Chris's Reveiws : SOCOM : US Navy SEALs (ps2)

[Liquid Rogue]

First of all, i am reveiwing the single player game of SOCOM : US Navy SEALs, because i dont yet have broadband in my area. I also hate people giving SOCOM (Special Operations Command) a really high rating just because of the online play. The single player is quite a decent game on its own. Read on.....

Graphics : 9/10
The graphics are smooth, good looking, and clear. You can go real close in with your sniper rifle to your allies head without it pixelising. Rain will beat off the ground. Water will come out of leaky pipes. Footprints will be left in the snow. Blood will come flying out after a stab in the stomach. Its all really nice to look at, but, unfortunally, they dont blow you away, like the Timesplitters 2 graphics. While they are quite good, they are nowhere near the ps2s best.

Gameplay : 8/10
It could have been so much better. While it is a good shooter, the dodgy AI seems to remove a lot of the fun of playing it. When i got seen once, 2 terroists ran to me, and Boomer (your teamate) runs up to them and rifle-butts them both. Now, the worry here is 1) Boomers disabilty to understand the use of a ranged weapon and 2)The terroists disabilty to retaliate when boomer ran to them. This, however, is rare. The stealth in the game is fantasic, and the firefights are great fun.
The USB headset adds to the fun, with voice commands being very simple to issue. All you do is hold circle, then say who you want to preform the action, what you want them to do, and where to do it. It couldnt be simpler.

Sound :10/10
Absolute bliss. There are 2 types of sound, feild sound, which comes through the speakers, and radio transmissions, which come through the earpeice in the USB headset. You can even hear terroists having converstaions (which boomer translates for you into subtitles). There is action music played when you get spotted, and a short herioc theme when you complete an objective. The gunshots are very realistic, and the transmissions from your team crackle in ad out.

Presontation : 10/10
It couldnt of been presented nicer. SOCOM comes in a box, holding the fresh factory sealed copy of SOCOM, in its blue DVD box, bearing 3 soldiers in a marsh, with a bit at the top stating the online capabilites. Beside it is the USB headset, made by Logitech (and it attually works on you computer! Plug it in to a USB port and watch as the little box comes up saying "Logitech USB headset) The little digital to analogue convertor box has the SOCOM logo on it.

Final Score : 9/10
Even with its dodgy AI, SOCOM : US Navy SEALs still plays brilliantly. This is an essentail purchase for any ps2 owner. And hey, i havent even tried it online yet!

[Blue Barry Jam]

SOCOM is an awesome game, but don't expect online play to be a blast. The mojority of the online players only play to be asses to other people. They will run around like idiots and stuff.

The review isn't that bad, but personally, I would have rated the graphics lower. They don't suck but they don't rule, in my opinion.

I'm really looking forward to SOCOM 2. You can get a rocket launcher...*drools*

Edit: I also would have rated presentation lower. The cover of the box looks horrible. It looks way too staged with a huge light beeming down on the SEALs .

[Liquid Rogue]

not in the UK version. Anyway, i rated the graphics high because they do look pretty good, but not fantastic

[Blue Barry Jam]

You don't have the same cover in the UK? Lucky punk *skakes fist*.

[Liquid Rogue]

in the uk, it shows 4 SEALs in a marsh, holding AKS. There is a misty sky above them, and the SOCOM logo. Ha. Anyway, Six-String Samurai, is the voice recogniton easy to use in the states?

[Blue Barry Jam]

It's quite easy. You can even sometimes say, "Bravo! You suck!" They sometimes respond with, "Copy that." ;D

But seriously, they do understand what you say...most of the time.

[Liquid Rogue]

I was trying to command my team once, and my freind was making a lot of noise, so i turned round and shouted "would you f**k off!" and Bravo shouted "Yes Sir!"

Anyway, i find it hard for them to understand "Bravo", and a little hard to say "Fire at will". "Cover Area" has got to be the most difficult one for them to understand, though.

Just got past mission 3. I can now kill Boomer and still understand terroist conversations! Life is sweet! Boome has got to be the dumbest teamate ever. You say "Able, hold fire" and Boomer continues to shoot every enemy he sees. Idiot

[Blue Barry Jam]

Ugh, Boomer -_-;. He's definitely the dumbest of the group.

Have you tried out the secret voice commands? There are a few commands that you can only activate with the head set. Here's some of them:

"Give up," or something along those lines will cause an enemy to drop his weapon and, well, give up. You have to be behind them for it to work.

I don't remember what you have to say for this one, but it makes your teamates go into a stealthier mode. Try something like, "Team, stealth." Something like that should work.

[Liquid Rogue]

I didnt know about those.....do you know a site where i could see them? And i couldnt be happier being able to kill boomer at the start of each mission, after mission 3