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The Failures of Socom Confrontation
This is not a thread to just complain, but rather to let the developers know what we DON’T want to see repeated in the next Socom home console game which should be at least announced sometime next year….
Let me first state that I have played every Socom game including the portable additions and have been in awe at some of the decisions that the developers have made during the run of the franchise. It seems that after the release of Socom 2, the series went into a slow and steady decline. Unlike most people I don’t think Socom 3 or Combined Assault were complete failure’s…..but the developers simply changed the gameplay too much too fast and alienated a large part of the fanbase which is why the number of players from Socom 2 fell from 40k on a good night to about 20-25k for Socom3/Combined Assault. Socom 3/Combined Assault did present several gameplay additions that did move the franchise forward however. The same cannot be said for Socom: Confrontation. If anything Socom: Confrontation has moved the franchise BACK several steps and made it in some ways inferior to even the first Socom game which says a lot about the development skills of the current developer. Some highlights of their failures include:
Maps – Many of the new maps seem hastily designed and not very creative overall. The previous developer Zipper started the trend of including multiple gametypes into each map which sounds good on paper but in reality since many of the maps weren’t created specifically for one game type, they simply don’t play well and aren’t very fun playing on some gametypes. Putting a weapons crate in a random spot on a map and then christening it the maps “Demoliltion Mode” does NOT work. I strongly believe that in the next Socom title the developers should return to the one game type for each map style of design. This will allow for the maps to become truly unique and creative again instead of the develoeprs trying to fit multiple gametypes into one map which leads me to my next point…
Ship the game with more than 7 maps – Seriously when I first saw that Confrontation was going to ship with just 7 maps I was just shocked. Even with the Dl maps it only brings the total to 12 maps. For comparisons sake Socom 2 shipped with 20 something maps and that doesn’t even include the dl maps. The next Socom should ship with at least 12 – 15 maps. There is simply no excuse other than pure laziness that this cant be accomplished. The developers have had an ample amount of time to master the PS3’s technology.
User created ranked rooms – How did this NOT make it into confrontation??? It’s been in every previous Socom game and is a large reason the community was so strong back in the day. People could make their own ranked rooms no matter how many people they had and have fun knowing it would count for something on their stats. People DON’T care about their rank but they do to some extent about their stats and taking away this option from the users was a grave mistake on the developers part and probably a big reason Confrontation averages only 10k max on a good night.
The “Run” button – Whichever developer decided to add this to Confrontation should be fired. This has to be one of the worst additions in the franchises history. It totally messed up the original Socom gameplay and its addition really made no sense in most maps. Simply increasing the characters movement speed to be comparable to past titles is all that need’s to be done and the fact that the developers could not see this is yet another example of their poor development skills.
Simplicity – This is debatable but I believe the gun system in Socom 1 and 2 was the best setup in the series. Most gamers don’t care about adding X amount of additions to a gun, they just want to play! In the first two games in the series you simply had to pick a gun a character and then you could jump into a game. Its this simplicity that helped to attract the original Socom fan base and its removal is another reason the franchise has alienated its fans. Also, one of the very few good additions Socom Confrontation brought was customizable characters BUT a lot of people miss having pre-made unique characters for each map. It just helped to add to the “Socom Atmosphere”. Oh and the black fog at the start of each map is beyond pointless.
Jump and climb – I won’t expand too much on this but really? This need’s to be brought back asap.
Stop trying to copy other developers – I’m sure in game design school they taught you that creativity is one of the most important quality’s to have in order to be a good developer. A lot of additions in Confrontation seem to TRY to blatantly copy other games instead of creating something truly unique to the franchise (the few unique additions all failed….). Why not sit down and try to figure out what YOU did wrong as a developer and try to build on that instead of trying to copy someone else’s ideas and yet even been unable to copy someone’s else idea’s correctly!! This franchise has been in decline because the developers keep trying follow what everyone else is doing instead of fixing what’s right in front of them.
*NEW*
Tiebreakers - The tiebreaker system in Socom Confrontation is beyond ridiculous and drastically altered the gameplay of the series. Having two teams fight it out until the very last round helped to bring tension and excitement to every game instead of the current sometimes unfair system. Why this was changed was never fully explained like most craptacular changes in the Socom universe. This MUST be brought back in the next Socom no two ways about it.
