Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation

1. Official Site
2. Platform: ps3
3. Publisher: Sony America
4. Developer: Slant Six Games
5. Release Date: 10/14/08
6. Genre: Strategy

by Mike Repella

SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals is back for more action and this time it has moved on to the PS3. Veteran SOCOM players love the series because it offers realistic squad based action. Opposing forces can kill you with one shot and most games do not allow a respawn. Hopping around and running and gunning is not a recommended tactic in a SOCOM game, which is one of the reasons why the series has such a dedicated and hardcore fan base.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation is an online only multiplayer game. Since the game’s launch in early October it has been given harsh reviews by other gaming sites because of its numerous bugs and broken server client. I personally held off on doing this review because I wanted to see if the game’s developer, Slant Six, could fix the problems that were deservedly pointed out and make an enjoyable game. Now that the game has been patched twice (most recently to version 1.20) is the game worth your time and money?

The graphics in Confrontation are a mixed bag. By no means are they as bad as some of the reviews will lead you to believe. The game looks very sharp and is very detailed. The players are well animated and very realistic. Explosions will cause realistic smoke and dust will fly about the map. Some of the maps in the game are large and the in-game view distance has been extended from previous SOCOM games. There is no fog of war and if you get high enough on any given map you should be able to clearly see the entire map without fog obstructing your view.

The in game textures are sharp and detailed, but are prone to pop in unexpectedly. For instance you can see a window in the game, but as you approach it, it will suddenly become more detailed. Of course this issue exists in most games but it is more noticeable in SOCOM than it is in other current gen shooters.

One of the things that I appreciate about the game is that is generally fairly easy to distinguish opposing players from your own teammates. You will either be playing as a mercenary or a military type, which will change your in game appearance pretty dramatically. Even with all of the character appearance variations, Slant Six was kind enough to remember to make each side look unique enough that you can easily tell them apart. Slant Six also included various camouflage options that make your character blend into the environment fairly well. Many times I found myself trying to decide if an object was another player sitting still or just a part of a tree.

Other game critics charged that Confrontation looks like a PS2 game with slightly dressed up graphics. I couldn’t disagree more. Confrontation may not be as graphically impressive as CoD4 or Resistance 2, but it does have quality visuals that won’t be confused for a PS2 game.

The developer put a lot of time into the weapon sounds in Confrontation. They even included a video on the main menu of the game which shows the team going into the desert with all sorts of weapons to capture their real life sounds and put them into the game. The result is some pretty impressive in game weapon sounds. Each weapon sounds different than the next one. Throughout each game you can hear gunshots from all over the map that are more muffled the farther away they are. The in-game weapons truly sound impressive.

Along with Confrontation, Sony released their official Bluetooth Headset which is used heavily in the game. We reviewed the Headset and you can read that review here. The use of the Headset is essential in Confrontation, a good team will demand communication. Thankfully Confrontation's in game voices sound clear with a good headset.

Confrontation’s controls are a mixed bag. On the one hand the movement and aiming controls work exactly how you would expect them to. The left analog stick controls your movement and right analog stick controls your aiming. However, the controls for scopes and grenades are less than ideal. You have to use the D-pad to control the scope and I found it to be cumbersome. In a game like SOCOM where one mistake can mean your death the controls need to be very fluid and natural. Having to take your thumb off of the movement stick in order to activate and zoom your scope takes time and is sloppy, thus leaving your character open for an easy kill.

Grenades are another problem that quite honestly needs to be patched. The process of switching to and throwing a grenade takes way too long and leaves you open to being killed. I also found myself being stuck in grenade throwing mode even after I tried to switch back to gun mode. The biggest problem with the whole setup is that you cannot throw a grenade and have your gun out at the same time. This is unforgivable in a game like SOCOM.

Slant Six has included some nifty motion controls. If you tilt the SIXAXIS to either side your player will lean and give you the ability to look around corners. I found this to work very well and it is a good use for the motion controls. Players also have the ability to change the sensitivity settings of the motion controls if they aren’t comfortable with the default settings.

Confrontation is an online only multiplayer game. As I stated it isn’t a run and gun hopping simulator. SOCOM is realistic with one shot kills and most game serves offer no respawns. This means that if you don’t know what you are doing and don’t take the game seriously you will probably be dead within the first minute of any round and you will have to sit back and watch your team play.

