THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED MEMBER

elementxstyle

elementxstyle

GP Design shop.

QUICK POLL

Buying Madden 09?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



PS2 | Action | SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs

Boxart for SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs
SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs 54 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 3.5
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.2
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.1

Review: SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs

Review by FOUREYEDDRAGON | 10/12/2005 | 11:31:14 AM PST

The elite frogmen once again gun for the PlayStation 2.

Prolific and extraordinary as they are in real life, the U.S. Navy SEALs also command an awesome presence on the PlayStation 2...even if their past faults still linger on in this third tour of duty shooting fest.

A Jester is What a Jester Does
Playing at it alone, and you'll quickly notice that this SEAL team still needs some basic warfare training. Teammates often act foolishly when given an order, continue to annoyingly jump in front of your line of site, and are lousy marksmen. Enemy A.I. fare a little better as their movements are somewhat more unpredictable than past conflicts.

Beyond the frustrating team dynamic, the overall single-player campaign exudes with special-operations intrigue. Several missions feel realistic to the point of reflecting what the actual SEALs train for and experience, which for fans of military shooters, is hard to pass up.

The game's lifelike settings help drive this point. Missions take place in humongous areas (each is at least five times bigger than those in SOCOM II) and are detailed with lush environments and urban sprawls that rival real world locales.

Online Frogman
Of course, the underlining gameplay focus in SOCOM 3 is its online play. There are finally vehicles to commandeer, 12 new maps to explore, and two new game types to master. But the biggest improvement from SOCOM II is that up to 32 people can play at once. That's awesome--although the game unfortunately does suffer with a full house of modern warriors. A noticeable frame rate drop occurs, which makes the gameplay look and play ugly.

Despite its setbacks, SOCOM 3 is nevertheless a more than capable soldier in the aging PlayStation 2 war zone. Fans of the series definitely shouldn't miss this next operation, while new recruits (playing with caution) can find enjoyment, too.