Tactical shooters are quickly becoming a dime a dozen, and the whole stealth/tactical strategy genre is being mercilessly beaten to death as you read this. Fortunately, there is hope for us; some companies out there are still willing to put a little work into these games, making an outstanding product for you and I to enjoy. SOCOM 2 US Navy Seals for the Playstation 2 is one of these games. I am going to go right ahead and say it up front: SOCOM 2 is an outstanding game by all means. It is not without its flaws, but overall, this game simply rocks.
The scenario is pretty typical: Carry out the mission objectives and be as quiet as you can while you do it. Oh, and don’t forget not to die either. The missions in the one-player mode are actually very well done in comparison to last year’s game. There is much more to do, and the locales are much more fleshed out than before. You will notice a lot more places to hide and the environments just seem to be much more alive. The much improved plant life makes for some very interesting firefights; you’ll love it. My only gripe here is that there is no co-op mode. What gives? This game would have been great fun to go through the missions with a buddy and I really see no reason for there to not be a co-op option. Also, it should be noted that you can still get by with the running and gunning strategy, which makes it much less important to sneak around and be quiet. If you have the self control to do it right, this is not a problem, however I think they should have fixed this as it’s an easy way to get through a lot of the missions when all else fails. I personally prefer to see my stealth rating as high as possible, and it can be extremely tough at times.
The first thing I noticed when I started to go through the solo missions was that my team was not comprised of bumbling idiots this time around, although they are still prone to making stupid mistakes from time to time. One big change made in this sequel is the absence of your good old pal Boomer (thank god). Jester has now stepped up to take his place as your right-hand man, and let me tell you, he isn’t nearly as stupid as Boomer was. You can even tell him to hold his position while you venture out to do something by yourself. This sounds great on paper, but when you stray away from him (about 20 or 30 feet, usually), he decides you have gone too far and RUNS to your position, often times alerting all enemies in the area exactly where you are. STUPID. It pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn’t it?
The enemy AI is a mixed bag. I have to give credit where credit is due: An enemy in the first mission of this game pulled one of the most cunning tricks I have ever experienced in a videogame and left my jaw on the floor. I had to snipe some enemies from across a bridge, all headshots except for the last one: I wasn’t sure if he fell dead or got down to get out of my line of sight. So I slowly crept across the bridge to find no dead body. Thinking he ran somewhere, I relaxed a bit and then noticed on the corner of my screen a small barrel pop out of the bushes to the right of the bridge. BAM! One shot and I was a goner; I never even had time to react. That guy earned his kill and I really wish more games featured an AI like that. On the flip side, the enemies often try to duck behind cover when they are shot at, even when there is no cover to get behind! However, it’s better than getting absolutely no reaction at all like the enemies in the first SOCOM game. Overall, it’s a dramatic improvement over the first SOCOM, and dare I say that it’s better than just about any other game of this kind.
The control scheme in this game is as good as it gets by console shooter standards. Considering the fact that all of the buttons on the Dual Shock are utilized in this game, it is extremely natural and works perfectly. One thing you will know if you played the first SOCOM online, is that the firing rate toggle was mapped to the R3 button, and in the middle of a firefight online, you would often accidentally switch to single shot. The developers tried to fix this by allowing you to map it to the select button if you wish. While I appreciate the effort, it doesn’t work as well as you may think because the tally screen is then mapped to R3. It gets frustrating when you are in a firefight and this screen keeps popping up in your face.
So you have a network adapter and a high-speed internet connection? Well then I would highly suggest that you go out and get this game. The online functionality of SOCOM 2 is, for the lack of a better word, unbelievable. The developers have covered just about everything here. Lag is kept to a minimum, you have a buddy list, and a ranking system that prevents the veterans from going into a noob room and ruining everyone’s fun. The stages from the first SOCOM are all here with a few modifications, and everyone’s name now pops up when they speak, so people are less inclined to act like morons now for fear of getting voted off. There is also the promise of punitive actions taken to deter cheaters. In the time I played, I did not notice one cheater, but time will tell with this one.
The graphics in SOCOM 2 aren’t too shabby... for PS2 standards. The abundant plant life works wonderfully and provides many places for the player to hide, and for enemies to hide as well. Even with many enemies onscreen at once, slowdown never shows its ugly head in this game. Characters look about as detailed as they did in the first SOCOM, which is not necessarily bad, but not that good either. Water effects look better than before, but still look pretty bad. What I can appreciate about this game is all of the little things that the developers put in. For instance, when you toggle to your scope view on your sniper rifle, there is that moment of blurriness while your eyes adjust and it looks great. The same happens with the night vision as well. It looks extremely cool and truly adds to authenticity of the whole thing. Speaking of night vision, it looks really great in this game. Overall, the graphics do an adequate job of putting you into the action.
The sound is perfect. No gripes in this department at all. All of the weapons sound authentic, enemies speak in their own dialects, your team calls for help when they are in trouble... It’s all good here. Once again I would like to point out the little things: I love the fact that if a grenade goes off by you, all you can hear is a high-pitched ringing making you feel very lucky that you are still standing. Things like this truly add to the experience and make you feel a part of what’s going on. Playing this game with a good surround sound system is a real treat.
Overall, SOCOM 2 is the best tactical shooter you can buy for the PS2 by far. Contrary to what many people say, I think that the one-player missions alone are worth the price of admission. If you have a network adapter and high-speed internet access, I command you to go buy this and put that network adapter to good use. You would be hard pressed to find a more complete game to play online than this. I DO have to warn you though that this game really felt more like a good expansion than a true full-fledged sequel. If you liked the first, you’ll like this one even more, and if you hated the first, chances are you will hate this just as much.
