If you got in on the SOCOM 4 Beta then this guide will help you get adjusted to the new game.

View & AIming

The better part of the game is in third person perspective. This means you can see the entire body of your character. You will have a reticle on screen when static or walking. The reticle will shrink and your screen will zoom in if you hold the aim button. With scoped or sight weapons you can switch to first person. Click the zoom button to use your weapon sights or scopes and switch to the first person perspective. But remember, you must have a weapon sight or scope in order to do this!

When an enemy is at point blank range, you don’t need to aim at all. When an enemy is at medium range, you’re better off aiming. When an enemy is at far range, that’s when you should use the first person sights and scopes. They are the most accurate for long range, but are unreliable at close range.

Stance

As is true wityh pretty much all shooters, you have the ability to stand, crouch, and go prone. Each stance gives you different accuracy and weapon sway. The close you are to the ground, the better your accuracy will be. It is not possible to lie on your back while prone.

Cover System

There is a small cover system in SOCOM 4. When near a wall or anything else to hide behind, click the cover button which appears on screen. Your character will place it’s back to the wall for cover. You cannot blind fire while behind cover. If you’re near the edge of your cover, you can press the aim button to pop out of cover and fire your weapon. At least half of your body will be exposed.

Weapons

SOCOM tries to be a little more elaborate when it comes to weapons than other shooters. The rumors are indeed true, there are no pistols in SOCOM 4. Instead, you can choose two primary weapons. However, you cannot choose two weapons from the same category. The weapon categories are Sub-Machine Guns, Assault Rifles, Machine Guns, Sniper Rifles, and Shotguns. Ammo is shared amongst the weapon categories as well. If you kill an enemy with a Shotgun while you’re using a shotgun, you will pick up more ammo when you walk over the weapon regardless if it is the same exact shotgun.

You must choose a loadout before you start a match. Each loadout consists of two weapons, two pieces of equipment, and a character model. You can attach different mods onto your weapons, if they are available. Use your weapons to unlock up to 5 mods.

Many weapons have various fire modes. Some weapons can shoot on full auto, semi auto, and burst fire. Not all weapons have alternate fire modes. To change the fire mode, hold the weapon swap button, then press LEFT or RIGHT on the D-PAD. You can hold the weapon swap button to switch your equipment too.

All weapons have actual bullet travel. The bullets will not instantly hit an enemy if you shoot at them from long range. Lead your target if you want to hit an enemy from far off. If you don’t know what leading a target means, telegraphing the movement of the target so you can shoot where they are going to be.

Game Modes

SOCOM 4 introduces a new game setting as the new standard. At the same time, they kept a classic game mode for all the Old School/Hardcore SOCOM fans.

Standard Mode is the new arcade like mode of SOCOM 4. Players now have the ability to respawn and regenerate health. Game Modes are given less rounds. The Suppression Game Mode has no rounds at all. People generally play more liberally in Standard mode in the shooter world this is called Run and Gun. There are two basic respawn locations in each map. You can choose to respawn at one of the two bases, or you can respawn at the front lines. Work together to keep your team from getting spawn trapped.

In addition to the new standard mode, SOCOM 4 tries to relive the glory days of SOCOM with a classic mode. Classic Mode tweaks the rules just a bit for all Game Modes:

Classic Mode Rules
No Respawns
No Health Regeneration
A Health Bar is shown in the lower right corner of the screen
Increased Movement Speed for players
Extra Rounds in Game Modes
A Round or game will end if all players are eliminated. The objective does not need to be completed.
Both game modes have friendly fire enabled! Watch where you shoot, you could accidentally kill your own teammate while firing at an enemy. Both game modes also have the option to kick players. So if you’re playing with someone who is constantly team killing or being extremely rude, you and your team can kick him out of the game. There must be a majority vote to kick any player.

Airstrikes

Airstrikes are a new edition to the SOCOM series. They are called “Suppression Strikes” in game, but they’re officially called Airstrikes. There are no airstrikes in Classic Mode. You can earn airstrikes in a variety of ways, depending on the game mode.

Suppression
Get 5 Kills in a row

Last Defense
Capture a Sector

Uplink
Successfully steal the intel data

Uplink
Successfully recover the intel data

Bomb Squad
Kill the Bomb Technician

Bomb Squad
Get 3 kills while defending the Bomb Technician

Hold R2 on an area to call in the airstrike. Make sure you’re in the area, or it could kill you. You cannot gain an airstrike if you still have one unused. If you are killed before you get to use your airstrike, you will lose it.