Article by: Justin Amirkhani

After the lukewarm reception for SOCOM: Confrontation, Sony is in danger of seeing its storied tactical shooter franchise slip in to irrelevance. However, with original SOCOM developer Zipper Interactive making its first SOCOM game for the Playstation 3, it’s possible things could jump right back on track when SOCOM 4 releases this April.

To shed some light on the title Sony and Zipper Interactive held a conference call earlier this week, taking questions from the gaming press. Lead designer Travis Steiner along with Brian Soderberg, President and Co-Founder of Zipper Interactive, were available to speak on behalf of the development team.

Here are some highlights from the call:

As Soderberg opened the call with a brief history of Zipper Interactive and their success with the SOCOM series, a sense of passion and legacy was conveyed that spoke volumes about his enthusiasm for the project. It quickly became clear that even with MAG’s technical success the studio was happy to be back doing what they know best.

One of the most important talking points for the call was the new stealth gameplay being added to SOCOM 4. As a first for the traditionally gun-heavy shooter, the stab and dispose system sounds very similar to Splinter Cell but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. While it sounds like Zipper will be using tried and true mechanics, this could open the game up to some interesting breaks from the expected gameplay.

In addition to the stealth mode, SOCOM 4 will be the first game in the series to eschew pistols. Without access to handguns, players will rely on more specialized secondary weapons like shotguns. While purists are probably shaking their fists in anger over the decision this will likely lead to quicker transitions between long-range and close-quarters combat. Preparing the player for either type of engagement means levels could offer more variation but neither Soderberg nor Steiner commented on this specifically.