SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault for PlayStation 2 Reviews by Gamers

Sony Computer Entertainment has utilized Zipper Interactive's signature tactical shooter series to help push many of the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable's add-ons and advances. The SOCOM franchise has been a huge hit and not only did it usher in the PS2's online functionality, but it set the bar for what PlayStation 2 online gaming should be like. It's done the same with the Fireteam Bravo series on the PSP over the past year-plus.



SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault is essentially the team's PlayStation 2 swan song. Acting like a cross between an expansion for SOCOM 3 and a brand-new, original title, the game expands upon what we saw in last year's game while introducing many most-wanted features to the series, like Instant Action on the console and the ability to play through the campaign mode cooperatively online. And on top of this, it's backwards-compatible with SOCOM 3, allowing owners of both games to play each other so long as no Combined Assault-only maps are in play.



While the game does have a number of new features that really bodes well for the future of the series (on the PlayStation 3, hopefully), its semi-expansion pack status stands out as some of its production and design elements aren't up to par with what we've seen in the past. That's not to say that it's not a worthy purchase, as its online play is certainly well worth the sticker price, but it's far from perfect.



The main campaign mode feels a fair bit more disconnected than the past games. SOCOM 3 made great strides to provide a compelling single-player game, but Combined Assault takes a few steps back. The story isn't quite as good and many of the missions feel something like unrelated levels than a string of connected goals. Many feel more like Instant Action sequences where enemies are somewhat randomly scattered around a level and you're simply working through every nook and cranny to make sure you exterminate them all.



There are also AI issues related to both your squad mates and the enemy. Soldiers sometimes have elevation problems where they'll run at an incline that's too steep to climb and wind up essentially running in place. Your team mates will occasionally suffer from similar pathfinding issues where they won't be able to find you if you're too far ahead. We've even seen an issue a few times where even though we told our entire fire team to follow that one soldier would stand in place and guard. We'd have to try commanding one of the sub-squads until said soldier picked up and moved out.



There's also the issue that you can order your team to either hold fire or fire at will, but there's an in-between here that you don't have an option for, short of constantly going in and toggling between the two commands. An example of this shortcoming would be if you peek up over a slight hill and a group of enemy soldiers begin firing at you from 50 feet away. Your soldiers won't bother returning fire or getting into position until you tell them to fire at will. While the soldiers will generally open fire if being fired upon, since they're not directly in the line of fire they won't do anything. This can sometimes be frustrating.



While the story isn't great and the mission structures can be a little lackluster, there are some really cool aspects here. One is that the story isn't entirely linear in that, like Fireteam Bravo 2, you're generally able to choose which mission to take on next. This very likely is part of the reason that the story isn't as strong, since the narrative can't connect each unique individual mission as well, but it's certainly interesting. The other really neat part is the four-player cooperative support. Fans of other high-class tactical shooters, like Rainbow Six for example, know how fun it can be to jump in and take out a bunch of terrorists with your friends, and now SOCOM fans can finally experience that.





One area where the series has seen some great improvements is via the "icing" around the single-player game. There are now unlockable achievements in the game, which you'll earn for getting a certain number of headshots, finding enough hidden sausages, capturing enough enemies and the like. SOCOM's Crosstalk, the ability to trade information between the PS2 and PSP games, has also been greatly enhanced. Completing objectives in one game will now provide a much more tangible outcome in the other. For instance, you'll be able to find the same group of militants in both games, so if you take them out in one and then transfer the info, they'll already be dead in the other. Cool stuff.



While the game's campaign mode is a little disappointing, especially after SOCOM 3's noticeable improvement in that area, where SOCOM excels is in its multiplayer of course, and Combined Assault doesn't disappoint. As mentioned, you're able to play with folks on SOCOM 3, provided that the server is only running maps from that game or the downloadable expansion. That's good stuff and helps to immediately provide you with a rather large user base. And again, 32 player support is par for the course.



Combined Assault includes a number of new maps, most of which are very good fun. Retaliation is likely the best of the bunch, providing plenty of roofs and sniper points for a fairly hectic battle. Most every map throws in a great mix of gameplay opportunities, with a number of choke points here and there to help focus the action and provide for some chess-esque, back-and-forth action. Whether you like to fight from a distance with a machinegun, pick off folks from afar with a sniper rifle or close in via cover and fire off a couple shotgun blasts, the maps do a fine job at allowing you to play to your style.



One problem that remains is that in elimination-type games, the last two or three players on the map can sometimes take forever to find each other. This is a side effect of having such large maps to support 32 players, and it's a problem with most tactical shooters on the market today. But as Combined Assault has some of the biggest maps out there, it's a little more pronounced. There are a number of possible ways to fix this, though as each likely comes with a downside that not all players will like, we may or may not see this problem fixed anytime soon.





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