' is a tactical shooter video game for PlayStation 2 and the sequel for . The game was developed by Zipper Interactive in collaboration with the Naval Special Warfare Command and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. was released on November 4th, 2003.
Gameplay
Weaponry
SOCOM II features an array of modern day armaments (most of which carry their real world names). Both teams— and —carry distinct weapon sets with only a few similarities. When selecting the weapons, the player chooses a primary weapon, such as an assault rifle or submachine gun, a secondary weapon (pistol), and is given three slots to fill with various tactical devices (such as a Infrared camera telescopic sight for sniper rifles) and grenades. Upon completing the single-player campaign on a selected difficulty level (, , , , ) the player will unlock certain weapons for use in the single-player portion of the game, along with playable characters for the online missions.
During on-line play the following weapons are available:
Pistols - Mark 23, Mark 23SD, SP-10, 9MM Pistol, M11
Other - M67 Frag, HE grenade, AN-M8 Smoke, Flash Bang, C4, Claymore, AT4 Heat
For legal reasons, several of the weapons representing real life counterparts have had letters of their real life name replaced with initials of the real life manufacturer. Such as the F90 representing the FN P90, and the HK5 representing the H&K MP5. Other weapons have been renamed in other ways, such as the Model 18 representing a GLOCK model 18 and the 9mm Sub representing an UZI submachine gun.
Online Play
The online multiplayer portion of Socom II requires an ethernet broadband connection for play. This mode sets two teams of 8 each, SEALs and Terrorists, against each other with default play settings of a round time of 5 minutes, with each game being decided by the first team to win 6 of 11 possible rounds. In a room created by a SOCOM II user, factors such as number of rounds, round type, round time, weapon restrictions, and friendly fire can all be adjusted to the creator's liking.
Each round plays out in a manner similar to the popular online game Counterstrike- Each team "spawns" at opposite sides of the map, and proceed to pursue their respective objectives. When the character one is controlling dies, that player must wait for the next round to begin in order to resume play. While dead, the player may view all other living team members and their actions, however they are not permitted to monitor members of the other team. The only in-game time for changing a character's weapons load is when a character is dead and waiting for the next round to begin.
SOCOM II supports voice chat in game lobbies and between teammates during gameplay. Voice chat is not permitted in server lobbies or while in the armory of game lobbies. There are in-game options to mute certain players if one does not desire to hear their contributions to the chat, or to switch to a different channel of communication (offense, defense, etc.), although that feature is rarely used in the average game.
Problems with locating acquaintances in the original SOCOM online lead to the development of both a Friend List and a Clan Roster. If one is a member of a clan or recognized friend of another player, he/she may view the statistics, status and server and game location of anybody on the respective lists, as well as the other user's "Description" and "Hometown" at that user's discretion.
Standard Online Gametypes
Game types under the standard category are the types that are built into SOCOM II online for general play, and are the only "official" modes of play:
: The sole goal of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team to win a round.
: An option for created games that can only apply to supression maps. The game is one long round (with the default length at 20 minutes) where after a player dies, they must wait a few seconds before hitting a button to "respawn" and resume play. This mode of gameplay is recommended by many SOCOM Online players for improving one's skills in a head-on firefight. However, statistical data is not collected for the ladder, so respawn games do not contribute to a player's rating.
: One satchel (Bomb) is located in the center of each demolition map, and the object for each team is to plant the satchel in the opposing team's base and protect it until it detonates- this is necessary because a planted satchel can be defused by the opposing team. In addition to destroying the opposing team's base, a team can win a round by eliminating all players on the opposing team.
: Three hostages are held in a secure location at or near the terrorist starting or "spawn" point. The SEALs may extract the hostages to pre-designated extraction points for a win. Either team can win the round by eliminating all members of the opposing team.
: The SEALs are in possession of three VIPs, and must keep the terrorists from killing them. The VIPs can be extracted safely from the area by the SEAL team at either of two pre-designated extraction zones, giving the SEALs a victory. The complete elimination of either team's members awards a victory to the opposing team. The terrorists must either eliminate ALL VIPs or every member of the SEALs team to win a round.
: As always, the elimination of all members of an opposing team will award that team a win for a round. In this mode, the SEALs are obliged to carry a satchel and plant it inside the terrorist base. In breach maps, the SEALs are required to carry C4 as part of their weapons load in order to breach the otherwise impregnable perimeter bounding the terrorist base. As long as the terrorist team prevents the demolition of their base and at least one team member is alive, they win the round. The SEALs win the round if the satchel successfully detonates inside the terrorist base.
