E3 2010: SOCOM 4 Hands-On Impression w/ the DualShock 3 Controller

A few months ago during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, we brought you an impression on how SOCOM 4 plays using the PlayStation Move. On the show floor for this year’s E3, SOCOM 4 is playable again but this time, I tried the game with the DualShock 3 instead of the PlayStation Move controller. It was really loud in the booth, so a headset was supplied to truly experience the intensity of war in the game.

The demo begins in a scene where a radio tower is bombed by a terrorist. As Commander Gray, I have three soldiers with me awaiting my command. Similar to the past SOCOM titles, I get to direct my team to wherever I want them to go by pressing the D-Pad left or right button. At first, I was not used to the controls of the game since it’s been years since I played SOCOM 3 on the PlayStation 2. For fans who are familiar to the series, controls shouldn’t be a problem as it’s similar to the other SOCOM games.

Visually, the level looked phenomenal. The graphics of SOCOM 4 have a lot of detail, especially when compared to the past titles in the series. Explosions and fires are lifelike and the phenomenal soundtrack managed to give me the feel that I was in the war. The level took me at least 10 minutes to complete and the most memorable moment that I had in the game was launching an air strike at a battle tank. By aiming and holding the L2 button at the battle tank, Commander Gray can ask for an air strike. Once it landed on the battle tank, players can see it turn into pieces while black smoke rises.

The demo level ends after taking down two battle tanks with an air strike. So far, SOCOM 4 didn’t give me the traditional Socom experience but instead, it gave me a next-generation third person shooter that not only Socom fans will enjoy, but that will appeal to the masses as well. The way SOCOM 4 plays is completely different from the spin-off title, SOCOM: Confrontation, that was released a year ago.