---- The Fall Of A Franchise - SOCOM US Navy Seals for Sony Playstation consoles----

SOCOM US Navy Seals logo

If you know of the SOCOM US Navy Seals franchise then you generally fall into one of two camps, you either love it or you hate it. In the ocean of first person military shooters available at the time SOCOM dared to be different. Where many had you run and gun, like some supernaturally possessed rampaging goat, slaughtering hoards of enemy troops, with ammo falling from the skies as though god himself was guiding your journey to stick it to the bad guys, SOCOM did quite the opposite. SOCOM US Navy Seals was a far more realistic take on military shooters, you were not a bullet sponge absorbing thousands of hits before falling to a knee and using a medi pack or adrenaline shot.

SOCOM US Navy Seals

In SOCOM US Navy Seals you had control of a team leader. This was a first/third person shooter depending on how you liked to play. You decided your team’s load out. You decided the attack formation and plan. Go in guns blazing or go in stealth and rack up the knife kills, it was up to you. You could direct your team of 3 other members by voice commands through a headset, this was cutting edge technology at the time. Here you had a non-replenishing health bar, ammo was limited to what you could carry, every shot had to count, missions were long and hard, stealth was rewarded. Headshot… killed, two body shots… killed, 3-4 extremity shots… killed. Yes it was hard, but that was the good thing about it. You had to be tactical, choose the weapon load out for the mission appropriately, use your team effectively.

In game shots

This degree of difficulty quickly culled the casual gamers. The campaign mode was well executed with a focus on the missions and not the characters themselves. This may seem counterintuitive, but worked well within the context of the game, it made the game about getting the job done. This was also as online console gaming was really taking off and the online SOCOM gaming community was awesome. The online element provided a combination of run and gun play style with the ability to be a weapon specialist if desired, such as sniper, heavy machine gun etc. Here the pvp missions could be executed in respawn mode or permadeth for the round mode, this created an astounding competition base in online mode. All in all it was a well-oiled machine that hit the mark with many gamers searching for more of a simulation style military game.

SOCOM US Navy Seals II

The franchise flourished over the next decade or so releasing more titles under the SOCOM banner. It was the same winning format, updated graphics, new missions, and various tweaks to keep it fresh for the fanbase. SOCOM II delivered a smoother game and more user friendly interface.

SOCOM US Navy Seals III

One of the vehicles in SOCOM III

The addition of vehicles to SOCOM III was a game changer. However, it did not throw out the balance of the gameplay. The maps had also increased considerably in size due to the addition of vehicles and some considered the maps to be too large, but once gamers became accustomed to the new in game scaling these comments soon disappeared.

SOCOM US Navy Seals - Combined Assault

Combined assault was the final instalment on the PS2 and again delivered the same winning formula with tweaks to keep it all crisp and clean.

The series had had such success that it had also made its way onto the Sony PSP with five releases on that system (images below), again each utilising the same aforementioned winning formula.

SOCOM US Navy Seals fire team bravo

SOCOM US Navy Seals fire team bravo II

SOCOM US Navy Seals fire team bravo III

SOCOM US Navy Seals - Tactical Strike

The franchise had soared to amazing heights with a fan base dedicated to the games simplistic yet effective formula. It was the perfect balance of acquired skill & tactical approach. It was a game of Chess in a world of those playing Checkers. We had our champion, we were content with playing it and for a time it seemed as though this great experience would never end.

Simulation of happy SOCOM gamers, lol

The beginning of the end
The dawn of the PS3 era had begun and many had high hopes for the future of the SOCOM franchise. More space for the game, longer campaigns, better graphics, greater online battles… it was just limitless. SOCOM gamers waited with bated breath to see what the developers would produce with the amazing new hardware Sony had provided within the PS3.

