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SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs is a tactical shooter video game for PlayStation 2 and the sequel for U.S. Navy SEALs. The game was developed by Zipper Interactive in collaboration with the Naval Special Warfare Command and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. SOCOM II was released on November 4th, 2003.

Gameplay

SOCOM II is a third person tactical shooter for the PS2 that combines the elements of strategy, stealth, reflex and hand-eye coordination. There are 12 different single-player missions: 3 in Albania, 3 in Brazil, 3 in Algeria, and 3 in Russia. There are 5 different ranks that you can play the game in. From easiest to hardest, they are: Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, and Admiral. You start with the first three ranks unlocked, but you must finish the entire single player game on Commander to unlock Captain, and must finish the game on Captain to unlock Admiral. You can unlock new models for multiplayer, as well as movies, music, concept art, and credits from the game by completing certain objectives, like beating the Albania missions on Lieutenant unlocks Pius for multiplayer. Each mission has Primary Objectives, Bonus Objectives, and Hidden Bonus Objectives. You have to complete all the Primary Objectves to win the mission, and Bonus Objectives are optional, but add to your overall score for the mission.
  • Hidden Bonus Objectives usually help to make other missions easier, like finding a map in one mission means you do not have to look hard to find the place in the next mission. At the end of a mission, you will receive a grade. It is a letter grade based on the average percent of the 4 categories of score: Stealth, Accuracy, Teamwork, and Objective Completion.

Commands

In single player, you can administer commands to the rest of your team. When you open the command menu, you choose WHO, WHAT, and WHERE for the three columns (lke Fireteam, Attack to, Charlie.) You can also say the commands with the USB headset.

Weaponry

SOCOM II features an array of modern day armaments (most of which carry their real world names). Both teams—Seals and Terrorists—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 sub-machine gun, a secondary weapon (pistol), and is given three slots to fill with various tactical devices (such as a thermal scope for sniper rifles) and grenades. Upon completing the single-player campaign on a selected difficulty level (Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, Admiral) 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:

Terrorists

Primary weapons

Pistols

Other

SEALs

Primaries

Pistols

Other

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. The OICW is a primary weapon only obtainable through a codebreaker to use online, but is available on single player once unlocked on Admiral but can only be used on single player.

Single Player

The overall gameplay has stepped up a notch with smarter A.I. on both sides, as well as having a better health system from the previous game. Although the team A.I. is reliable, there are a few problems in which the team mates run into walls if the player gets too far ahead. There were also a few additions to the TCM menu (a Tactical Command Menu which allows you give orders to your squad) such as "GET DOWN", which orders your teammates to drop to the ground and hold position when out doors. There are also secret commands which are not listed on the commands list.

Online Play

The online multiplayer portion of Socom II requires an ethernet broadband connection for play. This mode sets two teams of eight each, SEALs and Terrorists, against each other with default play settings of a round time of 6 minutes, with each game being decided by the first team to win 6 of 11 possible rounds. In a room created by any 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 Counter-Strike - 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 (apart from "respawn" games - see below). 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, although weapons can be picked up from dead players of either team.

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.

Online Maps

All of the Original Socom maps were carried over for online play with a few minor changes such as:
The Location of certain items
Certain maps that were Previously Day maps, are now Night Maps (i.e. Rats Nest, Abandoned)

  • Frost Fire-Alaska
  • Blizzard-Alaska
  • NightStalker-Turkmenistan
  • Desert Glory-Turkmenistan
  • Rats Nest-Turkmenistan
  • Abandoned-Thailand
  • The Ruins-Thailand
  • Blood Lake-Congo
  • Bitter Jungle-Congo
  • Death Trap-Congo
  • Sandstorm-Algeria
  • Fish Hook-Algeria
  • Crossroads-Algeria
  • Fox Hunt-Albania
  • The Mixer-Albania
  • Vigilance-Albania
  • Requiem-Russia
  • Guidance-Russia
  • Chain Reaction-Russia
  • Sujo-Brazil
  • Enowapi-Brazil
  • Shadow Falls-Brazil

Illustrations of all maps can be found by going to the SeaSnipers website, and visit the Maps Section

Other Online Gametypes

(Note: These game types are not official, and must be stated by the host of the server. Players can cheat, so vote them if they do. Also remember that since this is an open article, the minigames may be twisted to the rules in the mind of the author. Always ask the specific rules whenever you join a room with one of these names.)

