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SOCOM: US Navy Seals: SOCOM - Hands-On
Company: SCEA

When Sony's online gaming plan starts up later this fall, one of it's premiere games will be SOCOM: US Navy Seals. Recently, I had a chance to sit down and play a demo of the game and although I was only able to play the single-player missions, the game looks like it will be among the system's best - both online and off.

The mission starts with your basic setup. Two shady terrorists bomb a section of the Alaskan pipeline. After receiving your mission briefing, you need to equip your team with the best possible equipment for the mission. As mundane as this task may seem, this is one of the most crucial parts of any mission. Choosing loud, heavy machine guns may mean that your team has more power, but it will also blow your cover in infiltration missions. On the flip side, arming your entire group with silenced weapons will ensure stealth, but their lower power and fire rate won't hold up in a firefight. In addition to firearms, you also choose grenade type weapons (frag grenades, smoke grenades, flash grenades, etc...)

Since this mission was primarily a recon mission, I chose to equip my team with silenced weapons for their secondary weapon, and machine guns as primary weapons. While in the mission briefing screen, you can also look at surveillance photo maps detailing mission parameters. Things such as guard tower, munitions, hostage and contact locations are outlined here.


After reaching the drop point, you are reminded of your mission parameters and last minute updates. The in-game graphics are excellent. Seeing your team sneak around and crawl on the ground is really neat. As your team moves around, you'll receive periodic chatter such as 'Scout -- 4 o'clock'. When the game ships, it will include a headset that will allow you to give voice commands to your squad mates for both the online and offline games. For those who choose not to use the headset, all of the commands are available via an onscreen menu.

Even though I would have loved to have finally tried out the online component (damn you long E3 lines!!!) or the headset, I was very pleased with what I played and can't wait to try out the final version. It should be noted that online play will only be available to those with broadband connections, but after seeing how intense the game is, the requirement is understandable.


-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker
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