by Wyatt "JOEDOG" Elliott
War games have been played since the dawn of time. Even as kids we played cowboys
and indians....Well, I never did. I played Jedis and Siths, but that was me. Even as we
get older we still want to play War. Laser tag, Paint ball, and Civil War reenacting.
However, with the growth of technology, we can now play war from our living rooms in
our underwear. Sure there's been war video games for years. But not so much
cooperative, and with other people. With the ever growing On-line gaming. We can
interact with others without ever having to see them. Sony reinvented this for consoles
last year with SOCOM US Navy Seals. With a broadband network adapter and the
Playstation headset. You can play online with friends, strangers, anyone. The headset
allows for you to communicate, give orders, or hear them talk about their boring lives. whatever. Its amazing.
This game flew off the shelves. Now its only fair Sony makes some major upgrades and
introduces SOCOM II. SOCOM II offers players to play on-line or off. Off line you can
play with cooperative missions with computer controlled soldiers. You command them,
but do not control on what they actaully do. You only control one soldier. Conflict Desert
Storm is a similar game where you switch between the soldiers. SOCOM only allows full
control over one. However, on-line of course each soldier is controlled by an individual.
SOCOM II takes place in a fictional wars, but the action is totally real. They take this
stuff seriously. They had support of the US armed forces while making this game.
Graphically, I must admit, SOCOM II is not spectacular. It's not horrid, its just not
ground breaking. SOCOM's ground breaking is left to its on-line play. SOCOM II
delivers action, strategy, and plenty of replay value. If you like to play war games, but
do not wish to get hit by a paint ball, and do not to play the childish game of cowboys
and indians. SOCOM II is the game for you. SOCOM II comes without the headset. So
if you already have a headset from you original SOCOM game, you don't have to pay
the extra coin for a second one. It would been nice if Socom 2 had a offline multiplayer
mode, so you and your friends battle together in co-op missions or against each other in
hunt and kill. This seems like a good time to point out that if you have SOCOM I,
you cannot play someone with SOCOM II. Sorry, folks. It just doesn't work that way.
So go out and get yourself a Playstation 2, a modem adapter, a few friends, and make war
the only way it should be fought. Over the internet.