From the sounds of it, after reading the review, the game just didn't deliver as promised. So instead of it being something unique and kick ass, it's been done before and turns out not being so impressive.
Which, although that disapoints me, I understand why. It is a game, and there is a fine line between fun, and tedius. Gamers, (or I should say most gamers cause I would prefer the latter) play a game like SOCOM to have fun. If you make it too hard, they won't enjoy it, they won't play. I would much prefer a level taking an hour or hopefully more on some missions (should be able to save midway through, but not load the same file twice), and require tons of communications with your teammates, and if one of your guys gets hit you need to extract them, possibly forfeit the mission. I want something real, but it wouldn't be fun for everyone. Requiring tons of strategy, weapon choice, etc. SOCOM is supposed to be mainstream, and believe it or not, most gamers like to skip through mission breifings. *gasp* I want a game where they give me the information and map before hand, and I need to plot out my own strategy, actually put a good 20 minutes worth of planning at home, on my own with a pen and paper, then go tackle the mission. Hopefully fail, make me realize what I did wrong, and go at it again. Maybe that's just me
Seriously, people don't want a game they can't beat. And if SOCOM was executed how it was supposed to be, a lot less people would buy it and enjoy it. If they made SOCOM really real, and how I want it, very few people would play it. I can understand the game, but I don't approve of the way they made it. However, I'm still gonna get it, and likely play it to death for many months.
I just wish they would let you play the single player missions online. Therefore, the stupid AI wouldn't be a factor, and you would need to play a lot smarter to outsmart other humans who know the map as well as you do. Only thing then would be you would need more points where you can enter the stage, and what have you. I dunno, I wish this game was on PC where we could see a million expansion packs and new levels added.
Tomorrow it's mine!