Actually, almost the entire impressions from gamespot are of the offline portion of the game, and the offline portion has plenty of good solid elements to keep your senses honed and trailed. Here are a couple of interesting points from gamespots offline impressions.
-- Weapons will be specific to your terrain and mission in the single player game.
-- You must work with a 4-man team at all times in order to accomplish your missions and running and gunning will get you wiped out fast.
-- Your team of four will be split into two-man teams. It will be up to you to issue orders and make the best use of everyone. The multitasking is extremely challenging, especially when all hell is breaking loose around you, but it pays off.
-- You\'ll also find that ordering your teammates around will be much easier when you use the headset that comes with the game. While the headset is primarily used to talk to other players when playing online, the unit can also be useful in a single-player game thanks to some impressive speech recognition. If you choose to use the headset in a single-player game, it will relay radio messages to you and allow you to command your team using simple voice commands. The voice recognition technology Zipper is incorporating into SOCOM is truly impressive, and it worked quite well as we were playing.
-- Each level will be introduced by a CG sequence that moves the story along and a real-time fly-through that shows you your objectives. For the most part, stealth and efficiency are prized above insane bloodbaths. The multiplayer mode offers several game types and lets you play as a SEAL or a terrorist. Winning conditions will include things like rescuing hostages or wiping out everyone. While such things may be old hat on the PC, they\'re a welcome new experience on the PS2.
-- So far, SOCOM is looking cool. The headset adds a level of depth to the game, and it works well with the team aspect. We found the game to be playable and very fun with a group of people online. SOCOM: US Navy Seals is slated to release this August exclusively for the PlayStation 2.
Sounds pretty damn good to me. I can\'t wait.
