5 ★ (0)
4 ★ (2)
3 ★ (1)
2 ★ (0)
1 ★ (0)

SOCOM 3 puts you in the shoes of Spectre, the leader of a four man squad of United States Nave SEALs known as the "Alpha" squad. During the duration of the game, you travel to three major locations consisting of North Africa, South Asia, and Poland. Missions vary from stealth missions, in which the player has to hide bodies after killing enemies or else risk a patrol spotting them, to mission where you help the local militia defend their strongholds on the border of a war torn city.
SOCOM 3: U.S Navy SEALs is a tactical third-person shooter developed by Zipper Interactive.
The gameplay is widely varied between stealth, sniping, defense,and other mission. There is also a tactical part to gameplay in which you can control squad members with many different commands. These commands can range from telling your squad members to breach a door then use a grenade, or to simply hold their positions.
As a first for the SOCOM series, SOCOM 3 added many different types of vehicles to use in both online, and offline modes. These vehicles can range from tanks and jeeps on land, to SOC-Rs and speed boats in the water. In addition to adding vehicles, the developers have changed on-foot gameplay drastically by adding the ability to mod weapons with various scopes and other attachments. Not only that, but you have complete freedom to select your loadout, and even squad members loadouts. Using a silenced sniper rifle instead of a light machine gun can drastically change the way a level is played.
SOCOM 3 was a drastic change from previous entries in the series. WIth the introduction of vehicles, the scale of maps was increased drastically. This also lead to slowed games because of players not being able to locate the enemy.
The game mode suppression was also altered from previous games. In previous SOCOM games the only way to win suppression was by eliminating the opposing team. In SOCOM 3 the team with the most kills in the round was awarded victory.
Players could join preset or player made lobbies, no matchmaking was present. Preset lobbies were usually for one specific game type, had all game features turned on, and cycled through every map with that playable game type. Users could create their own lobbies with a large amount of customization. Players could limit certain weapons and equipment from being selected. Other options included the time of day, match time, and if vehicles were included on the map. One of the more popular lobby types was smaller maps with explosives turned off.
On August 31, 2012 SCEA shut down online service for SOCOM 3. However, avid fans of the PS2 series continue to play the game using XLink.
Some of the larger maps had a smaller map option, which closed of large portions of the map. These smaller maps were limited to certain modes.
Suppression - Breach - Control - Demolition - Escort - Extraction
Suppression - Demolition - Control - Convoy - Escort
Suppression - Control - Convoy - Extraction
Suppression - Demolition - Control - Convoy - Escort
Suppression - Breach - Control - Extraction
Suppression - Breach - Extraction
Suppression - Demolition - Control - Extraction
Suppression - Breach - Demolition - Control - Extraction
Suppression - Demolition - Control - Extraction -
Suppression - Breach - Demolition - Control
Suppression - Breach - Demolition - Control - Convoy - Escort - Extraction
Suppression - Breach - Demolition - Control - Escort
Later, three map packs were released containing maps from older SOCOM games. The maps were the following:
After Hours
Liberation
Last Bastion
Blizzard
Blood Lake
Desert Glory
Abandoned
Crossroads
Fishhook
Frostfire
Guidance
A neutral bomb in the middle of the map is marked on each players screen. Once one team retrieves the bomb, they must go and plant it at the other teams base. As the defending team prevents the team from planting the bomb at their base, they also must try to kill the bomb carrier and take the bomb back to the other teams base. This cycle will go on until one team plants the bomb, or until one teams' members have all died. Once a team plants the bomb, they must defend it. If the bomb is defused, the defending team wins. If the bomb is not defused, the attacking team is the winner of that round. Demolition is also arguably the most popular game mode of SOCOM 3, if not the entire franchise.
For all ranked games, re-spawn is off.
Suppression is a straight up team death match. Two teams start at their spawns on either side of the map, and whichever team kills every member on the opposing team first, wins. If time runs out while both teams are still alive, the team with the most players alive wins. If there is an equal amount of living players on each team, the round will end in a tie.
For all ranked games, re-spawn is off.
In Convoy, one team starts out defending two drug caches, while the other team must use at least one of two convoy trucks supplied to load the drugs onto the truck and take them to the extraction zone. The defending team has no vehicles, while the attacking team spawns with trucks armed with machine gun turrets, the two convoy vehicles, and for some maps, tanks. If the defending team destroys the two convoy or kills every member of the opposing team, they win the round. If the attacking team loads up at least one truck and takes it to the extraction point, or kills every member of the opposing team, they win the round.
The SEALs are always the defending team, while the Terrorists are always the attacking team.
For all ranked games, re-spawn is off.
In Extraction, the Terrorist team has to guard hostages from the SEALs team. The SEALs team has to get at least 2 out of the 3 hostages to one of the extraction points on the map. If the Terrorists team kills 2 of the 3 hostages, the SEALs team automatically wins the round. If the SEALs team kills 2 of the 3 hostages, the Terrorist team automatically wins the round. If the SEALs team extracts 2 or more hostages, the SEALs win the round. If the Terrorist team survives the round, while keeping 2 or more hostages alive, the Terrorists win the round. To extract the hostages, simply walk up the them and press the "square" button to get them to follow you, and hit it again to make them hold position. The Terrorists can also do this, letting them lead the hostages to any part of the map they can get to. If one of the teams members have all been killed, that team loses the round.
For all ranked games, re-spawn is off.
Note: Some weapons are shared between the SEALs and Terrorists.
SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs added the ability to "crosstalk" with SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs - Fire Team Bravo. You would sync your PSP system to your Playstation 2 system and be able to get certain unlocks that would not be available normally. Unlocks consisted of things ranging from online skins, to weapons.
Crosstalk unlocks: SOCOM 3 to SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 2
Note: These are only some of the unlocks available. There are many more unlocks consisting of different music and cinematic videos.