person Shooter

RELEASE DATE(S): 4/18/2011

The tenth iteration of the SOCOM series, SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs is, without a doubt, the reason Zipper Interactive was shuttered.  It is a wholly generic, bland game that distinguishes itself in absolutely no redeeming way.  If an episode of Law and Order needed a shooter for some troubled teen to play in the background, SOCOM 4 is it.  Highly jingoistic and a bit racist, SOCOM relies on merely acceptable shooting in the single player, but at least the multiplayer is decent.

SOCOM 4’s single player story plays out thus – you are Commander Lance America Strongjaw, and you’ve been assigned to head up security in a generic war-torn southeast Asian country.  On a routine patrol, all hell breaks loose and you must save the day, bring down the rebellious Naga Viper Army, and bring justice to the world.  You’ve got your fireteam of generic soldier A and generic black soldier too, just in case it gets too rough for just one person.  Early in the game, you rescue two South Korean soldiers who form your second fireteam – Chung, a subservient Korean kid with a Chinese last name, and Forty-Five, a “badass girl” who refuses to give her real name.  She even wears eye black, so you know she’s awesome.  It’s as if Zipper was trying to show diversity in its cast of characters, but failed to realize that stereotypes are different than personalities.  Time and again, only Lance Strongjaw (whose actual ingame name is so blandly new-age it might as well by Skylar) can save the day.  It goes beyond the hero fantasy we all play videogames for, smashing through interpersonal and cultural nuance with a big, ham-fisted “AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!”  Maybe I’m reading too deeply into it, but in a game this generic, you have to grasp for any sort of allegory.  It’s one of only a handful of games I’ve played where I said, “why did they make this?”

At least the gameplay is fair.  Most of the guns behave appropriately, except for close-range weapons such as SMGs and shotguns which are a waste of inventory space.  Issuing orders to a relatively smart AI team lets the player set up ambushes (always fun), but these almost always wind up devolving into cover-based firefights every time.  When it doesn’t, the game almost becomes an interesting tactical shooter, letting you clear stages without firing a shot.  But that is definitely the exception to the run-of-the-mill rule SOCOM 4 plays by.  Lean out, pop a shot, heal up, do it again.  Although this is the established way of doing things in nearly all cover based shooters, SOCOM 4 does it so blandly that it falls far short of the games its predecessors were trying to emulate.  To put it another way, SOCOM 4 is worse than the games that copied SOCOM 2.  Now obviously not all sequels can be bigger and better every time, but if my time is going to be wasted, I’d rather do it without Move support, or an idiot lead character who constantly seems confused by anything besides shooting Asians.

Online, the game fares substantially better.  The tried-and-true deathmatch, team deathmatch, and CTF make their obligatory showings, as well as the interesting bomb squad mode.  Co-op is always fun as well, and even with Zipper shutting down, the servers are still up, and finding a game is easy.  Lots of setup options keep the action fresh, from VIP assassination to escapes to just wiping out everyone in your way.  Voicechat is solid – not as good as some other online shooters, but it does have the adjustment sliders in game, so you don’t have to exit to the XMB in your mic pickup is too low.

As a modern military shooter, a certain aesthetic needs to be upheld.  Beefy dudes, big loud guns, and lots of tossed around jargon must be present.  SOCOM 4 checks all those boxes, then takes the rest of the day off.  It’s graphically competent, but doesn’t do anything new or interesting.  The character models are way too shiny, too – they look like a bunch of army-themed WWE wrestlers traipsing through the jungle.  As for the audio; the guns are loud, the music is bombastic, and it is wholly generic.  At least the Naga Viper Army call you an imperialist pigdog in their own language.

Maybe it wasn’t the vaguely racist stereotyping or the awful story or the generic graphics or the gameplay from 2008 that sunk SOCOM 4 and, by association, Zipper Interactive.  Maybe it was the fact that this primarily multiplayer shooter came out during the Great PSN Crash of 2011.  Maybe it was severe mismanagement of assets.  Maybe it was an evil sorcerer.  But I’m betting this bland game was the final nail in Zipper’s coffin.

 

SHARE THIS POST

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Myspace
  • Google Buzz
  • Reddit
  • Stumnleupon
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Technorati
Avatar
Author: James View all posts by
Dangerously fat. Twitter: @hypersaline