Customer Reviews

SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Okay, I will write my review for the single player portion of the game as I have not played the online portion yet. I have focused on the single player portion only. I enjoy online for the most part but there are too many idiots out there who ruin it by talking smack and cussing like they think it is cool, most of them are kids. Anyways, onto the review.

In the single player portion, you will play in three different locales. Each locale will offer multiple levels up to around 6 or 7, based on how soon you achieve your bonus objectives. If someone escapes who you could have caught as a bonus, then you continue to another level to try to apprehend that suspect again. The missions are nicely laid out and varied this time around. There are vehicles that have been introduced as well that you can drive such as the standard combat boats, buggys, 5 tons and a few others. Weapon lay out is nicely added with multiple weapon combinations that you can use. SOCOM has always been the leader in the realistic approach of special warfare. The bullet impacts in the game are extremely realistic, whether that is hitting the body of the enemy or shooting thru different materials such as glass or crates. The bodies will react to each and every single shot as in real life with the force of impact driving the body in the game. Nice touch to me for realism.

I have to say though that after SOCOM 1 and SOCOM 2, there was a short time frame between those games, only a year, and there was a 2 year hiatus between SOCOM 2 and SOCOM 3 that I would have expected a better gain in graphic performance. While it still looks good, I wished it would have looked slightly better in overall terms. Zipper has gone through a lot of work to get the little details included in the game such as the different sounds of the weapons and the sounds of the different materials they are shot through. This game would have rocked in my opinion even more if they had included the methods of insertion such as scuba diving or sky diving. Would have brought the immersion factor up even more.

The Sony PSP will be gaining the SOCOM Fireteam Bravo for it and from what I have read the two games are supposed to be interoperable by connecting the two console units to one another, but I am not positive on this so it will be interesting to see what comes of that.

All in all SOCOM 3 is a great game and definitely keeps the lead for the best shooter on PS2, and in my opinion one of the best shooters over Xbox as well. The realism is there, the immersion factor is there and the attention to detail is there. At the very least give this game a chance with a game rental. You will most likely be headed for the store when the time comes to return the game and pick up your very own copy. Enjoy.

YOU -VS- COMPUTER MODE

Though Socom has it's flaws, it still rocks. Definately get it. Slipping into a lake for a midday swim-sneak attack is definately a good time. Hummers and boats are good time. Car jacking enemy technicals is always fun. The new controls take some time getting used to but your team operates much more seamlessly now: You don't need to talk so much because they've given you a quick option to only use hand signals (which real teams use anyway)... "On me." "Go there." And the "one button" quick exchange from rife to side arm come in handy on-the-fly. It definately shows how much thought they put into this one.

And where as in past games where you had to verbally order your guys to crouch or lay prone, when they're in FOLLOW MODE, they automatically mimic your stance which is a definate plus -- and oh yeah, Boomer's still not in the game. Hopefully he's not at BUDS teaching anyone either.

One of the flaws it has, and will probably always have is the AI. Though it definately is better then the previous incarnations (now the enemies run, duck, take cover, hunt you down; all making for cool, realistic pitched firefights) at times they still act like complete dummies: ie... "What was that?" Who's there?" "Did you hear something?" -- yeah, the round i accidentaly fired off not 20 feet away from you 'cause i'm unfamiliar with the controls, but for some unimaginable reason you and your buddy Mustafa aren't thye least bit alarmed -- half the fun is "steathing it" and it can be disheartening at times to spend 20 minutes sneaking around, only to realize that you didn't have to because they wouldn't have seen you anyway...

The other flaw is that though I throughly enjoy the expansiveness of the maps, the enemies are few and far between. I'm not expecting a battalion around every corner but if a terrorist group has taken over a North African village, you'd expect a presence of more than 20 tangos. Granted the the maps in the previous game were smaller, but it felt somewhat more realistic. I assume it's due to the PS2 engine's inability to handle so much happening all at once (as seen by the PS2 / Xbox comparison i made with "Brothers In Arms."

Overall though, your team's graphics are still kick-ass and the weapons choices from the armory are steller. Jay still gives it 2 thumbs way up!

How is Socom 3 this good? What has it done better than Socom 2 to still earn such a high score? I'm only going to discuss the ONLINE portion, aside from saying that I did play the first couple of single-player missions. I found that quite fun. Hadn't done that with Socom 2. Nope, went straight online with that one. Funny, never even read the Socom 2 instruction book. Ok. Back to Socom 3 Online!!

It's really the maps and vehicles that make Socom 3 a five star game. People complain about graphics, but I disagree with that. More on that later.

