I'm really glad to hear someone without experience playing Socom 1 or 2 , got into this game and really enjoyed it. I've been playing it since launch and I was always wondering to a degree if my enjoyment was mostly the nostalgia factor.
The environments, and lighting engine look great, The character models aren't as detailed as some other games, but It's kind of a trade off with the amount of customization you can do.
I agree the whole non-respawn factor encourages lots of voice chat, more so than anything else i've ever played (Thats a good thing). And third person actually does work better, cause you have a lot more peripheral.
I'm very surprised nothing outside maybe graw has tried to copy socom yet for multiplayer.
It's pretty much a given the problems with the servers will be worked out within the next month. It's good to see IGN hold off on their review instead of dogging the game cause of the connection issues - they really aren't that intolerable in my mind.
I'd recommend you join up with a clan, there's a lot of recruit rooms you can play in to prove your worthiness, it will make the whole experience a lot better playing with the same people all the time.
