I'll admit I was a bit skeptical when I first heard Zipper was going to incorporate 32 player online games into SOCOM 3. My mind immediately went to all of the problems with lag, disconnects, and cheating on SOCOM II and I had no idea what they were thinking. With SOCOM 3, Zipper has taught me to never underestimate their ability. The online experience is not only more expansive than that of SOCOM II, it's also far more engrossing. However, the online gameplay has always been but a portion of the full SOCOM experience and the development team headed back to the drawing board and revamped the solo experience as well. Unfortunately, the offline game falls well under par when compared to the previous games. It's a fine package overall, but SOCOM 3 is far from perfect.
On the whole, there isn't too much separating SOCOM 3 from its predecessors. The new vehicles, weapons, and swimming abilities simply complement the experience as opposed to revolutionizing it. By far the most apparent addition to the game is the weapon modification feature. Modeled after the system found in America's Army, you're allowed to modify weapons with everything from M203 grenade launchers to scopes and silencers. This allows the player to easily customize their favorite weapon just like the real SEALs do. Thankfully, there are several measures, which help to balance out this feature. First of all, each weapon, modification, and item adds weight to the total load your character is hauling. So an M60 machine gun fitted with a scope and bipod along with grenades and extra ammo will weigh your SEAL down and cause him to move more slowly than if he were carrying the lighter MP5 and smoke grenades.
This also dramatically improves the online experience because people who want to use grenade launchers pay for it with slower movement and their inability to carry many other items. Another limitation on the modification system is that only certain weapons can be equipped with certain modifications. For example, you are unable to equip a shotgun or machine gun with a silencer, although this is to be expected from a series so well grounded in realism.
Surprisingly enough, swimming is something that has been absent from past SOCOM games and Zipper has answered our calls and given the SEALs and terrorists the ability to swim this time around. Swimming is handled very well and you're able to stroke around on the surface or duck under water and hold your breath for a short period of time. This can be especially useful in multiplayer matches when no one is observant enough to notice a suspicious shadow hovering underwater.
As for the addition of vehicles to the game, they are fairly well integrated although there are some issues. First of all, when characters get in and out of vehicles, there is no animation for them physically opening the vehicle door or hatch. I can understand why those types of animations are not present in the online game because they would have doubtlessly caused lag and hit detection problems, but why are they absent from the offline game? I just don't see why my fellow SEALs simply appear in the seats next to me instead of actually climbing into the vehicle. Games like Grand Theft Auto and Mercenaries have been doing that for ages, so why doesn't SOCOM 3, a game that's supposed to be far more realistic?
I guess that's my issue with the entire single player game, I felt like I was playing Conflict Desert Storm half of the time. I'm not sure I like the idea of larger levels if more open space merely means more running down long, winding paths with minimal enemy encounters. That seems to be an issue with many games that are 'opening up' their levels. SOCOM 3 has fallen into the same void as Medal of Honor: European Assault; instead of giving the player more freedom, the experience ends up being even more scripted than in the past. The introduction of a checkpoint system, which automatically saves your level progress, is a pleasantry, but it also emphasized the feeling that I was simply moving from checkpoint to checkpoint, with some serious downtime in between.
Due to this, the game has also lost a significant portion of its stealth-oriented gameplay. Part of what made SOCOM II so enjoyable was being able to lay silently in the grass waiting to pounce on the next enemy. SOCOM 3 is all, go here NOW, do this NOW, move it! There's an underlying sense of urgency. Am I supposed to be a Navy SEAL or a Marine? There are plenty of games that offer pulse pounding, adrenaline pumping war experiences, but to me SOCOM was always the thinking man's shooter.
The new quick order system and teammate A.I. in SOCOM 3 epitomize the whole experience. By pressing down the L2 button at any time you can order your Bravo team to move to the location you're looking at while holding the button orders everyone to follow you. This is a great addition to the series and makes such simple orders easy to execute, but I just don't like the way it's incorporated into the game. I was never really certain whether or not I had issued a command until about a second after I pressed the button and would often tell my men to hold their position instead of telling them to follow me. I just never felt like I was in complete control.
