While not the prettiest game to look at . Socoms 3 online mode more than makes up for some of the flaws in the game .
User Rating: 8.7 | SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs (Greatest Hits) PS2
The Socom series has been known as one of the best shooters available for any console . The original Socom while difficult, but easy to pick up in play and at times boring brought alot to the table for PS2 shooter's it was a good start, but I didn't feel attached to it . Socom 2 was a bit of an improvement over the original . But the best thing about the game was the online mode it was arguably the best online game for the system . But the single player didn't capitalize as the first one did . Socom 3 surprisingly delivers greatly both in the single- player, and multi-player aspect . Like the previous game you will the leader of an army of four part of the U.S. Navy Seals . In single-player mode ( campaign ) You will be taken through 3 different campaigns . South Asia, Poland and North Africa . Apart from the primary missions you will be asked to do secondary missions which will raise your grade level for the mission such as ; Take down the hostile cars and rescue hostages . This time around the game will let you do several of new stuff in the missions not present in the first 2 games . In this game you will be able to hop on vehicles, swim, and one of my personal favorite features customization of weapons that you can do before each mission . Game controls takes a bit of time to adapt to the controllers . Normally in shooters when you hit the up button the target will go down, in Socom 3 it will go to the direction you chose it to go which if your familiar to the shooter sceen it will be hard to get into the controls at first . The maps this time around are definitely bigger which gives the game a bit more sence of realism to the game, and it does feel like there's more freedom ... Expect when you go out of bounds . After each checkpoint you're ammo, and Health to both you and your team will be restored . AI on your team isn't as good as some other shooters well you can just say that if this were your real life team you would be in either heaven or hell in no time, but the enemies AI seems rather good . The single player mode can be finished in less than 8 hours which decreases the value of the game ... If the online mode wasn't so damn amazing . In Socom 2 there was only up to 16 players playing at once in online matches . But add a dozen more an Socom 3 shows up . One thing I noticed before playing the game is that it required the inclusion of credit card . It won't share the number, or charge me, but why the hell do I have to do it ? Maybe they don't wasn't 10 year old playing . There are more than 12 online-multiplayer maps which is great considering that there are very big in size . Also not present before on the game is the inclusion of using vehicles in the online mode . It boils down to this ; Online mode in Socom 3 is one of the best online modes you will see on the PS2 let alone any system .
Graphics are nothing special . Character models look good and so do the environments . And because the games maps are so big you can see the mountains from beyond . The vehicles also look good . The main problem lies on than as I said before the graphics are nothing special . Also the game is filled with frame-rate issues that not only happen during large battle fields, but also during well just walking around . Also there is some noticeable collision detections plaguing this game . That graphics are Ok, they could have been better though . Sound design is sharp . Bullet sound very realistic . Voice acting is led by a disembodied voice that has been in since the first Socom game which is actually quite good . The music is fantastic . It's your military theme music, but compared to other shooters it just sounds better in Socom 3 .
Overall : While not the best looking game in the world Socom 3 is one of the best shooters the system has to offer . And the online mode is as about as good as it can get for online games on the PS2 .