Reloading - Not going to expand much on this either but the reload time in Confrontation is absurd. It only serves to interrupt gameplay. How this STILL has yet to be fixed is beyond me.
Armor – Really not needed at all add’s nothing to the gameplay, sometimes I wonder if the developer’s made parts of Confrontation drunk…
Views – The fact that a 3rd person view was even an “option” in Socom: Confrontation shows what little know all the developers have for the series. Socom has ALWAYS been a straight 3rd person shooter with the option of first person. OTS is NOT needed in fact I know many, many people who have never even used it! Return to the old 3rd person/1st person setup. It baffles me that when this game was announced the developers promised to use past Socom’s (especially Socom 2) as an outline yet this happened?? That leads me to…
STOP the lies – Many people seem too overtly excited for the new DL but really well over a year after Confrontation’s release and were just NOW getting Dl content?? I’ve seen developers take less than a month to push out multiple new content. The BS about Q and A for patch’s is totally absurd. Look at almost any other multiplayer game on PS3 and they don’t take NEARLY as long as this game’s developers. If you are going to make us wait at least keep us constantly updated and not just disappear for 2 months only to suddenly reappear to give us false hope before disappearing yet again. This is a major reason why this community has been in decline in recent years. The developer’s come off as shady businessmen only appearing to peddle their lies rather than listening to the community.
Detail (Taken from Mashed-Potatoes post) - Another exceptional thing about SOCOM 1 and 2 maps was the attention to detail within the environments. Granted, Slant Six did includes some great details, both large and miniscule, some of which players don't even notice. First off is "basic detail" that affects the gameplay in small ways. Simple things like being able to close doors, allowing our players to automatically step up onto a 7 in curb, destructible light bulbs. We have the ability to shoot fish and oranges and see blood and juice spray out, or shoot a TV, yet we don't have the ability to destroy lights; something that has a tactical purpose. What about making sure railings don't block a player's muzzle, mesh nets that are bulletproof, catwalks are wide enough from players to pass each other, and all crates are climbable on Frostfire
On top of that, one thing we can certainly do without is explosive objects. Propane tanks do explode when shot, but not oil drums and certainly not a vehicle when shot 20 times in the windshield. It destroyed Desert Glory. Every round in that map start with a series of unnecessary explosions. I say that propane tanks remain destructible and barrels and cars doe not get destroyed unless hit by a rocket or C4. Cars should be good cover that takes more and more damage. Slant Six included the details of car doors falling off and windows being broken, but those details are pointless when the vehicle explodes within the time it takes to empty a full magazine. Just make the vehicles and barrels only explode with explosives. Slant Six was trying to make the game more dynamic with destructible objects, but actually, it just becomes more annoying and it's not worth it to go forward when you can safely hide from the terrible things that go boom. This is especially important if/when classic maps are brought back. The ONLY place there should be explosive objects on Foxhunt, for example, is the gas station. There should not be propane tanks in the middle of a field, or on the river bank.
The second part type of detail is the aesthetic part that simply makes the game seem more polished and interesting. As i said, Slant Six included some great details: falling, interactive chunks of concrete falling from the hotel in Urban Wasteland, or spent shell casings remaining on the map, or the rusted look of the buildings on Frostfire. But some areas are lackluster. The computer room in the original Forstfire and the single player map "Oil Platform Takedown" was more detailed than the current computer room. There were destructible screens, flashing lights, coffee mugs, etc. I thought Slant Six would take a step forward with that area, not a step back. I (I believe BUCHANANS_ made a post about it too) wanted to see some files strewn on the desks, some swivel chairs, more monitors. What about being able to view real-time images from security cameras placed around the map? That is the level of detail the game should have. The more time and effort they put into a map, the better it is. Urban Wasteland is a great example of that. After all, you don't see a "Making of Quarantine" video in the Movies section.
Basically, you can not have enough detail. SOCOM does not have the greatest graphics, it never has. But close attention to detail can compensate for this and often is more valuable.