Snipers Only - 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.

12 Gauge Pump - 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.

12 Gauge Pump Duels - Players go to the hostage building roof in desert glory. everyone grabs the 12 gauge pump. Then the rules are similar to gladiator, with one person from each team jumping down onto the lower part of the roof, directly above the hostages.

King of Computer Room - This intense game, founded by the and [IJ clans pretty much speaks for itself. A Frostfire respawn room is made and 2 teams are formed. The room is set to shotguns only, and the game is restricted to only use 12 Gauge Pumps, flash grenades, and smoke grenades. There are two ways of winning this game. One way is to have your team win the respawn map with the most amount of total points. The other way of winning is the most intense. The other way is known as the "Freezer." Once the clock hits 0:00, the race is on to see who has control of the computer room when your screen freezes at the end. If there are 2 teams in there at the same time, it is whoever has more people. If there is only one player from each team, then it is whoever entered the room first. This usually ends up with some major debates in the lobby resulting in rematches, which its twice as fun. Rematches often result in the losing team taking out M3's.

Sniper Boundary - 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 SEAL and Terrorist teams 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. Most commonly the SR25's, SR25SD's, and SASR's are not allowed.

Paintball - A game type in which all players agree to use only a primary weapon from the sub machinegun category on single fire (not silenced) 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. The suppressed SEALs' HK5SD is occasionally not allowed, because it's low volume may not be reminiscent of a paintball marker and/or because the Terrorists do not have such a suppressed weapon. Also it is harder to tell if the user is using the gun on single shot due to the suppressed fire. There is often a time limit that no player is allowed to shoot. Ex. No shooting during the first 30 seconds of the game. This ensures that every player gets to the paintball site safely. Also many players implement a "15 second rush" rule in which the players can rush the other side of the field during the last 15 seconds to avoid a draw. A popular paintball map is Frostfire (the box room segment). It is ideal for it's small size and boxes which make perfect "bunkers". The three main maps that paintball is played on are: Frostfire (In the Box Room), The Ruins (The Bomb area) and Crossroads (In the center market area).

Gladiator - This is done with the map Crossroads. The terrorists go to the area above the "fish market" and the seals go to the area directly opposite of the terrorists. One member from each side jumps into the center area. They immediately begin shooting and trying to eliminate the other player. While they are doing this the other players throw smoke and flash grenades at the players that are in the center. Once one of the two has been eliminated, a member of the opposing team jumps down and they start trying to eliminate each other. The last team with players alive wins the game.

Pistols Only - 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, often populates all of the rooms in the US EAST 1 server, and US Captains Only servers; this may be because it is said that Pistol Only games help rank.

King of the Hill - This game is usually played in Frost Fire with respawn and friendly fire enabled. In this game players are only allowed to use the 12gauge pumps or the TA 12gauge. At the beginning of the round players rush to the tallest stack of boxes to the left of the SEALs spawn point, the first player to reach the top is deemed "King of the Hill." From there players, both SEALs and Terrorists, attempt to reach the top in order to dethrown the player at the top of the boxes. The "king" may use his shotgun to keep others from climbing up, but can not shoot players that are not on the boxes. An alternate version is where each team tries to take over the barrel spawn (the default terrorist spawn point for frost fire), in which both teams can use the 12 gauge pump or the TA 12 gauge in certain cases. In both scenarios whoever is on the "hill" at the end of the round wins.

