"Good..but not the best...still it is really...really good."

Let me first start and say that I only gave this game a 7 our of 10 because that is the only way this review will get read in future times, because all the major fanboys will crowd the page with 9/10's and such. It really deserves an 8 but I am including small things that only either a fanboy would see, but would't write about because he can't putdown his favorite series. So lets get down to the good stuff.

Graphics
Superb, when you first start it up, if you played SOCOMII at all you can really tell the difference. This game's draw distance has really increased a lot and it's noticable in some maps like Tidal Fury when standing on a dock and looking out into the sea or across the swamp. You can see substanstially far. There are noticable graphic mess ups like when terriosts are inside a building they might have there gun sticking out of the wall so it gives away the suspense of searching a building.
9/10

Sound
The sound, in my opinion isn't as good as SOCOMII but that is only because some weapons, mostly assault rifles will sometimes have identical sounds, which is pretty annoying sometimes. Still they are great, the wilderness sounds are awesome and they really pull you in when your sneaking around in the grass or dirt.
9/10

Gameplay
Overall the gameplay is the same from SOCOMII except now you have vehicles. Besides the new vehicles the gameplay kinda was the same. I'll explain more in detail.
Single Player Gameplay
Okay single player in my opinion is pretty terrible AI wise, worse than BOOMER in many aspects. I have a really good example of the AI stupidness. In SOCOMII I would always set up Ambushes on large groups of enemies with Bravo and Able, it made the game feel realistic and more fun and exciting. Here is an example from SOCOMII. There are 4 T's in the middle of a dirt road. Bravo team is about 20 yards behind me in Hold Position. I order them to Sneak to Crosshairs which is about another 10 yards back from there position and then order them to Sneak to Crosshairs which are set in the grass on the opposite side of the road. When they are done I get in position and aim at the farthest guy from both Teams, and tell them to Fire at Will, each man kills one guy in a single 3 shot burst, undetected. Now here is SOCOM3's example. I do the same thing with only 2 guys, and in the process of me trying to get Bravo to move silently I get seen. The Sneak To and Attack To and other <Blank> To commands are gone except Move to. The AI is moronic. It stands up when you tell it to move silently to somewhere and gets seen. I have to go back and get my team all the time when they get stuck back at the beginning of a level. The most funny thing I say EVER was one time I was in a mission standing up making bursts with my M60 and Jester runs up behind me, crouches, and peeks out the side of me and shoots. I move, he goes behind me again. Funny but stupid.
6/10

Multiplayer Gameplay
Okay multiplayer is well laid out. As of right now the Ranking system is so screwed up. But by the time this review gets submitted hopefully they will have a patch out. Other than that, it's amazingly fun. There are vehicles and if you can get your account verified which is free, you can play with other people who usally have a mic, and who know what they are doing and you can actually play like a team and have REAL fun instead of run and gun style. The maps are bigger so it's really really stealth orientied. But if you don't like big maps, you can join a game with 16 or less players and the map is mitiuaterized from it's normal self. Also if you play through single player, you will be VERY familar with EVERY map because all the maps are the SAME with MINOR changes to layout from the levels of the Single Player game, which helps substantially when learning them. The maps also are much easier to learn because there aren't that many ins and outs now do to very much less indoor locations.
10/10

Overall
If you have online, grab this game, otherwise, you might just want to rent it unless you think playing with 3 other SEALs with the accuracy of common thugs blindfolded in Single Player.
7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/05