SOCOM: Confrontation DLC Hands-on
We engage the enemy on the digital battlefield.
November 24, 2009 - A little over a year ago, SOCOM: Confrontation launched with a bit of a rocky start for the respected online franchise. Missing features and technical issues were among the list of complaints that fans raised about the first steps of the series on the PS3, but Slant Six and SCEA have been hard at work since the release working on patches and prepping additional content for players. The recent plan is to release a holiday 1-2 punch of SOCOM content to keep players blasting through the last few weeks of 2009. During a recent visit to Sony, I checked out both the upcoming 1.6 patch as well as the future downloadable content that should expand the gameplay of the online shooter.
One of the primary additions within the 1.6 patch is the inclusion of two new special forces outfits. The Dutch KCT and Italian Col Moschin will join the ranks of the other in-game spec ops teams like the SAS and KSK. Both the KCT and Col Moschin will have their own unique weapon isolated from the options presented to other soldiers, as well as specific gear and outfits. While the inclusion of new elite units is a bonus, 1.6 also adds new weapons for the player depending on whether the player is choosing to be a commando or mercenary.
Behold the expanded map of Uprising.
If you decide to be a mercenary, you'll be able to add a nine-millimeter submachine gun pistol as well as an M82A1A, a recoilless rifle designed more as a sniper rifle than a hand to hand combat weapon. Commandos also get their own weaponry, such as an SR25 Sniper Rifle and an AK74. On top of these new firearms, modifications have been made to the pre-existing weapons to adjust damage, weapon range or caliber. For example, the M87 now fires .50 caliber rounds, while the grenade launchers have a shorter delay between fired shots. Shotguns have also been adjusted realistically for range, so they do more damage in close range situations but less damage from afar. All of these changes have been made as preliminary support for the upcoming downloadable content pack.
If the patch is adjusting pre-existing gameplay elements, the downloadable pack, currently called Cold Front, is primarily about customizing your Confrontation experience to fit your play style. This is primarily done through the newly included specialization feature, which allows you to select a primary and secondary class from the available weapons in the game. As you use weapons in these classes more and more, you increase your experience with them, unlocking new attachments for the guns, additional damage, and eventually unique weapons that are tailor-made for that class. While these special weapons can be picked up by other players if you're killed in battle, they'll only remain in their hands for the remainder of that round or until they're killed, after which they'll disappear. This gives other players a chance to see what the different higher level weapons for each specialization are like. However, there's one caveat to the specialization feature: if you switch to a new specialization, you immediately start over again from scratch, so you'll have to weigh that decision carefully.
There are plenty of nooks and crannies to ambush players from on Uprising's streets.
Along with the specializations comes a wealth of new heads, voiceovers, face paint and gear for your soldiers. This includes reflex scopes as well as thermal scopes with three separate zoom levels and filters to help you detect your targets, which will be extremely effective within the five maps that are included in this pack. Three of these maps (Nightstalker, Blizzard and Vigilance) return from previous SOCOM games. Nightstalker, in particular, has undergone a slight tweak, as it used to be a 16-player only map set in the desert. It's now been reconfigured for the arctic. The other two maps are called Uprising and Entrapment, and are new additions to the franchise.
Entrapment is set within a defunct Russian subway station, with a number of entrances scattered around the complex. While you can move through the various stairways to approach your targets, you can also enter via the subway tunnels. However, you'll have to be careful, because the third rail is still electrified on the level and you can kill yourself if you don't step carefully. The other level, Uprising, is set within a bombed out Western Russia city with a large canal running through the middle of the stage. There are at least three separate levels within this massive stage, as players can run along the banks of the canal, across the few remaining bridges and rooftops and through the city streets to eliminate their targets. Both new maps have 16-32 player variations which can be configured before a round starts, particularly if you engage in the newly included game mode called Arms Race.
Entrapment will give you a sense of claustrophobia in the defunct subway station.
Arms Race gives one team the objective to track down and launch a set of three missiles that have been scattered around the map. Two of the three missiles need to be armed and launched for the attackers to win the round. Clearly, the other team is tasked with defusing the launch at all costs, and once a missile has been armed, the defenders have 90 seconds to prevent the firing of the weapon. Much more than a static weapon, the missiles and their launch platforms will tilt and animate to indicate to some players at a quick glance whether they've been armed or neutralized. This can be quite difficult to tell depending on the map, however; when I played this mode on Blizzard, the extra snow effects and flurries on the screen made it particularly difficult to tell at times whether a missile had been reset, which added a little to the tension. This mode won't be solely restricted to outdoor maps either, as playing it on a map with a lot of indoor areas (like Entrapment) converts the missile platforms to radar dishes that need to be activated.
I was told that Cold Front will also feature in the SOCOM PlayStation Home Space. Currently, the idea is to have visitors of the space field strip a gun and put it back together, with the reward being a gold plated AK that can be wielded in Confrontation matches. The weapon will simply be cosmetic and won't have any statistical boosts, but will look striking on the battlefield. There currently isn't a specific date as to when this mini-game or item would be available for Home users, but it's probable that it'll be released at the same time of the patch or the DLC pack.
Watch out for that third rail!
Last, but not least, Cold Front will include Russian mercs and the Spetznaz Russian special forces. There will also be brand new camouflage patterns that clans will be able to use to define their own unique uniforms by manipulating the base color and pattern to set your own clan colors. Clan insignias will be set on one side of the uniform, with clan ranks on the other, so players will also be able to see who they're going up against on the battlefield. While there isn't a current release date scheduled for the patch or DLC pack, I was told that it come out before the end of the year, so Confrontation fans will have something to look forward to in the next six weeks.
lol
ing shaking from that 1 on 4 escort win... Got the mvp stolen but oh well thems the breaks.