Hide and Seek - A very popular gametype that started to gain widespread play near the release of SOCOM 3. Invented By AS_IF, Sir smokealot, SUM 1, and others. In this game there is a hiding and a seeking team (players decide which team hides first and which team seeks first before the game is started). The only two weapons allowed are the M9 and M11 (although certain rooms allow the F57 and 9mm Pistol to be used as well). The seeking team will have to wait 30 seconds (although the original version used a minute) for the hiding team to find a good area of cover. Then the seeking team uses the remaining time of the game to try and eliminate every member of the hiding team (the seeking team, can NOT Plant a bomb, extract the hostages, or kill VIP's.) before the time runs out. If found, the hiding team CAN NOT shoot the seeking team, under ANY circumstances. THe roles of the hiding and seeking teams switch every round. Whoever has the most rounds won at the end of the game wins. Now here is where it gets complicated. Due to certain modes (breach and escort) giving a win to either the seal or terrorist team if the timer rounds out (instead of a draw), H&S'ers had to come up with something. In either the last 30 or 15 seconds, the terrorist team can kill the VIP's at the end of the round, provided they are HIDING, but they still can't shoot the SEAL team. In breach, there is still no definitive way to resolve this issue. Some people have suggested that in the last 10 seconds the Seal team (when hiding) can plant the bomb. But then there is still 30 seconds in which the terrorists can defuse it. although you can set up an agreement to have them not do so. Resolve this issue before the game starts, and make sure all new members know of the specific rules involved with this game.

Protect the Fort - A game popular near the release of socom 3, but not as popular as hide and seek. This game is usually played in Desert Glory, occasionally in crossroads or fishhook, but can be played in any map. For the duration of this description, we will use the map desert glory. In this mode any weapon can be used with the exception of the M3 12 gauge along with any type of explosives, and (usually) the M14/IW. The protecting team will hide in the Middle building (3 stories high in the middle of the map, can't miss it) and suit up, waiting for the rushing team to try and take over their fort. The rushing team will wait 30 seconds for the protecting team to get ready, then rush the fort. Some players usually will try and snipe the protectors from outside the base. If the rushing team succeeds in eliminating all of the protectors, they get to protct the next round. If at least one member of the protecting eam is still alive in the fort, then they get to protect again the next round.

Beam wars - In chain reaction, Players grab 12 gauge shotguns and go to the beams high above the floor of the map. Each team stands on one metal beam, and one player from each will stand at the edge of the wooden beams. Each player will jump twice, then run at each other, trying to either kill the other player or to knock the other player off the beam. Whoever is alive at the end will run to the opposite side they started, then run around to their beam and get in the back of the line. The losing player will respawn and do the same.

Civil/Revolutionary War - This type of game can be played on any map that has a large open field such as foxhunt. The two teams then meet at the predetermined spot and line up in a line military formation and march slowly towards the other teams line trying to recreate the civil/revolutionary war. The two teams both agree to use the M40A1 because of its long reload time like the rifles during those wars. This game type was only popular with a few clans and died after the release of SOCOM III.

Problems with SOCOM II Online

Hit Detection: 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. (More information on lag and connection quality at Comparison of latency and bandwidth )

Glitching: 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. Some glitches are so powerful that they overload the Playstation 2, causing it to reset. In fact, glitches have become so popular, that some rooms are deemed "Glitch No Kill" (which is often shortened to GNK). In these types of rooms, one is not allowed to kill, but explore and exploit many game features and bugs.

Offensive User Names and Text Chats: 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".

Disconnection: Occasionally, or in some cases repeatedly, this is a flaw or connection problem resulting in players being kicked off the server following the error message ' You have been disconnected', this can be extremely annoying and in some cases happens randomly, and sometimes is a prolonged problem. Also connected to this, players who are repeatedly d/c'd experience a disability to play games, as when the loading screen initiates, the player so ejected from the game. Whether or not this is an individual connection problem for most players is yet to be decided, but it often coincides with Server lag, or in some cases, glitching.

