I was surprised with the amount of new information that came out of the half hour podcast. Jeremy & Chris interviewed Lead Designer of SOCOM 4, Travis Steiner, who divulged a good amount of new information including:
- There will be NO vehicles in multiplayer
- The online gameplay will be a departure from the classic SOCOM experience (new modes, new maps, a new experience)
- Cover system will be in multiplayer
Travis also explained that SOCOM 4 will be a much different experience than their previous game MAG, but didn't quite indicate how other than the fact that SOCOM 4 is a 3rd-person game without vehicles online.
He was also very adamant on the point that SOCOM 4 will not feel like a classic online SOCOM experience. He made the point that many of the members on the team have been working on and playing SOCOM since it's inception, so they want to try something different. I just want to counter his point by saying that every SOCOM game since SOCOM 3 has been very different from the SOCOM 1/2 experience. So making a SOCOM 1/2 style game WOULD be a departure from what has been released more recently. SOCOM Confrontation (developed by Slant6) was definitely an attempt at trying to bring back the SOCOM 1/2 feel, but its hard to find hardcore fans who think that Confrontation is a proper representation of SOCOM 1/2.
But like I've been saying since SOCOM 4's announcement, Confrontation is the closest that we are going to get to a PS3 classic SOCOM experience. A lot of people thought I was full of it and that Zipper would bring 'back the classic', but if it wasn't obvious before, it is now, they want to do something different.
Personally I'm not complaining. I'm really excited to see what they have planned for multiplayer and single player. But I'm here to represent the hardcore fans, and they don't seem as convinced as I am, that it's time to move on to some new ideas. I just hope that the overall experience still feels like SOCOM, just pushed to the next level.
2 comments:
I, like most of the SOCOM community am very apprehensive about SOCOM IV.
It's not PS Move or even the cover system which worries me though. It's the thought of losing the one life round based system in competative ranked games which has made the franchise so addictive for the past decade.
I mean the thought of losing that and inheriting repetative respawn game types with XP multipliers at weekends as some sort of incentive to play just doesn't bare thinking about.
Yep I agree... Looks like Confrontation is the best thing we are going to get for traditional SOCOM gameplay. Which is fine with me because I enjoy the game. Hopefully people will continue to play it.
However, maybe SOCOM 4 and the "new" will be fun...time will tell.
Either way, I wish SCEA would continue to support Confrontation, adding content and making fixes... Probably not in the books though.
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