Preview: SOCOM 4

When I first stepped inside the offices of Zipper Interactive in Redmond, Washington, I saw evidence of their success along the walls of the hall. Awards for many of their game releases were found in plain view.

I was asked to wait in a room with everyone else and told that everything would begin shortly. When the area opened up, we walked into a sport court that had been converted into an elaborate showcase for SOCOM 4. Ghillie was draped from the ceiling, posters advertising the game were hung on the walls, and rows of TVs and PS3s were lined up, ready for us to try the game.

The presentation started with Brian Soderberg, President of Zipper Interactive, taking the stage and introducing Travis Steiner, Lead Designer on SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy Seals. He began by telling a little bit about Zipper and their history with the SOCOM franchise. He stated that although they have developed 7 games on three different platforms, SOCOM 4 is a major evolution in the series and something that they are really proud of.

A member of the development team soon took the stage to show a portion of a level, Onslaught, from the single player campaign. Without spoiling anything, Onslaught features a team of U.S. Navy Seals who must take action when a private military corporation attacks in an unnamed tropical locale. Travis emphasized the need for squad tactics here, where even if you aren’t the type of person who likes to tell friendly AI where to move, you can still play the way that you normally would and your teammates will act on their own. The utilization of the game’s cover system will make all the difference in how long you stay alive, but the level showcased that cover can be destroyed to leave you completely exposed to enemy fire. Also to note: the team opted to use in-engine cinematics to convey the story without taking the player out of the experience with CGI cutscenes.

While the 5-player cooperative gameplay wasn’t on display, the 32-player online competitive multiplayer was, and over the course of the day, we played round after round of multiplayer against each other and members of the QA department at Zipper.

After the presentation was over, I had the chance to play two different game modes, Last Defense and Suppression, on a variety of maps.

In Last Defense, teams fight for three satellite-housing control points. Once all three satellites at these control points are activated a beacon is begins that, once armed, will call an airstrike and destroy the enemy base. Suppression, the second mode, is essentially SOCOM‘s version of team deathmatch. As evident from previous iterations of SOCOM, tactical play is a huge part of the game and the player is rewarded heavily for playing with team cooperation in mind. Players must coordinate with each other to watch over the bases that they control as they can be deactivated by the defending team.

In both modes the teams are separated into Spec Ops and Insurgents, giving each its own unique look and set of weapons to choose from. Whenever a player spawns they have the option of customizing their loadout before entering into the battle. Each loadout consists of a primary weapon, a backup weapon, a primary grenade, a backup grenade, and whatever model you want your character to look like. The really neat thing about this is that your backup weapon isn’t some stripped down pistol; any weapon that you can select as your primary can also be selected as your backup.

Experience points (XP) are earned for everything you do in multiplayer, whether it involves killing an enemy or saving a teammate’s life. This XP is used to advance levels as a character and per each weapon that the XP is earned with. When a weapon gains XP, it can attain a higher “mod” level, granting it stronger capabilities and different attachments. SOCOM also has a consistent ranking system to which there are twelve different ranks, each coming with its own set of new weapons and unlocks.

Zipper confirmed that there will be four multiplayer game types at launch: Suppression, Uplink, Last Defense, and one yet-to-be-announced mode. Nine all-new maps will also make their way into SOCOM 4 along with a classic remake, Abandoned, as a pre-order bonus through Gamestop. Zipper hasn’t ruled out any pre-arranged game mode playlists, and will even be throwing user-suggested custom playlists into the mix.

With the confirmed features, among others, SOCOM 4 looks to more than satiate any fan of multiplayer shooters when it releases for the Playstation 3 on April 19th.

Alex Rubens can be reached at: Twitter (@AlexRubens)

Disclosure: During his visit with Zipper Interactive, the Author won a Sony Bloggie during an on-site competition.