It’s been just over a year since SOCOM 3 graced the PS2 with ’bigger and better’ stamped on almost every aspect of the game. Zipper provides a relatively quick turnaround since their last release of online Navy SEALS action, and it’s quite easy to see why…
Combined Assault runs on the same engine as S3 and aside from a few nice effects it’s showing its age rather badly. The environments aren’t exactly the most impressive of environments; plain villages with blocky buildings and grey mountain passes aren’t the best Zipper has come up with. The most annoying factor is the fog, which I thought we might have managed to do away with after seven years. I know the PS2 is near the end of its life but if you look at the visually stunning God of War II you know the old black machine can still pump out some good visuals.
The story is standard Tom Clancy/SOCOM fare but more toned-down and politically correct; it’s all set in the fictional country Adjikistan, there’s no blood and ‘terrorists’ are replaced by ‘mercenaries’. There is a little bit of variation where you can choose between several missions at once rather than one after the other but in the end you have to complete them all anyway so it doesn’t make all that much difference.
One cool feature is the way you earn points for secondary objectives and different ways you handle situations. For example, you can equip both a lethal and less-lethal firearm (i.e. an M16 and a rubber-bullet gun). If you pop a couple of rubber bullets into a terrorist he’ll keel over and surrender. You get points for taking prisoners alive, and securing hostages/civilians etc. These points then increase your position in the country, giving you access to more intelligence and hidden entry points. This fits in quite well with the multiple paths the game gives you to complete missions.
Unfortunately rubber bullets or lead ones the AI can still morosely run into them at times, including members of your own fire teams. They’ll still walk blindly into enemy fire or fall off a bridge you order them to walk across, and then spend five minutes climbing back up to you. The enemy can at times be bastardly cheeky, spotting you from miles away and pinning you down. At other times it will walk until it’s almost on top of you before noticing you. This was a bit of a problem in S3 but obviously hasn’t been fixed.
The main attraction still is the online mode, which has been updated with even more maps, modes and vehicles and you can still play the original maps online with gamers playing S3, meaning the game plays even more like an expansion pack. Online it’s still great fun although you’ll never find enough people to fill a 32 player room, but there are small skirmishes aplenty. The only problem is that the more weapons and add-ons (laser sights, red smoke launchers etc) which affect the weapon’s fire rate, weight and accuracy, the more it becomes bogged down in the right combination of main weapon, sidearm and a stats war rather than the balls-out tactical shooter that it was back in the old days.
SOCOM US Navy SEALS: Combined Assault is a good game, but so was SOCOM 3, and aside from the different story they are hard to tell apart. Both are showing their age and have a few problems but are great fun online. I just find it hard to recommend buying what is essentially a rather shallow add-on to what was already a very good game.
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