horabs game review: socom 2

[Horab Fibslager]

let's face it folks, with the exception of perfect dark, fps and cosoles just do not mix, and the epitome of that statement cna be summed up with one word: socom 2.

it's got all the elements of fps games you'd find on the pc; bombs, hostages, guns,. however all of this is missing one important element: aim.

that's right, aiming in socom is alot like aiming in counterstrike without using the mouse at all, and using instead the page up and down keys to look vertically. it's just that bad.

so to sum things up we at the institute for completely wasting your time give socom 2 the rather high rating of .01 stars.

/me shrugs

[Lister]

And the biggest problem with this I think is that the "professional" game reviews never warn about this sort of thing in a game...
All their rave reviews never answer my simple question: is the bastard actually playable, or will I have to fidget around with those annoying analog sticks o be able to kill something?  I don't mind if you occasionally have to aim like when using the bow in zelda TWW, but basing the entire game on being able to aim with a joypad is too much of a bad thing...

I haven't played socom yet, but then again I never planned to do so...  Cause when you take away the hype (WOW, you get a HEADSET! REVOLUTIONARY!), all that's left is an unplayable squad-based shooter...  And the last thing the game industry needs is another squad-based shooter (or WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Desert Storm,... shooter).  It's like evryone has to make this sort of thing ever since CS was released.  We (me & my ego) have had enough of this, let's move on to the next fad please. (and lets hope the next fad isn't karaoke games or the eye-toy abomination, ever I pH34r it will be so...)

Of course, with enough training I could get used to using both analog sticks at once, but reality is that's it isn't worth the trouble doing so...  Go buy half-life for penny, and download a few mods...  It's cheaper, and actually playable...

[~~~~Closed~~~~]

When is comes to Consoles and FPS, the PS2 is probally the most compatable due to the analog sticks and shoulder button position, and the inclusion of the R3 and L3 buttons under the analog sticks.


On the case of Socom 2, not only was this more of a rant about FPS games than the actual game, but you also based your rating on your opinion of FPS games, when Socom isn't a FPS...


And, Socom controls very well despite is overly complex control scheme, is doesn't take long to get the hang of it. and as for the squad based shooter comment...play online fool, the only reason the solo campain is there is for the likes of us with 56k modems.

As a disclaimer, I do not like Socom very much, like Starcraft...I don't see what's so great about it.

[Horab Fibslager]

i agree with hotsuma on most of his points, tho socom is far closer to fps than it is to tombraider, so i spose it would be a 3rd person shooter.

the online part is the problem i have with the controls. singler player i can blaze through the single mission run and gun style(ie not going stealthy or playing the game at all like it's "sposed to be played") gettign headshots like a mad man. the problem come sonline where even when using tried and true methods liek pre-aiming and controlled bursts, it  jsut doesn't compare to the whole spray and pray thing that online entirely conists of(with the exception of nade spamming). generally speaking the online game would be pretty ok online if oen could use a mouse an dkeyboard, but the game is not compatable with the mouse and keyboard can be only used for messaging. however even with a mouse and keyboard, all socom would be is a sloppy buggy unbalanced counterstrike, since the mission designs are all taken directly from cs anyway(ie plant the bomb, escort hostages). the  inclusion of the crosshair that lights up when placed on an enemy player only leads to bitching when the bullets miss their target despite that, since players seem to think that a red reticle automatically means a hit, however, this sort of thinking is not discouraged by the sloppy net code which causes players to lag teleport, bullets to lag telleport, and have frequent simultaneous mutual frags, tho often offset from the actual time of death by several seconds. making it all worse is that the scoped rifles when zoomed also have the excruciatingly annoying sway to them, so that simply leaving the crosshair aimed at a single place, it will move around in order to either simulate real life scoped shooting, or to disourage the sort of pre-aiming seen in games like counter strike on the pc.

regardless, when it comes to shooters on consoles, i'll stay with perfect dark for the n64. it's one of my all time favourtie games and shooters, and does better in my books than many shooters for the pc. although the analog stick on the n64 is a floppy, i foudn that even with an old controller, aim control was mroe precise than a new controller on socom, not to mention the lack of suddenly reloading or changing fire rates in the heat of a strafe fight(the likes of which has rarely been seen on pc based shooters since duke3d). perfect dark's extreme customizability exceeds that of any other shooter i've played, and the ability to choose which weapons can be picked up is something i'd liek to see in my favourite pc shooters.

of course you can't play pd online, but you can play with up to 4 other players with the same box, whcih may sound hurtin, but actually works out alot better in practice(we spent many a logn night playing 4 way pd, despite all of us having access to the internet and good fps games).



bakc to the reloading/fire rate thing, the l3 and r3 buttons are perhaps the ting i hate most about socom, as they have a habit of unintentinally being pressed at the wrong moments. other wise the controller is good, but the playtesting is sloppy so that while good for single play, it comes up severely wanting online.