Another issue is that teammate A.I. doesn't seem to have become any more 'intelligent' than in SOCOM II. They dawdle during movement, often get stuck in doorways and other awkward places, and are reluctant to move to the positions you've ordered them to take up. The larger level sizes only serve to amplify these problems. Leaving a large city only to discover that Bravo team is stuck in a doorway back in town certainly cuts down on the fun factor. There was one instance where I got so far away from Jester that he actually warped to my location. Sure, that was better than having to run all the way back to fetch him, but seeing that was like Zipper telling me that they couldn't make the allies smarter so they took a shortcut instead. Did I mention that your allies can't shoot straight? Why can't my SEAL buddies be good shots like Bludshot and Polaris, now they were real men? Enemy Artificial Intelligence follows suit and there are way too many times when it's possible to run up next to an enemy and have them simply sit there. Sure they're not supposed to be the world's brightest terrorists, but they don't need to have snaillike reaction times.
Lucky for Zipper, playing by yourself is only half the battle. Entering the online world of SOCOM 3 is like arriving at the Gates of Oz, it's simply overwhelming. The first shocker is when you're asked to enter your credit card information in order to access the friends list, clans, and statistics. This is by far the most intelligent move Zipper could have made. First of all, if you cheat and get your account banned, good luck finding a new credit card to register with because the one you previously used won't work. The other counter to any complaints is that the game is rated 'M' for mature, that's for people 17 years of age or older. If you really are within the correct age restriction there should be no reason why you shouldn't either have a credit card, be able to open up an account, or have a friend who's willing to give you his or her information. Granted, there's nothing barring young children from 'borrowing' mommy's card, but that verification measure makes things feel more exclusive. SOCOM 3 is still entirely free of charge to play, don't be confused, the credit card is simply for verification purposes. It's also possible to play without verifying your account, just not in ranked rooms.
Once past the initial identification barrier, you're free to explore the online universe at your own discretion. Everything from the single player game is in there: gun modifications, vehicles, huge levels, swimming, the whole kit and caboodle. To me the most impressive feature was the briefness of loading times. In SOCOM II when an online game started, it wasn't uncommon to wait upwards of two minutes while the game loaded. Now you're in the game before you can say peanut brittle. What's also great is that even with 16 players on each side, things don't seem fundamentally different than in SOCOM II. It's just as easy to get on the mic as before and the games aren't any longer at 5 to 6 minutes. Lag and random kicks are also non factors although some maps seem to be better than others at handling the former.
As I mentioned before the weapon modifications and vehicles are integrated into the online game. You're limited in the number of attachments and items by the load feature and because RPGs and grenade launchers are considerably heavy, they aren't abused. It's also great to be able to add a high-powered scope to the M16 and put a silencer on assault rifles like the RA-14 and IW80. For anyone curious, the M14 has been significantly altered to more accurately reflect its real life counterpart. It acts more like the sniper rifle it's meant to be and the ability to put a scope and bipod on that gun makes it quite deadly. Just don't expect it to have the same potency as in SOCOM II.
Vehicles play a significant role in most multiplayer bouts. Not only do they help transport troops into battle, but they also serve as mobile machine guns nests and add another dimension to the gameplay. You'll have to be vigilant when in vehicles however since there's nothing preventing the enemy from shooting through the windows or sniping you out of the turret. It's also never a bad idea to equip a rocket launcher anymore because you never know when you might come face to face with an enemy tank. Tanks can be a bit overpowering since only rockets, the new M2 anti-vehicle mines, and other tanks can take them down, but I'm glad Zipper didn't include a jump on the tank and throw a grenade in the hatch ability. Tank commanders lock their tank's hatch when engaged in combat for that very reason. The ability to plant c4 on a tank's treads would've been nice though because that is entirely plausible in the real world.