Other Online Gametypes
- A game in which players are only allowed to use sniper rifles in order to eliminate the opponent. "Snipers Only" is a selectable option when making a room, forcing all users to use sniper rifles, but many snipers only rooms are titled "no SR-25/SASR or vote" (or something similar) because using either of the two mentioned sniper rifles gives the user an unfair advantage because of its quick fire rate compared to the other rifles. Another sub-category of snipers only that was more popular in SOCOM I was ""M40A1 Only"; it became popular because the M40A1 is designed (in SOCOM I and II) to be used to kill only with headshots but be extremely accurate compared to heavier rifles that aggravate the simulated hand shaking. The relatively weak power of the M40A1 leads to unique firefights that generally take a long time to complete.
- A mode using only the 12 Gauge Pump shotgun that became popular in SOCOM II for much the same reasons as snipers only. The unique style of gameplay and slow rate of fire of the shotgun gained popularity especially in SOCOM II, leading Gamebattles (premier online ladder host site for SOCOM II) to run a tournament in May 2005 specifically for the adopted 12 Gauge Pump gametype.
- A "Sniper Boundary"-type game is a Respawn, but not always, game using default options, except that the map chosen for the game is Vigilance, but also could be Frostfire, Crossroads, Chain Reaction or others, and only sniper rifles are allowed. The Navy SEAL and Terroristteams in the game must stay on their own side of the map's "trench" or middle spot, preferably near the outer boundary of the map (thus "Sniper Boundary"), and shoot the enemy team, who attempt to do the same, on the other side.
- A game type in which all players agree to use only a primary weapon from the sub machinegun category on single fire and abide by a middle line that neither team is allowed to cross. The gametype was given its name for the distinctive "pop" most sub machineguns issue that many say sounds similar to a Paintball marker firing a round.
- A game type that has gained much popularity, only available weapons are: 9mm pistol, M11, Mark23, Mark23SD, and SP-10 for the SEAL team, and F57, 226, Desert Eagle, Model 18, and M9 for the terrorist faction. A very popular and often overlooked sub-genre of SOCOMII, populates most if not all of the rooms in the US EAST 1 server, and US Captians Only servers.(It is said that Pistol Only games help rank)
Problems with SOCOM II Online
: The detection of bullets on the characters during a game is something that has been complained about since its release. Zipper has admitted "dead spots" on character models where enemy shots that are on target just don't register, and don't diminish the health of the person hit. Latency (or "Lag") is related to hit detection insomuch as that data packets are dropped with increased latency in a game, possibly causing hit detection problems that are worse than normal.
: As with all online games, glitches are found and exploited. Known glitches include multiple ways to get through walls and be protected inside them while shooting others who are outside the wall, and throwing grenades through walls.
: While there are minor anti-profanity measures in place for keeping language in SOCOM II Online clean, the automatic filters for profanity are unable to detect simple alterations of profane words, such as replacing the letter "A" with "@", or using the alternate characters such as "Á".
: Occasionally there will be a major flaw in gameplay during a game. Issues include a member of one team spawning at the spawn point of the opposing team, only certain members of each team being able to shoot or throw grenades or players being immune to bullets and, in some cases, explosives.
Updates and Authentication
In order to play SOCOM II online, one must have their "DNAS Data" authenticated. This process scans the user's Playstation for added internal chips that modify the Playstation's functioning (mod chip), hacking devices (Gameshark, Codebreaker), and unoriginal versions of game discs that may otherwise affect online play, possibly giving the user an unfair advantage over other online players. While Son scans the hardware of each user logging on to SOCOM online, there is no evidence that they will take any action against anyone with unauthorized modifications or peripherals, although many SOCOM online players have expressed opinions in favor of Sony banning the hardware address of anybody found cheating in-game or using a cheating device so that they could not play online.
SOCOM II online is updated by Sony occasionally through the use of patches - downloadable updates to the game saved to a memory card. The patches released as of 24 June 2005 include fixes for bugs in the game such as exploits allowing players playing as terrorists to carry twice the maximum number of mines, and what was deemed "wall-jumping" where a player would run along a wall and hit the jump button in order to move much quicker than a normal run.
Online "Culture"
n00b Guns/Gun Banning
The IW-80-A2, (real life L-85, aka SA-80-A2,) is by far the easists to use gun in the whole of SOCOM II, with anyone being able to pick one up and use successfully. L-85s are bullpup carbines (magazine behind the trigger/grip, basically) and have very little recoil. Bullet grouping is great at any range. You can just hold down the trigger and fire away without any stray bullets. The STG-77 (real life Steyr AG or AUG) is exactly the same.
