The SOCOM series is set in modern times with events vaguely similar to those gracing the newspapers over the past few years. You play as Specter, the commander, and one member of an elite 4 man SEAL team assigned by U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to take on various global terrorist-related missions. Besides some brief biographies for the 4 members of your squad, there's really not much back-story or plot to be concerned with. The game attempts to be as professional and authentic as possible, even going as far as consulting with Naval Special Warfare Command, and the attention to detail shows.

Visually, SOCOM 3 is a nice looking game, but it definitely won't be winning any awards. The environments, from the dark slum-like buildings, to the wide-open deserts are relatively detailed and are spiced up with a number of nice weather and environmental effects. The main concern with prior SOCOM games has been the framerate, and that has indeed been cleaned up. Yes, there are times when it slows down, but as compared to SOCOM II, it's considered an improvement. Character models and vehicles look good enough, and the special effects like dust, particles and explosions, while not overused, are rather nice looking.

Honestly, the audio is one of the most important aspects of SOCOM. Zipper Interactive has positively nailed the sounds of modern warfare. The game's music is very sparse, and besides the theme song, intelligence screens and when an objective is completed, there is not much to hear. However, when it does chime in, it's high quality and dramatic. As with the rest of the series, it's strongly suggested you play with the PlayStation 2 USB headset. Not only is it used for issuing voice commands to your squad in single player and chatting with your teammates in online multiplayer, but it also provides an incredibly realistic, almost 3D aspect to the audio. While environmental sounds and gunfire come from your home stereo system, the dispatcher and the 3 other members of your team talk directly to you, into your headset. There are times when it is also used for special sound effects, such as the ear ringing sound of when a grenade goes off in close proximity. The peripheral will set you back $29 or so and it's worth every penny.

SOCOM 3 plays very similar to past games, but with a few refinements and additions. The game makes full use of the Dual Shock, with an assortment of functions on nearly every button. There are even more context sensitive commands available for commanding both your character and your squad. The other most obvious additions are your squad's ability to drive/command vehicles, and to swim and hide underwater. Having control of boats, humvees, trucks and other light armored vehicles are a huge addition that dramatically changes the way the game is played. Some objectives emphasize the use of certain vehicles, though they are not at all overly used. If you've played Halo, you can more or less equate that with the way the SOCOM vehicles handle and work. You and your squad can command a vehicle, and can independently pick from either the driver position, or a gunner position if available. All around, SOCOM 3 plays extremely well and there are rarely any issues once the control scheme is memorized

There are only really a few modes of play in SOCOM 3, with the meat and potatoes being the Campaign and Online Modes. The single player Campaign mode drops your team into a number of sensitive missions, which take place in a few particular areas of operations such as North Africa, South Asia and Poland. Each mission contains a number of primary, secondary and bonus objectives, which can be completed. The objectives range from simple reconnaissance, to the demolition of key structures, to the capturing of a high level rogue government official. Of course, all missions have a number of opportunities to kill off enemy soldiers, and a few objectives require it as well. Previous games have emphasized stealth over run-and-gun gameplay, but oddly enough SOCOM 3 has veered from that path ever so slightly. Many of the missions do require and reward stealth, but it's nowhere near as important as in SOCOM II. The campaigns take place in maps which are quite a bit larger, especially when you factor in the usage of the vehicles. The mission structure is also more streamlined and easier to follow than in the other SOCOM games, which will definitely help those not used to the series jump right in and understand the squad based gameplay. There are still a few issues with the A.I. of your teammates which can cause some problems, such as them getting stuck somewhere on the environment or taking an obviously inefficient path. It doesn't happen constantly, but the times at which it does can be bad enough to cause a mission or checkpoint restart.

The single player missions, even on the higher levels, don't last all that long. But really, most players of the game just use the Campaign Mode as the stepping-stone into SOCOM 3's amazing online multiplayer mode. SOCOM 3 is THE game to play online on the PlayStation 2, and you can sort of categorize it as the Halo 2 of the console in regards to multiplayer. The team-based gameplay (SEALs vs. Terrorists) now features up to 32 players simultaneously, with 16 players per side, and the use of vehicles. At the time of this review, there were over 50,000 users simultaneously playing the game online, which is a huge achievement. The online mode is quite fleshed out, with everything from clan tools, to buddy lists to an actual message board. Some of the more advanced features (such as rankings) can only be used by a SOCOM "verified user", which is a bit of a sore subject for some players. SCEA implemented a method to track users by the use of a Credit Card number which the user must supply. A credit card is never charged but the information is used for identifying and verifying each ranked user. The purpose was to filter out cheaters from the system, and it actually has worked quite well despite a few issues and complaints. It's a bit unorthodox, but most of the online players seem to appreciate the step in curbing the online cheating. Besides the variety of well designed maps and game types, the one thing that really makes the online experience is the voice chat. Coordinating with your teammates online via the headset makes a tremendous difference in how the game is played online.

Zipper and SCEA made sure to build in a nice amount of interactivity with SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo, which is now also available for the PSP (review coming soon). Both games feature parallel missions which take place in similar areas of operation, but with different SEAL teams. Via crosstalk objectives, how you play one version can affect the outcome of the other. By using a USB cable, you can hook your PSP to your PS2 and sync up the mission data. These crosstalk objectives can affect quite a lot of things in both games. The features can range from the simple unlocking of a multiplayer skin or weapon, to dramatically changing the way certain missions play out. It works surprisingly well and is guaranteed to show up in more PS2 and PS3 games.

Despite a lot of competition, SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs succeeds in being one of the best games in the crowded squad-based war genre. It has a few off and online glitches and bugs, but overlooking them there's a ton of authentic and addictive war gaming to be had.