Fat PS3 console

What was released was SOCOM Confrontation, without hesitation many of us forked out our hard earned cash as soon as we could get our sweaty mitts on a copy of the new SOCOM. Much to the dismay of many long-time, hard core SOCOM fans we played this game, we were horrified with what we saw on our screens. All campaign elements had been removed, that’s right no story mode. This game was completely online, if your PS3 was not connected to the internet well to bad for you because you could not do anything with this game. SOCOM confrontation was incredibly glitchy outright and was difficult to play. Level design was horrendous and to be honest without the campaign mode levels had no context as to what anyone was even doing there. The weapons were mediocre at best with hit detection plaguing game play and skirmishes. Everything had been stripped down to less than what the ps2 was capable of doing. Opponents were now bullet sponges and the gameplay had moved right into the Call of Duty franchises street and appeared to be there to stay. But hey, at least it looked pretty on the new console right ? well.... ? Not that much prettier to be honest.

SOCOM Confrontation

While aesthetically the game looked to be the same it had started rotting at the core, this was a blatant slap together for the money grab that had infected many of the industries major players. No longer was that winning formula put to good use in the SOCOM franchise, no longer did we have the sanctity of the military simulation we once loved. The outcry poured from forums far and wide all over the world asking what had they done to the SOCOM franchise.

Im not going to lie, I made excuses for SOCOM Confrontation like many other hard core fans. I defended my favorite franchise with all my might with statements like: ”every franchise has a bad game every now and again”, “the next one will be back on point”, “they are just trying out some new things”. I had an array of excuses waiting to go, but I knew what was happening. The truth is all I could hear running through my mind was that line from that Cardigans song “Im losing my favorite game”.

The cardigans – Favorite Game music video screen

A Chance For Redemption

It’s true, we all deserve the chance for redemption, a chance to atone for our mistakes. So when Zipper Interactive announced SOCOM 4 would be coming to PS3 many hoped that this would be the phoenix rising from the ashes of SOCOM Confrontation crashing and burning. The developers promised that this would be the best SOCOM ever, that they had heard the community and were rectifying mistakes, that the new technology was being incorporated to enhance the gaming experience. We believed them, we trusted them, how mistaken we were…

SOCOM 4

The developers decided to stray even further from the winning formula which made the game so great in the first place. Now we had heavily developed plot lines for each character and were forced to play as particular characters in particular levels. We had to deal with the character interactions and conflicts within the team, minority race issues. Weapons were fixed to characters. The views were annoyingly close over the shoulder Gears of War style. The levels were linear and forced. It was now a completely action based game. The only thing SOCOM about this game was the logo they slapped on the cover to try and force feed us the crud they had created. This was no SOCOM game, this was adding insult to injury, rubbing salt in the wound of those who chose to stand by the franchise in its darkest times. This was the Franchise going “mainstream", selling out and turning their backs on the fan base which brought them the success of SOCOM throughout the years. This was the final nail in the coffin for me and many other SOCOM fans who had stayed until this bitter end.

Pretty much sums it all up

So again we have the greed of developers coming into play, the want for generic success destroying a much loved franchise. Going with whats “in” at the time, using buzz words like synergy to get the crowd pumping, but not knowing what the word means beyond applause of using the word. We have seen this time and time again. When will it end?

Conclusion

Maybe SOCOM will make a comeback in years to come, with all the reboots of reboots maybe they will look to some of these franchises who got it right for so long, pick up and dust off that old winning formula and put it in play again. Im not holding my breath by I do hope that it does happen.

We surrender, stop murdering the franchise

I recently played through the first two SOCOM titles again to see if it was just my mind playing tricks on me, if i was fooling myself into remembering SOCOM to be a great series. I have to say with great honesty that it was not a figment of my imagination at all. The SOCOM series, up until the final two releases, most certainly hold up after all these years as a stand-up experience. It is still challenging to play and quite enjoyable even if the graphics are somewhat dated. Again this is another example showing that the visual aspects of games may play a part in the gaming experience, however, authentic and well thought out content designed with the gamer in mind will keep gamers coming back even decades after these games have “passed their prime”. I strongly recommend anyone reading this with even the slightest interest in challenging gaming look into this franchise to experience an era of gaming at its best.

So what do you think ? Did you play SOCOM in its prime ? Have you played it since ? Did you love it or hate it? Do you see the same faults in the industry? Let me know how at you think and leave a comment or start a conversation.