The M40A1 is among the more expert guns in the whole of SOCOM II, with only the best of the best having the skill necessary to use it. The BMG .50 caliber (M82 and M87ELR) can kill with a shot to the torso, rather than just the head.
Other weapons banned include the M14, AT-4 Heat and RPGs, as well as all forms of grenade launchers (MGL, M79, M203). The availability of the M14 to both teams suggests that there is, in fact, no inequality in its use, making many people on SOCOM II Online continue its use despite an emerging social ban that has a significantly smaller following than that of the IW-80. One reason for calling the M14 a n00b gun is because of its ability to quickly spray its 20 round magazine at close range, killing anybody in front of the user at a distance of up to approximately 15 feet. However, the M14 is highly inaccurate while firing fully automatically over long distances, and this is it's only weakness. Hence, the players who realize this and recognize the low skill needed in using the M14 well in online play, help create the somewhat late flood of users accusing others of being "M14 scrubs".
As for grenade/rocket launchers, some online players object to their use because of the lag they cause while playing, as explosions tend to slow down gameplay and diminish the framerate in any video game. On some maps they are banned because they are only available to one team and create an imbalance of power that diminishes gameplay, but many people also object to any of the highly explosive weapons on the basis that they are n00b guns.
Ranking-up
The ranking system in SOCOM II Online is based on a common chess ranking system, where players gain rating points based on their personal/team performance as well as the rating of the opposing team (respawn games do not count towards a player's rating).
However, many of the top few thousand players on the built-in ladder (if not all) "rank up" on a regular basis to hold their spots near the top. Certain exploits of the game lead to easy ways to improve one's rank. These include playing a variety of rank-up gametypes, including "laydown" where the high-ranked person is on a team by him/herself and proceeds to kill every member of the opposing team, frequently with headshots. The high-ranked individual kills the last person on the opposing team by throwing a grenade. This allows for the lower-ranked person from the other team to obtain a large number of rating points for the kill, and every member of the team of lower ranked people to increase their rank as they win every round and hence the game, as well as when they take turns killing the high-ranked creator of the room.
In other words, this version of ranking up is an exploit of the ranking system. Because the person with a high rating gets MVP for the game against such an overpowering team, his rank rises dramatically while the members of the other team gain slightly fewer rating points for killing the well-rated player and winning the game . . . so everybody's rating goes up.
Other ways of ranking up is to exploit a glitch when creating a new game, and make an originally non-respawn map respawn. This awards MVPs quicker because there is only one round as in a standard respawn game, but since it is on a normal map it counts towards one's rating. Since the default length of a respawn game is 20 minutes, many people who rank up have statistics including an unreasonable amount of time played, with some having the statistic Time Played as a value larger than the total number of hours SOCOM II has been publicly available for purchase.
Gender/Age Factors
By far, SOCOM players are generally males in the age group of 14-35. Such an overwhelming majority of players within the same demographic leads to enstrangement of other groups, particularly males less than 14 years old and females of all ages.
Younger kids are disliked by a reasonable portion of the SOCOM II Online community, and many players dread the influx of younger players on the SOCOM servers after the school year ends both because of the extra load on the servers and the generally more immature nature of the younger players, and very high pitched voice of the youth. Sometimes younger kids are voted off of a team solely because of their age, but this doesn't happen on a regular basis. Frequently more mature SOCOM players will simply mute the younger kid or Flaming the player openly over voice chat.
An annoyance to SOCOM players are clans comprised of younger players, with weird clan names(i.e. pokemon). This leads many players to be discriminated against by younger, frequently immature players who populate one or both sides of a room with enough players to vote out anybody they desire to vote, sometimes for illegitimate reasons.Several free agent players have been known to launch crackdowns on clans composed of younger players by claiming they are around the clan members age and want to challenge them,and with knowledge of the maps firsthand,have used elevated positions on maps like Crossroads and Vigilance to completely surround the younger team with gunfire,and when the game ends the free agents mock the younger players in the chat rooms for their lack of skill and maturity.
Females who play SOCOM have a few different responses to expect when their gender is revealed in SOCOM II Online. The two main responses have been 1) being "hit on" by the outnumbering male players and 2) an extra-welcoming atmosphere. Occasionally a female will be degraded by male players because of gender, but it is much less likely than the two common responses
