Where SOCOM 3 fails, SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs reigns supreme.
Let's take this one step-by-step.
The game is really quite self-descriptive and simple. Not a whole lot of complication to it. You play as the leader of an elite (and sometimes changing) team of soldiers from specialist units across the major countries, from Britain's elite SAS to the Russian Spetznaz groups. You, yourself, are the leader of the four-man team, a U.S. Navy SEAL by the call sign Specter, the best sharpshooter there is and the all-around expert. Your partner, as the four-man team is separated in two groups of two, is the rowdy soldier Jester. Together, you take down terrorism wherever it may rise, and in SOCOM II, that's in Albania, Algeria, and Brazil, among other places. The Single-Player campaign can be a bit immersing if you're new to the genre. It actually just feels that way because it can be very difficult, but not always for the right reason. In the campaign mode, each mission has primary, secondary, and secret bonus objectives. The former usually HAS to be completed in order to complete the mission itself, while the secondary is important, but not critical, and the bonus ones only improve the overall grade you get for that mission, as well as unlock things in the game, like less enemies later on, less difficult enemies, and more bonus missions to unlock so that you can unlock little secrets in the game like different outfits in the online mode and different weapons for the single-player campaign, should you choose to beat it on all the difficulties that eventually unlock themselves as you progress through the game.
But the aforementioned difficulty is really the lackluster AI that is rampant in the game. For one, enemies can sometimes be psychic in that they know where you are if they hear your gunfire; other times, they'll have no idea you're there even if they hear gunfire, which can be opportune for you to sneak up behind them and kill them stealthily with your knife. But the worst AI in the game goes to your allies; the first time I went through the game with any experience at all, I was going through a mission flawlessly, until, that is, Vandal got stuck in a pillar, which resulted in me having to restart the mission -- your mission is not complete if you cannot leave with all your allies, and if you kill one of your allies yourself while around your teammates, they'll kill you, and if one of your teammates dies, it reflects badly on your score. Unfortunately, they die often.
In one mission, I climbed to the top of a building and took out the last enemy in the level, and as I climbed down the ladder and looked back to see in horror the awful sight my AI teammates struggling around the ladder; only a second later, they leaped off the top of the building one-by-one, committing suicide for no reason. Another time, I had one of my teammates deliberately kill the person we were supposed to keep alive as a hostage to win the mission. This terribly inconsistent AI is not uncommon in the game, so more often than not you'll try as hard as you can to kill the enemies yourself from as far away as possible.
There aren't too many missions in the game, either; they're all just difficult with such inept teammates on your side.
On the other hand, living teammates can be just as bad, if not worse. What I mean is the online mode, which is the only reason the SOCOM games sell so well; the odds of you getting on -- especially these days -- and finding a team of capable players who DON'T glitch or hack the game is rare. Ever since I started playing the game glitchers would hack into a room and crash it so everyone would be disconnected. I could go on listing all the terrible glitches in the game, but I won't, because the online mode is still fun if you're playing with people who actually cooperate with you and have some modicum of skill. The maps are, however small, still really good maps. The weapon choices, however, are not that great. Most of the weapons in the game are fairly weak, which would be just fine if they weren't alongside some the most overpowering weapons I've seen in a modern shooter. To list some weak guns, the 9mm submachine gun (that's Mini-Uzi to gun fans), the F90 (P90), and the HK5K (H&K MP5K). To list the most overpowering guns, the M14 and the IW-80A2 (which, in reality, is a pathetic weapon with a haphazard history, the SA-80). I could go on about the inconsistencies of the online mode as well, like its now common lag, but I won't because it's still a good game. At least the frame rate doesn't drop whenever you play its maps (which cannot be said of SOCOM 3 and SOCOM: Combined Assault, or at least their big maps).
The graphics in the game are nice. They're not the best, like the flat, 2-D shrubs that one must use to be stealthy in the game (and trust me, stealth is pretty much mandatory through most of the game) but the rest of it is quite nice and fairly well-animated, though not all around. The gun flare is a nice touch.
The sound is probably the best, and it's because of the range of weaponry in the game. Almost every gun as a different sound and at different ranges, and they all sound quite nice, and the ambient sounds and voice work is all quite nice. Nothing spectacular, but quite nice and keeps the game from getting stale sound-wise. The music is pretty canned, just a normal orchestral score with a militaristic and a tad bit of a dramatic touch. The online mode adds some mileage on what is a fairly inconsistent game. Unlocking different suits for online play is only for bragging rights, but most people hack the game to get the skins anyway, so it's not worth the trouble. Unlocking different guns for use in the Single-Player mode is actually not a bad idea, as the guns you get stuck with most of the time are fairly limited, but unlocking a bunch of loud weapons is useless for a game so heavily focused on stealth. Unlock SOCOM 3, you cannot slap a sound suppressor on half the guns, so what you get for use in one-player right away is usually all you need, unless the idea of rushing through the missions where stealth isn't an objective and using the loudest and most overpowering gun puts some extra hitch in your giddy up. Whatever floats your boat? As a member of the G.A.P., my only use for this game is the online mode once a week and whatnot. It's the only reason I haven't sold the game. I might go back to the one-player mode some day, when I'm bored and itching to kill some unsuspecting terrorists, but otherwise, the game is only decent if you can find a group of buddies or a decent clan to play with online. Oh, yeah, you have the option to join a clan, make a clan, and have a friends list. Blah blah blah. If you know anything about online gaming, you should know all that already. There are leader boards. Whatever; the people on top are all glitchers and hackers anyway. Point being, it's a fairly decent game worth a rental, at least.