This is not a thread to just complain, but rather to let the developers know what we DON’T want to see repeated in the next Socom home console game which should be at least announced sometime next year….
Let me first state that I have played every Socom game including the portable additions and have been in awe at some of the decisions that the developers have made during the run of the franchise. It seems that after the release of Socom 2, the series went into a slow and steady decline. Unlike most people I don’t think Socom 3 or Combined Assault were complete failure’s…..but the developers simply changed the gameplay too much too fast and alienated a large part of the fanbase which is why the number of players from Socom 2 fell from 40k on a good night to about 20-25k for Socom3/Combined Assault. Socom 3/Combined Assault did present several gameplay additions that did move the franchise forward however. The same cannot be said for Socom: Confrontation. If anything Socom: Confrontation has moved the franchise BACK several steps and made it in some ways inferior to even the first Socom game which says a lot about the development skills of the current developer. Some highlights of their failures include:
Maps – Many of the new maps seem hastily designed and not very creative overall. The previous developer Zipper started the trend of including multiple gametypes into each map which sounds good on paper but in reality since many of the maps weren’t created specifically for one game type, they simply don’t play well and aren’t very fun playing on some gametypes. Putting a weapons crate in a random spot on a map and then christening it the maps “Demoliltion Mode” does NOT work. I strongly believe that in the next Socom title the developers should return to the one game type for each map style of design. This will allow for the maps to become truly unique and creative again instead of the develoeprs trying to fit multiple gametypes into one map which leads me to my next point…
Ship the game with more than 7 maps – Seriously when I first saw that Confrontation was going to ship with just 7 maps I was just shocked. Even with the Dl maps it only brings the total to 12 maps. For comparisons sake Socom 2 shipped with 20 something maps and that doesn’t even include the dl maps. The next Socom should ship with at least 12 – 15 maps. There is simply no excuse other than pure laziness that this cant be accomplished. The developers have had an ample amount of time to master the PS3’s technology.
User created ranked rooms – How did this NOT make it into confrontation??? It’s been in every previous Socom game and is a large reason the community was so strong back in the day. People could make their own ranked rooms no matter how many people they had and have fun knowing it would count for something on their stats. People DON’T care about their rank but they do to some extent about their stats and taking away this option from the users was a grave mistake on the developers part and probably a big reason Confrontation averages only 10k max on a good night.
The “Run” button – Whichever developer decided to add this to Confrontation should be fired. This has to be one of the worst additions in the franchises history. It totally messed up the original Socom gameplay and its addition really made no sense in most maps. Simply increasing the characters movement speed to be comparable to past titles is all that need’s to be done and the fact that the developers could not see this is yet another example of their poor development skills.
Simplicity – This is debatable but I believe the gun system in Socom 1 and 2 was the best setup in the series. Most gamers don’t care about adding X amount of additions to a gun, they just want to play! In the first two games in the series you simply had to pick a gun a character and then you could jump into a game. Its this simplicity that helped to attract the original Socom fan base and its removal is another reason the franchise has alienated its fans. Also, one of the very few good additions Socom Confrontation brought was customizable characters BUT a lot of people miss having pre-made unique characters for each map. It just helped to add to the “Socom Atmosphere”. Oh and the black fog at the start of each map is beyond pointless.
Jump and climb – I won’t expand too much on this but really? This need’s to be brought back asap.
Stop trying to copy other developers – I’m sure in game design school they taught you that creativity is one of the most important quality’s to have in order to be a good developer. A lot of additions in Confrontation seem to TRY to blatantly copy other games instead of creating something truly unique to the franchise (the few unique additions all failed….). Why not sit down and try to figure out what YOU did wrong as a developer and try to build on that instead of trying to copy someone else’s ideas and yet even been unable to copy someone’s else idea’s correctly!! This franchise has been in decline because the developers keep trying follow what everyone else is doing instead of fixing what’s right in front of them.
*NEW*
Tiebreakers - The tiebreaker system in Socom Confrontation is beyond ridiculous and drastically altered the gameplay of the series. Having two teams fight it out until the very last round helped to bring tension and excitement to every game instead of the current sometimes unfair system. Why this was changed was never fully explained like most craptacular changes in the Socom universe. This MUST be brought back in the next Socom no two ways about it.
