5. SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs
Developer: Zipper Interactive Before Halo 2 came around in 2004 and revolutionized online multiplayer gameplay on consoles forever via Xbox Live, PlayStation 2 owners were quietly enjoying some of the finest competitive multiplayer tactical shooters to ever be made. Sony in-house developer Zipper Interactive had released SOCOM: US Navy SEALs in 2002, a third person, team-based shooter that pitted US Navy Seals vs. teams of terrorists in a series of objective-based battles. It was the first game on the PS2 to utilize real-time voice chat via a microphone headset, and its tense, strategic battles that absolutely required good team communication sunk its hooks into PS2 owners worldwide and created a surprise hit for Sony. For its next outing the following year, SOCOM II, Zipper kept the main formula in tact while making things a whole lot better. SOCOM II contained every map from the original game and then more than doubled that number with new maps, which added up to a huge amount of content in the game. SOCOM II also added a number of different game modes, new weapons, modifications to the original maps from the first game, and strong technical support from the developer in the form of online maintenance and patches. One of the distinct features of competitive SOCOM was the lack of respawning after death, something that would be a much harder sell in today's multiplayer market. It forced you to be extremely careful in your tactics, coordinate with your team, and discouraged Call Of Duty-style running and gunning. The maps were amazingly well-designed, with some of the larger ones containing multiple breach points, turrets, and air strike positions. Then there were the little things. Before and after each match, players from both teams were all put into a lobby, where some very memorable trash talking would take place. Turning friendly-fire off was not an option in SOCOM II, so lots of laughs, and sometimes bouts of rage, were had when incidental same-team kills took place. If you happened to get a troll on your team who purposely team killed, he could be voted off the team and banned from the lobby immediately, a feature that this author greatly misses in most modern mainstream competitive games. SOCOM II was an early microcosm of the console world that got the online multiplayer competitive gaming experience down just right. It offered loads of content, superlative gameplay, easy-to-use and well-implemented online systems, and harbored a fantastic, vibrant community of dedicated players. As someone who poured hundreds of hours into SOCOM II's multiplayer, I still regularly find ex-SOCOM fanatics in various online communities who are still always excited to talk about their time spent with SOCOM II a decade later. As for Zipper Interactive, they sadly were unable to recapture the magic of SOCOM II in future iterations. SOCOM 3 had flashes of brilliance, but was much too flawed to be a worthy successor. By the time SOCOM 4 came around in 2011 for the PlayStation 3, it had lost nearly everything that had made it great in the first place, instead opting to move towards the faster-paced, less tactical gameplay of the many other shooters out there trying to get a slice of the Call of Duty pie. To its greater misfortune, SOCOM 4 also released immediately before the great PlayStation Network crash, effectively wiping out any chance for the game to earn a dedicated, early following. Zipper Interactive was closed down by Sony in 2012 shortly after the release of their final game, Unit 13 for the PlayStation Vita. Zipper may not be around anymore, but the great memories had by that dedicated core audience who comprised the SOCOM community will always exist.