The third instalment of the SOCOM series. Based on an elite fighting force of Land, Air and Sea units. True Scor
Well despite those I think that SOCOM 3 lives up to SOCOM 2 and may even top it.
Game play: 8/10
In Socom 3 you play as Commander Dimone Freehold, code name Spectre. Who has appeared in the other two games along with his right hand man Bailey Iverson or as you know him as Jester. Also since Spectre and Jester are now top-gun you call the shots to Bravo Element. This can be used to your greater tactical advantage, because that's what the game is. You can't crouch as flexibly in other shooters so you're going to have to settle for this system that Zipper has figured out. This system lets you peek around the corner only exposing your head, so you're less hit. Controls can be adjusted but not to a custom setting. The good old Look sensitivity can be adjusted to a preset or to a custom one. So if you're new you can get the hang of it by using the recruit preset, but if you're a real US Navy SEAL than you can jack it up to the top notch.
Controls are quite straight forward and not over complicated so they're easy to grasp within the first few hours. The R1 Button is returning to the familiar role of shooting button and there is no direct grenade throw button, which kind of bugs me because when I see a guy and I want to whip a grenade at him... yeah not so smooth. But anyways all the other controls are good.
The A.I. is not brilliant, but not terrible either sometimes getting into jog in place errors or not going directly where you want them to go. Commanding your fire team is reasonably fun, because you can do anything with them. You can tell them to wait here, fire at will, hold fire, and go prone and many others. But execution can take practice. To stop wasting time navigating through the menu you can purchase a Socom or USB headset and use voice command. And wow, it is responsive.
There are three operating areas in the single player campaign as mentioned earlier and these set geometry for the multiplayer maps like in other shooters. The first is Morocco who has returning character Heydar Mahmood commanding the NAPF to stop the collation. The second is South Asia, specifically Bangladesh. Bangladesh filed complaints and wished to remain anonymous. Who has pirates taking out cargo ships. And lastly Poland, where chemical weapons are at stake, so it's some high-stake stuff, not the Nuke level but still pretty extreme. The only thing I want more is more hours of campaign play, I mean come on its only 20 missions until you beat the entire game and Mark Tepper comes on with little news cast. The multi player is excellent with nearly fully customizable weapons depending on the team. Terrorists or SEALs. Joining up with the US Navy Seals are the Special Boat Service (UK) and GROM (Poland). You can choose what character you want to be and there is also an option to equip a ghille suit, for those stealth snipers. The only thing I can complain about is the unfriendly online community. And let me say guys have figured a way to Tea bag in the matches.
Service records can be viewed on your profile, to see how many enemies you put down. Overall I'm giving game play an 8.
Graphics. 9/10
For a PS2 game this looks pretty good. With 480i and p support you can adjust it best for your television. with 480i and a set of conventional PS2 AV cables you get a standard image but jack it up with a 480p supported television and a 480p AV Cables, you get a clearer looking image. The character design is excellent but some parts looked a bit dated and tacked on. The face design is excellent, the Characters blink and everything. Guns have been designed to give a sense of realism. The M4A1 Carbine being notably one of the best. Vehicles look like they're real vehicles and the developers used real scenery from the countries so if you're in Poland and you look at the windows, chances are those are probably some guy's windows. Graphics are outstanding that's why graphics gets a 9.
Sound 9/10 2.4 1.8 0.9 0.6 2.7
Sound and music is absolutely brilliant. The original soundtrack being written and composed with actual instruments and then being processed and simulated in a computer. The music speeds up or down depending on your situation. So if an enemy comes out of now where and attacks your squad than the music is going to speed up like crazy, and when you capture a point or clear and area some triumphant music plays or if you die, break out the violins. When you enter scope mode then you can hear your heartbeat, which is quite realistic for a shooter of its time. The guns sound like the real thing so it really gives you a sense of realism. I'm giving sound a 9.
Value 6/10
Not much to say about value. There aren't so many game modes and re playability options. You get mission select, different options of weapons and online play. That's basically it. They could have at least put in an arcade mode or something. But really not much to say here. No split screen multi player, no co operative campaign. It's okay but not brilliant, I'll give Value a 6.
Tilt 9/10
I really love the Socom series. I just picked this up and played it and it wasn't like I expected. First time I played it, it was brilliant. I loved the customizable weapons, the changing uniforms, so your character model isn't wearing the same thing over and over again. The weapons offer you a realistic feel of what the real ones sound and feel like. Really there are a few awkward controls and graphics but everything else compensates for it so that's why tilt gets a 9.
Well there you have it my review of Socom 3 US Navy SEALs.
True Score: 8.4