Reviews// SOCOM: Special Forces: Single Player

These poor little countries in far flung corners of the world always seem to be in turmoil when it comes to games, don't they? A despotic leader pushes things a little too far or a coup d'etat sees a nation turned on its head and suddenly everything collapses.

Cue the insertion of a Generic Armoured Force, more often than not a one man army with more weapons than words in his vocabulary. This is followed by hours of running and gunning, the day is saved and the game goes back on the shelf, occasionally coming down for some cursory multiplayer action until the Next Big Thing comes along that does exactly the same thing again.

I am too old for this. My reactions are dulled. I'm constantly tired. When I get in from work, I want to play something that won't exhaust me even further, worrying whether a 12 year old from Utah is going to knife me in the back, call me something offensive then virtually teabag me.

I still crave the visceral pleasure of a well-executed headshot, but I want to plan it and take my time, I want everything to work immaculately. In short, I want a grown up shooter. I want SOCOM.

Evolution to Move
The SOCOM series has been around for nearly ten years and developer Zipper Interactive have been trying their damndest to innovate since day one. From one of the earliest PS2 games to go online to their latest release pushing strategic co-op play between five players, the SOCOM games attract a different crowd, people who want a little more reality in their experience…

…but not too much. I sat down with the game's lead designer Travis Steiner to discuss the latest in the series - SOCOM Special Forces - and how they're trying to keep this long-running series relevant, entertaining and fun.

Travis joined the team at Zipper Interactive with the second in the series, becoming the lead designer on SOCOM 3. As someone who's been invested in the franchise for quite some time now, I asked who he believed the games are aimed at.

"While this is an evolution of the series, at its core this is still a game about teamwork, about tactical gameplay. We have a great fanbase and, of course, the game is for them. Additionally though, we think it's an open enough game for new people to come in as well.

Things like motion control support with Move and the Sharpshooter [a rifle-like peripheral that incorporates Move technology] will hopefully show them that anyone can play a serious shooter.

“The fact that we're more focused on story should bring people in as well – there's been many people looking to SOCOM to become more story driven and I honestly believe we've done well. Hopefully we'll appeal to old players and attract new ones, especially with the co-op mode.

Making a Game
According to Travis, the team had one main aim with Special Forces – to make it fun. Of course, this is a series that is famed for its realism, so how do you strike that balance?

"When you're making a game", he said, "a level of authenticity can certainly be fun, but there is such a thing as too much. In real life, Special Forces could take hours to get to their target location, camp out for days before attacking. SOCOM is a culmination of the most intense moments an officer would face and in that sense we've represented it realistically.

“The combat is intense, there's strong AI, the tactics you and your enemies uses are very believable... but really it's like an accelerated snapshot of these intense moments. These are the most extreme situations they may face, but we throw them all together while keeping it as real as possible."

So, do they manage to pull this off? The single player game is pretty solid and thankfully the story mode has more than enough to be going on with. Players take control of a NATO-esque Special Forces Commander (which has been localised with one of twelve different voices, a nice touch) and are thrown into action immediately.

A terrorist group has seized control of a small Asian state, plunging it into civil war and - as always - you're required to deal with it. Rather than being on your own, you're given two other soldiers to work with (with a further two a little later in the game), adding a layer of complexity from the start. In Special Forces you're not a one man killing machine, you're actually responsible for the actions of a whole unit, each with their own abilities.