I have been a fan of the SOCOM franchise right from the beginning. Played through SOCOM 1, 2, 3, and Confrontation inside and out and i eventually got my hands on SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 1 and 2 for the PSP. Now with SOCOM: Combined Assault, many people think Zipper finally made the "SOCOM 3" that the people want.
First let us take a look at the campaigns story. If you played the other SOCOM's in the series you probably know whats going to happen in the campaign. A Mercenary organization is terrorizing the United States and guess what, the SEALS are called into action. Just like in the first three SOCOM's, you are in control of a four man fireteam. There are a fair amount of orders you can give to your team such as follow, hold position, and move to a certain area. Although, you might have alot of options to give your teamates, your teamates are not to bright. When they are following you, sometimes they will get in your line of fire or better yet, blow your cover and the enemy raises an alarm. The enemy AI is almost the same as your teamates but, they are much more aggessive. The enemy will see you a good 80-100 yards away even when you are crawling around in some brush. Then they will suppress you with massive amounts of fire and before you know it, you are dead. The good thing about Combined Assault is that they added med packs so you can heal yourself and your teamates throughout the campaign. Another plus is that since the single player is extremley difficult on the Admiral setting, you can log online (or LAN) and play through the whole campaign with your friends up to four players in Co Op.
Since we got the single player out of the way lets get to the multiplayer. If you are a SOCOM vetrean like myself, you will know that the multiplayer is where it all goes down. Combined Assault has up to 32 player competitve matches. 16 on the Seals and 16 on the Mercenaries. Combined Assault has 10 brand new maps that fit in the SOCOM universe. All of the 10 new maps are within the campaign. One of the best features in Combined Assault is that it is completly backwards compatiable with SOCOM 3. You can log online and play all of your favorite SOCOM 3 maps with no questions asked. Another note about the backwards compatibility with SOCOM 3 is that your old SOCOM 3 username will carry over to Combined Assault. All of your stats, clan, and friends lists will all carry over to Combined Assault.
The sound to the game is pretty impressive. The gun sounds and explosions are dead on. The composer to the soundtrack is genious! There are some cheezy voices which brings the seriousness of the game down a bit.
I can go on and on about how SOCOM: Combined Assault is a great game, but i do have to mention the flaws while playing online. On some of the close quarter maps, such as Fault and Antendra small, you will notice the frame rate will drop alot when there is a lot of action on screen at once. Mostly at the beginning of each round. Also, there are still a decent amount of bugs and lag. This is pretty unacceptable since this game is two years old now.
Another flaw I must mention is the graphics. The PS2 is showing its age and the muddy graphics that Zipper gave us is not helping. However, you can over look the graphics with the outstanding multiplayer component. Some of the gun animations and vehicles look outstanding and some look really bad. Its almost like a hit or miss. The last bad thing about the game is the fact their is no blood and the Teen rating. The no blood is a first in a SOCOM game. I just cant stand it when I shoot someone a thousand times and there isnt any blood on the wall to prove it. The Teen rating really scares a lot of people too just because SOCOM was always aimed for 18-30 year old crowd. Now with the Teen rating more kids will get there hands on it and love the violence.
I would highly recommend this game if you love online shooters and if you can overlook the problems that lay in there. If you don't have a high speed connection and just want the single player expierence, I say go for a rental.
Gameplay: Overall really nice but there are a few problems.
Sound: From explosions to gun fire to the amazing soundtrack. What cant go wrong? Some cheezy voices.
Graphics: The PS2 is showing its age and SOCOM: Combined Assault is not helping. Some more coats of paint would of been nice.
Replay: Before you know it you already put in 48 hours of gameplay.
Overall: 4/5