Reloading - Not going to expand much on this either but the reload time in Confrontation is absurd. It only serves to interrupt gameplay. How this STILL has yet to be fixed is beyond me.
Armor – Really not needed at all add’s nothing to the gameplay, sometimes I wonder if the developer’s made parts of Confrontation drunk…
Views – The fact that a 3rd person view was even an “option” in Socom: Confrontation shows what little know all the developers have for the series. Socom has ALWAYS been a straight 3rd person shooter with the option of first person. OTS is NOT needed in fact I know many, many people who have never even used it! Return to the old 3rd person/1st person setup. It baffles me that when this game was announced the developers promised to use past Socom’s (especially Socom 2) as an outline yet this happened?? That leads me to…
STOP the lies – Many people seem too overtly excited for the new DL but really well over a year after Confrontation’s release and were just NOW getting Dl content?? I’ve seen developers take less than a month to push out multiple new content. The BS about Q and A for patch’s is totally absurd. Look at almost any other multiplayer game on PS3 and they don’t take NEARLY as long as this game’s developers. If you are going to make us wait at least keep us constantly updated and not just disappear for 2 months only to suddenly reappear to give us false hope before disappearing yet again. This is a major reason why this community has been in decline in recent years. The developer’s come off as shady businessmen only appearing to peddle their lies rather than listening to the community.
Detail (Taken from Mashed-Potatoes post) - Another exceptional thing about SOCOM 1 and 2 maps was the attention to detail within the environments. Granted, Slant Six did includes some great details, both large and miniscule, some of which players don't even notice. First off is "basic detail" that affects the gameplay in small ways. Simple things like being able to close doors, allowing our players to automatically step up onto a 7 in curb, destructible light bulbs. We have the ability to shoot fish and oranges and see blood and juice spray out, or shoot a TV, yet we don't have the ability to destroy lights; something that has a tactical purpose. What about making sure railings don't block a player's muzzle, mesh nets that are bulletproof, catwalks are wide enough from players to pass each other, and all crates are climbable on Frostfire
On top of that, one thing we can certainly do without is explosive objects. Propane tanks do explode when shot, but not oil drums and certainly not a vehicle when shot 20 times in the windshield. It destroyed Desert Glory. Every round in that map start with a series of unnecessary explosions. I say that propane tanks remain destructible and barrels and cars doe not get destroyed unless hit by a rocket or C4. Cars should be good cover that takes more and more damage. Slant Six included the details of car doors falling off and windows being broken, but those details are pointless when the vehicle explodes within the time it takes to empty a full magazine. Just make the vehicles and barrels only explode with explosives. Slant Six was trying to make the game more dynamic with destructible objects, but actually, it just becomes more annoying and it's not worth it to go forward when you can safely hide from the terrible things that go boom. This is especially important if/when classic maps are brought back. The ONLY place there should be explosive objects on Foxhunt, for example, is the gas station. There should not be propane tanks in the middle of a field, or on the river bank.
The second part type of detail is the aesthetic part that simply makes the game seem more polished and interesting. As i said, Slant Six included some great details: falling, interactive chunks of concrete falling from the hotel in Urban Wasteland, or spent shell casings remaining on the map, or the rusted look of the buildings on Frostfire. But some areas are lackluster. The computer room in the original Forstfire and the single player map "Oil Platform Takedown" was more detailed than the current computer room. There were destructible screens, flashing lights, coffee mugs, etc. I thought Slant Six would take a step forward with that area, not a step back. I (I believe BUCHANANS_ made a post about it too) wanted to see some files strewn on the desks, some swivel chairs, more monitors. What about being able to view real-time images from security cameras placed around the map? That is the level of detail the game should have. The more time and effort they put into a map, the better it is. Urban Wasteland is a great example of that. After all, you don't see a "Making of Quarantine" video in the Movies section.
Basically, you can not have enough detail. SOCOM does not have the greatest graphics, it never has. But close attention to detail can compensate for this and often is more valuable.