The maps are huge. 32 player huge. These are beautiful maps and well crafted with tons of nooks and hiding spots. I don't find myself looking for anything less than 20 people. This right here is an achievement. No other console game has it ( i don't think). And it runs so smooth. I'm sure that many haters are in disbelief and/or don't want to believe how good this works... and on the ol' reliable PS2!! Some arguers may say that 32 players loses the intimacy the 16 player games of Socom 2 had. Socom 2 is a much different game when you talk about online play. Smaller maps, no vehicles. Anyway, larger maps (with multiple spawn points) support teamwork and planning strategy for attack with teammates. When you're alone in these large environments, separated from your team, hold that M16 tight to appease pangs of solitude and fear. They will creep your skin.

So let's talk about the vehicles. They're a lot of fun, a great added addition if you want vehicular assault or if you need a quick lift to your favorite sniping point. But there's another important thing vehicles have done for Socom 3 versus Socom 2. They've made it fair for people to carry RPGs or M203s without the other team crying "cheap". Hey, if you try and run me over, what's unfair about me shooting your tank rocket launcher? The playing field is evened in that respect. Having some Halo experience has helped me avoid getting run over multiple times.

Last, I'll talk about the graphics. They're fine. People feel the need to complain about something. Let's face it. Graphics have come a haul's ass further from what they were ten years ago. Pretty much all games have damn good/realistic graphics nowadays. Do some games have better graphics than Socom 3? Sure. Somewhat better. But that begs this question. Do any other console games have 32 player online?

Why rush out to buy a next-gen system when we have this?

Dont get me wrong Socom 3 is a must buy. Single player is fun but online is simply awesome. The only complaint I have is somthing that has occured in every socom so far, the dumb A.I. I mean really it gets annoying sometimes. For example when you are driving a veichle, you can order your bravo team to drive in a seperate veichle. However you may not want to do that because 99.9% of the time they will either run into a wall and end up not following you, they may just take forever(if you are at your destination it may take about 5min for them to arrive), and somtimes enemys come up near your fireteam, and your dumb teamates wont even notice. Even the enemy, its not uncommon to find enemys running into walls and just running into that same corner. Like I said before this has been a problem for all the socoms, however it is still a very fun game. Especially the weapons and ghillie suits. Online mode is fantastic! No problems there!

This game has better intelligence, in terms of A.I. but also in equipment, options, and gameplay. The enemy is smarter, they try to surround you, they find cover, and they surrender when outnumbered. Try not to be too trigger happy, or you can kill some enemies already giving up.
The weapons recoil depending on the size, and the environment and vehicles react very realistically. Just to note: The laser designator only works from a relatively short distance, but if you are out of range, you just dont know until you realize notting happens. If you aim a tank but the sight wont go from white to red, you are out of range. Dont get too close tho, or the blast of the missile will reach you.
The checkpoints are a relief, since missions take longer now to resolve. The stealth kills are now easier to perform, since the activation of the action is now smarter.
I am a bit reluctant to say this, but I must: This is the best game I ever played.

I am a campaign player, and have never tried the online element of this game. With that in mind, this is my review:

One thing about the AI that has improved from the previous game is that your team actually runs away to take cover when you place a C4 charge or place a Satchel on the ground. That's amazing common sense added to the teammates. But just as Zipper added that trait, something must be taken away, and that was AIM. Sadly, my teammates can't shoot things that are 5 yards away from them. It's plain sad to see my team continually shooting at a rock because the enemy is standing behind it, and then when the enemy is in plain sight, they would still miss. Their aim sucks. So be forewarned, you will have to make most of the kills.

Some other things were added that sounded great in writing, but didn't actually work out too well. First it was the addition of vehicles. It was great to have, really it was, especially when my teammates AIM was improved a thousandfold while working the mounted guns while the vehicle was jumping over a mound. But sometimes their reactions are slow, and even though I place them right in front of an enemy, they would still refuse to fire (with "fire at will" on). That's somewhat alright, as I know sometimes I cannot shoot them as quickly as my teammates. What really annoys me is the amount of babysitting I must do to get Bravo to actually follow me in a vehicle. I find myself often ramming them into the right direction. One word of advice, for the first mission, put your whole team into the jeep, as having Bravo in one jeep and Able in the other will simply cause headaches.

Here is one thing I've learned about Bravo's behavior on vehicles:
1. If you want Bravo to follow you on the vehicle they are in, have them FOLLOW before you have them MOUNT.
2. If you want them to simply sit in the vehicle and provide cover fire, you must tell them to HOLD POSITIONS, COVER AREA, the MOUNT. weird, huh? seriously.
3. If you want Bravo in another vehicle to follow your vehicle, command them to FOLLOW, then MOUNT their vehicle, then get into your vehicle and drive SLOWLY.
4. If they are already in a vehicle, and you tell them to HOLD POSITION, they will DISMOUNT. You must order them to MOUNT again. Ridiculous?

