KMC Forums - Socom 2

THE ONLY EASY DAY WAS YESTERDAY.
The world's terrorists have targeted America and her allies. As an elite SEAL commander, your team's orders are simple - strike targets of importance within 12 intense international missions quietly and successfully - and protect freedom across the globe. Utilizing the best weaponry, technology and training available, accept no outcome but victory.

Command. Courage. Country.

Confront deadly enemies with the most skilled Special Ops force ever assembled, including collaboration with (Russian) Spetznaz and (British) SAS groups.
Battle the world's terrorists in 12 intense missions, including operations in Brazil, Russia, Albania and Algeria.
Command and strategize with SEALs and other special operations forces with a SOCOM headset or USB headset (for PlayStation 2) (sold separately).
Lead your SEAL team in single player mode, or exchange fire with and against up to 16 total players via enhanced online gameplay - including five mission types, clan challenges, 22 playable maps, Rank Insignias, friends lists, and the ability to call in air strikes.
Association with Naval Special Warfare Command ensures realistic SEAL gameplay and mission designs.

Your average bad guy with a gun takes three seconds to get ready, aim, and fire on a moving target. Our military knows this and drills the so-called three-second rule--a tactic of zagging and zigging every three seconds while beating feet through a war zone--into its troopers. And if the military knows it, so does Zipper Interactive, the gung-ho developers (they once coded simulations for Uncle Sam) of last year's lethally realistic PlayStation 2 online shooter SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs. Now they're teaching the three-second rule to the terrorists in the game's follow-up, U.S. Navy SEALs II, due in November.

And when we spied all the other training routines that Zipper is imposing on the sequel's terrorists and SEAL allies to make them meaner, smarter, and faster than before, it took us three seconds to target the game as this fall's number-one must-play title. "After SOCOM 1, we were looking at doing more of an expansion pack for the follow-up," says Producer Seth Luisi, "but marketing and sales were just going to bill it as a sequel anyway. So we wanted to make sure it really is the next iteration of the game. We've really had to dig in and add all the stuff we wanted."

Aside from the brainier allies and enemies, that "stuff" includes rocket launchers and mountable turrets, more-complex missions, LAN support, voice masking, new multiplayer games, and fun little touches sure to make the Navy brass who endorse this game grumble. (You can now bust into a celebratory breakdance on the corpses of thine enemies, for instance.)

Depending on which way you like to wage war--either solo or against the world--we've broken down this sequel's specs into single-player and online-multiplayer (page 122) sections. Whichever route you take, keep moving. Remember that three-second thing?

What's new in single-player
"I'm sure we're on a government watch list for all the research we're doing," says Zipper Creative Director David Sears, referring to the hundreds of hours the Zipper team has spent studying terrorists, their tactics, and their haunts. "We certainly haven't run out of bad places in the world to send your SEALs." SOCOM II's 12 single-player missions globe-trot your team of four SEALs to don't-go-there hotspots in Albania, Algeria, Brazil, Russia, and a level at sea. "It gives us a pretty wide range of enemy types," Sears says. "We'll have 40 unique new characters in single-player."

Just don't expect to target hot-topic outfits like the Taliban in Afghanistan or Iraqi dissidents. "SOCOM II is a worldwide product," says Luisi. "Iraq missions would definitely have an impact when we try to sell the game in France or Germany. Plus, we don't want to just capitalize on real-world events. We'd rather create our own realistic and authentic scenarios." These include a raid on a Brazilian hydroelectric plant taken over by terrorists who'll nuke it if their demands aren't met. Take your team in guns blazing, and you'll find the going nearly impossible, with the enemy hunkered into defensive positions and the terrorist leader's finger on the kaboom button. Go stealthy, on the other hand, and you'll catch the leader much earlier in the level. Perform well in one mission and you can make the rest of the war less hellish. For instance, if you take out all the snipers in one level, you'll actually deplete the terrorists' roster of sharpshooters, making follow-up missions less harrowing. Finding a bomb schematic in another level increases your troopers' bomb-defusing speed later on.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Developer: Zipper Interactive Release Date: November 4, 2003

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