A Four-Dev Team Is Aiming to Recreate SOCOM’s Gameplay With Zero Ops: Covert Warfare, Now in Closed Beta on PS5, PC
If you’re a PlayStation shooter fan, chances are you’ve played or at least heard of SOCOM, Sony’s first-party third-person shooter that pushed for a more tactical approach to combat.
While it doesn’t seem like Sony has plans to revive the franchise anytime soon, some shooter fans are taking it upon themselves to craft something like it. Titled Zero Ops: Covert Warfare, the title is being developed by Nerko, a four-man development team out of Kansas, Missouri.
Curious? I don’t blame you. While there’s no release date set for it yet, we do have info on what shooter fans can expect.
Zero Ops Is Not Your Typical Run-and-Gun Shooter
Zero Ops won’t be your typical Call of Duty-like fare, as it’s a more tactical approach to combat where rounds are objective-based, and every player gets only one life. Don’t expect any health regeneration either, and the dev team confirmed that there is also no aim assist on any platform.
Expect friendly fire to be live all the time too, so you can’t just shoot wildly without any repercussions to your team.
Zero Ops is being developed using Unreal Engine 5 for release in November 2027 for PC and PS5. Its first two closed beta weekends drew over 1,200 players, who logged in to play the game for over 1,440 hours across both platforms (yes, crossplay is enabled).
There’s no gameplay blowout yet (that’s incoming soon), but the announcement video does contain snippets of gameplay. Just remember: this is still in beta, and very much in active development, so everything you see is not a final representation of the game.
Key features of Zero Ops straight from the dev team:
Key Features:
- One life, real stakes. Objective-based rounds with no respawns. 72% of first-beta survey
respondents said round length felt about right. - Skill over assists. No health regeneration and no aim assist on any platform; active friendly fire .
- Crossplay squads. PS5 and PC players in the same matches, on dedicated servers built for low latency. This is up to the user as crossplay can be disabled.
- Open-mic lobbies. Pre- and post-match lobbies designed to bring back real team talk and rivalries.
- Built-in clans and tournaments. Clan management, stat tracking and community-run
tournaments inside the client. The clan system is already live on zeroopsgame.com. - Original maps and regions. Tested maps include Blackwater, an abandoned rail yard and oil field and Ice Stalker. More maps in development.
- Game modes.
- Suppression: The standard team deathmatch mode. The objective is simply to eliminate
every member of the opposing team. - Demolition: A single bomb is placed on the map. Both teams must fight to secure the
bomb, carry it to the enemy’s base, and detonate it to win. - Extraction: The SEALs are tasked with locating VIP hostages and escorting them safely to
an extraction zone. The Terrorists must defend the hostages and prevent the rescue.
- Suppression: The standard team deathmatch mode. The objective is simply to eliminate
- Unreal Engine 5. Spatial audio, dynamic lighting and smooth gameplay.
Multiplayer Infrastructure
- Classic Server Browser: Zero Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM). Players choose their own lobbies, fostering organic community rivalries and drop-in/drop-out clan matches.
- 128-Tick Dedicated Servers: Built for competitive integrity with exact hit-registration.
- Dynamic Failover Scaling: Supports massive concurrency with automatic failover to
player-hosted (P2P) lobbies during peak surges to guarantee zero downtime.
Community & Clan Ecosystem
- Deep Clan Integration: Directly tied to the custom Nerkco companion platform. Players can instantly form squads, track highly granular competitive stats, and compete in automated tournaments.
- The “War Grounds” (Coming Soon): An interactive social hub for clans to meet up and start clan wars.
Our own James Lara spent some time in the closed beta, and let’s just say, that SOCOM fans have something to look forward to next year.
Players can try and sign up for the closed beta on the game’s site or wishlist it on PS5.
In related shooter news, Battlefield 6 players can now experience the shooter in third-person, though don’t expect SOCOM-like gameplay from it.
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