Gameplay Bugs: 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/ under the map, only certain members of each team being able to shoot or throw grenades (which normally occurs after a player's gun shoots grenades instead of bullets and bringing up the message "fire in the hole!" for each shot) or players being immune to bullets and, in some cases, explosives. Also there used to be a bug in crossroads in which the player could jump into a wicker basket to freeze everyones PS2. Also sometimes the player will just freeze permenantly for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Other things include players coming alive at the end of the round, talking to people on the live channel when dead, invisibility to certain players, all players going through their own rounds at an alarming rate without anyone else but them spawning, and reciving the wrong rank insignia at start up. Keep in mind that these things are very rare and only mess up your stats for one game, and some can be fixed by leaving then re-entering the room. The most fascinating glitch so far is where one person on the team is actually playing a different map entirely and can see their team-mates name tags but cannot do anything to help the game.

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 Sony 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"

Honour-based Gun Banning

The IW-80-A2 (L-85 in real life, aka SA-80-A2) is stated by some to be the easiest gun to use 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 questionably great at any range. It is possible hold down the trigger and fire the gun with very few stray bullets. Nicknames for the IW-80-A2 are "IW" or "I-Dub", and users of the gun are sometimes called "I-Dub scrubs."

Nicknamed "the noob cannon," the M3 fully-automatic shotgun is also frowned upon by many users due to it's wide range of shrapnel when used in close-combat situations. In some maps, SEALs are forced into close quarters (such as when planting the bomb on Enowapi) and therefore disapprove of it's use to "camp," that is, to wait in confined areas until the SEALs are forced into them for strategic reasons then make use of the gun's limited-range capabilities.

The M40A1 is considered to be among the guns that experts in the whole of SOCOM II use, with probably only the best of the best having the skill necessary to use it. The BMG .50 caliber (M82A1A and M87ELR) can kill with a shot to the torso, rather than just the head.

Other weapons banned among some of the online community 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 "noob 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. The terrorist teams do not possess many powerful guns, hence the need to use such a gun. However, the M14 is highly accurate while firing over long distances when it's recoil is compensated for. 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 "noob" guns, also known as "noob tubes". This is very hot topic among all Socom players. People can get flamed for using some of the worst weapons possible.

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 therefore 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. This method of rank up was fixed in a patch, however players have found a new way around that. This type of rank up continues to this day.

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, 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 flame the player openly over voice chat.

An annoyance to SOCOM players are clans comprised of younger players. 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, sometimes for illegitimate reasons. A few players have been known to falsify their age and challenge such clans to a clan war and mock the children for their immaturity afterwards.

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 being "hit on" by the outnumbering male players or 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.

Clans

The presence of clans can have a significant effect on gameplay depending on the nature of the clan, which has led some clans to be stereotyped by other players of the game. Stereotypes range from being poor players to being unsportsmanlike. Because in an 8-person game, 5 votes on a player from their teammates will ban them from the game, clans often have enough players to "vote out" someone they don't like, whether or not it is for a valid reason. In some instances, players have done extremely well in games, causing their team to win, then in the last round been voted out by clan members so that a member of their clan will be the MVP of the game. Other effects of clans on the game have been clanmates communicating through other mediums such as instant messengers when they can not communicate in the game, such as when one player is a spectator or when one is dead. This can lead to an unfair advantage, but players can do this even if not in the same clan.

A positive side of clans, however, is the ability to "war" other clans for rating points as wells as bragging rights. In the "clan games" section of the online server, clans often arrange wars in which they predetermine a numer of different maps to play (commonly three maps with the third map being Crossroads or Ruins as a tiebreaker) and any equipment regulations. A player then creates a room according to these specifications and the two clans proceed to "war."

See also

External links

Community & Multiplayer Competition

Official Links

2003 computer and video games | Third-person shooters | Multiplayer online games | PlayStation 2 games

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs".

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