The game is playable by up to 32 players at a time. Confrontation includes 7 maps, all of which feature a North African setting, including a makeover of fan favorite map “Crossroads”. Some of the maps are small inner city maps, much in the vein of Counter Strike, while others are very large maps that take time to traverse. The maps also vary enough that you won’t be bored with them quickly. Sony promises to release more maps via the PSN in the future.

There are seven different gameplay modes. Most of them are the standard modes included in all online shooters, including deathmatch, and a modified version of capture the flag where the flag is replaced with explosives that need to be disarmed or planted. Confrontation does include a unique point capture mode where teams race to capture set points. Once those points are captured you can move onto the next and not worry about defending the point. The goal of the game is to capture all of the points before the other team does. Despite whatever mode you are playing most matches will boil down to a team deathmatch since eliminating the other team will result in victory no matter what mode you are playing.

One of the coolest features in Confrontation is the customization of your character. Players are free to fully customize their character, including level of body armor, head gear, facial appearance, camouflage type and weapon load out. The game offers several hand guns, machine guns, heavy machine guns, sniper riffles, grenades, explosives and even rocket launchers. Most weapons offer sub options like scope type, grenade launcher, tripods etc. The choices you make affect your gameplay as some weapons recoil more than others and your movement speed can be slowed depending on your armor level and weapon weight.

The game does offer clan support and several of our GamingTrend forum members helped me test this feature out (Thank you Sensuous Lettuce, Vindel, Walking Fumble and Pingwrx). Theoretically the clan support should offer clan stat tracking and rankings, easy clan tournament sign ups, an event calendar, and in game invites for clan members to join your game server. As of the 1.20 patch these features are either broken or extremely underwhelming. Our clan had massive trouble trying to join the same game. We had to result to backing out of the game, starting a voice chat with the XMB, then have one player go in and find a good server, then have that player send us an email telling us where to go. I wish there was an easier way to connect with our friends or clan mates in game, but there isn’t. There is an in game clan invite option but we couldn’t get it to work.

Stat tracking is another major bug that Slant Six still needs to fix. The game’s servers offer ranked matches that are supposed to keep track of your stats, including kill to death ratio, wins, losses, accuracy, etc., but good luck actually having your stats count. I have played the game for well over 18 hours and have played on ranked servers most of the time, but my stats page shows me as only having played the game for 32 minutes and I have a winning percentage of 2. It is clearly broken and needs to be fixed.

I am happy to report that the 1.20 patch did fix one of the biggest problems with the game. Prior to 1.20 the 32 player games tended to completely lock up or fail to load, casuing you to have to restart your PS3. This happened to me about once per hour. The fix was to play in a room with 16 players max. Needless to say this was highly frustrating and many other reviews rightfully bashed the game for it. Patch 1.20 seems to have resolved this problem. I played for well over 6 hours in 32 player rooms after the patch and have yet to experience the lockup problems

Confrontation is an online only game and by its nature it cannot be beaten. The level of replayability will depend on each player. Gamers who enjoy the tactical and realistic approach of the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six series will find a lot to enjoy with Confrontation. Gamers you want to become good at the game will find that they have to invest a lot of time in memorizing the maps and perfecting the gameplay.

Players who prefer faster paced arcade style multiplayer games like Halo and CoD will probably get frustrated with Confrontation and not come back to it very often.

The games value does take a hit by the lack of any single player or offline mode. For whatever reason the developer completely left out a single player mode. Still the game is only $39.99 on the PSN or you can buy it with the Headset for $59.99. At that price it is worth buying for the Headset alone and you can consider the game a bonus.

If you can look past the technical issues, long time fans of the SOCOM series should be happy with Confrontation. The game maintains the series hardcore tactical style of gameplay and updates the graphics and sound for the next-gen. The fact that the game does not lend itself to arcade style play means that the people playing the game tend to be on the more mature side and they take the game very seriously. You won’t hear people taunting other players in a juvenile fashion.

I only hope that Slant Six will fix all of the issues and bugs that this game has. As it stands I enjoyed the game but I think many gamers will get too frustrated with the bugs to stick it out and wait for the game to actually be finished.

Gaming Trend Score

73

1. Graphics: 80
2. Audio: 90
3. Controls: 60
4. Gameplay: 65
5. Value/Replay: 75
6. OVERALL:73