Second thing that's a little annoying are the points on the map which are labeled (not sure what these are called), like Charlie, Delta, Zulu, etc. These points often show up when you least want them to, especially when travelling and trying to spot potential tangos. There's gotta be a better way of showing where we need to go without obscuring our targets.

Other than those complaints, the gameplay is somewhat satisfying, offering a campaign that has very little satisfying bonus objectives (as oppossed to Socom I and II, when eavesdropping was important, when learning some bit of information helped with the next mission, when missing it made you want to replay the mission over, etc), very little incentive to be covert, and very little incentive to replay the missions. I could have just went through the entire game running in with guns blazing, and there were times when I did!

The missions themselves are a bunch of the same: seek and destroy, rescue and escort, escort and protect, blow this up, blow that up, recon, and capture the enemy. It's pretty much the same things from previous Socoms, but with bigger maps, enemies that actually use cover, and vehicles that are actually helpful in certain occasions.

Even though I've said a lot of negative things about this game, I'll still give it 4 stars because of the fun I've had with it, although there were many times of frustration. I've learned that all games have their quirks, and some games require more patience than others as to maintain their challenge level.

Don't get me wrong, I think that Socom III is an excellent game for the Playstation 2. One of the best looking, interactive that I have seen in a long time, but I enjoyed Socom II alot more. I do not care for the large maps. It is not the producers fault, it is the players. Normally it comes down to the last person on the other team, and he or she decides " I'll camp ". Well that means you have to travel all over the map, normally resulting in not finding the person. If you've been killed by the other team or even by your own team member you have to wait along time. In Socom II maps were small enough that gameplay lasted about 2-3 mins a round. That's my only prob with socom 3 really, besides the fact that you had to enter your credit card to access the ranking. I do not like placing my credit card over the internet.

Other then the two things i've stated, Socom III is a really great game if you like army style games with huge maps.

First, let me have to say that this is a really good game compared to the 1st 2. The online is even more tough, but that makes it more fun!! Anyone who knows how to talk online in socom 3 during the game (not in the chat lobby) AIM me at aerialdude34. Here are the pros and cons

Pros

- In single player, teammates can be equipped with rocket launchers and actually use them without being ordered to.

- u can order your teammates to mount vehicles and turrets.
- more realistic (Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing)

- 32 players online
- u can use vehicles online
- everything bad about SOCOM and SOCOM II is gone.
- cool weapon configurations

cons

- Player is slower to control
- talking is complicated online..
- everything that you liked about SOCOM and SOCOM II may be gone
- No old online maps in S3
- there is no opening video like the 1st 2 ( Idk why but i Liked the opening videos in S1 and S2)

Overall, this is a big improvement to the series.....Keep it up Zipper!

Socom 3 as you all know is the sequel to Socom II. They have improved the gameplay somewhat and the Single Player is funner in this game than Socom II. When you go online and register a name, they ask you for a credit card number to get a rank, stats, friends list, etc. What the heck! Oh Well. Another bad thing is that there is no maps from Socom II which was disappointing. All the maps in Socom 3 are from the Single Player Missions. A good thing is that there is better hit detection than Socom II and there is more weapons and attachments like scopes, front grips, M203's, etc. Also you can swim and dive underwater. Finally they have vehciles and tanks! I'll break it down for you.

Graphics: 5/5 They have certainly improved the graphics in this game from Socom II. All the gun models are very nicely done along with the vehciles and tanks.

Sound: 5/5 The explosion and gernade effects are nice. Also the sound movement. When you are crawling through bushes, you can here the crunching noises and when you're in water as well.

Control: 4.5/5 They kind have mess with the controls somewhat, but good overall. There is some of control options you can adjust.

Fun: 4/5 Overall Socom 3 is fun, but it doesn't have the replay value as Socom II does. It gets a little repetitive sometimes and has some lag issues. And online, the stats never count and the ranking system is screwed up. Look at the message boards on Socom 3 and you'll see what I mean.

To the kid who said the graphics arent as good as the 1st two,you my friend,are braindead.the graphics are 500x better. the only downfall to the game is if you get show and ran over it counts as not 1, but 2 deaths. also like the previous socom's you got the lag where it prevents talking sometimes.i have not seen any cheating yet and any glitches yet,but im almost positive there will be some popping up in the near future.i think the community board is great as well so we can leave feedback and let zipper know the glitches so they can be patched.also,this game seems to freeze up more than the other 2 socoms combined,but all in all,this the the best game ever for the ps2 and ill never stop playin until socom 4 for ps3 =) comes out one day

[D4W] NiCOTiNE
-US Central 1