There are also two new game types in SOCOM 3 and of course, new maps as well. An interesting aspect to the game is that each of the maps supports several game types. New game types include convoy and control, with suppression, demolition, escort, extraction, and breach all returning. Convoy is just as it sounds: one team is given two cargo trucks with a mission of moving the trucks to a loading zone and then extracting them. Control is similar to the Battlefield games in that you're tasked with capturing as many map points as possible before the enemy. Convoy is quite enjoyable and promotes teamwork much in the same way escort did in SOCOM II. It also creates some great Black Hawk Down-esque moments of driving down narrow roads in a lumbering truck while rockets and bullets streak by. Control, on the other hand, feels a bit out of place in SOCOM although it does keep the action fast paced and is a great way to blow off some steam.
The process of creating a game is now much more specific as well. For example, you're able to remove rocket and grenade launchers without eliminating the usage of hand thrown grenades. Toggling whether or not you'd like vehicles to be part of the room and whether the fight will take place during the day or at night are other options. Respawn is now available for all game types as well, although such rooms will not be ranked. The ranking system from SOCOM II has been improved upon, with more ranks and comprehensive statistics tracking. There are also overall rankings for various statistics that can be viewed in the community section.
Visually, it's understandable that Zipper had to make some compromises in exchange for the larger levels. As a result, SOCOM 3 looks no better than previous installments to the series and in some areas less so. The desert levels, set in North Africa, are considerably barren, with sparse vegetation and rolling sand dunes. The jungles of South Asia also feel a little under grown and Poland is just like any other European country, cold and boring. Some more plant life would have helped to foster a stealthier atmosphere, but that's obviously not how SOCOM 3 was designed to be played anyway.
Textures are as one would expect form a Playstation 2 game, blurry and pixilated up close, but not bad from a distance. Character models are finely detailed from head to toe and blood covers areas where they've been shot. There's nothing drastically different from SOCOM II, although shadows do seem a bit more defined than in the past. It's possible to spot an enemy around a corner by seeing their shadow, which is nifty.
Animations don't seem to have changed either and many have been recycled from the previous games. However, I did notice that grenades and rockets cause a great deal more chaos than they did in SOCOM II and explode more violently and colorfully. Vehicle explosions are also quite fancy. Unfortunately, there are a few hit detection issues with the vehicles. Running an enemy over and not having him die is frustrating and those collisions are often hit or miss. I would like to have seen the integration of ragdoll physics into the game after seeing many other developers incorporate it into their games, but since SOCOM 3 is running on the same engine as its predecessors, I guess that wasn't an option. Finally, there is a little slowdown that crops up every so often and serves as a reminder of the Playstation 2's age and the result of Zipper pushing its engine to the limit.
The main musical theme from SOCOM II was by far my favorite piece of gaming music and if there's one thing that SOCOM 3 is missing it's that same kind of powerful intro music. It's good yes, but James Dooley has a ways to go yet before he can match the majesty of music from the likes of Inon Zur and Bill Brown. In-game music is spot on though and still adapts to the players actions. SEAL and terrorist voice acting is great, but what happened to the enthusiasm from the online announcer. That woman used to say "SEALs victorious!" with pep, now she all but mumbles it.
In the development of SOCOM 3, Zipper hired foley artists to make the sound effects more organic. For those unfamiliar with the practice, foley artists use everyday objects to imitate sounds such as boots crunching and doors opening. Although it may not seem like a big deal, if you listen closely you'll begin to notice minute sound details. Guns also have more distinct reports than in SOCOM II and it's easier to distinguish between weapons. I especially love the deafening roar that you get form firing a machine gun. Very satisfying indeed.
So there you have it, the third installment to Zipper Interactive's franchise that has ended more relationships than Jerry Springer due to its addictive nature and classic gameplay. SOCOM 3 may not be perfect, but for the ultimate military experience you'd better shine those boots and green up soldier because it's time for some more SOCOM!
