"Has TONNES of potential, but human players can ruin it for you (ONLINE REVIEW)"

This game CAN be great online. It really can. But that all depends on what kind of people you run into online.

VISUALS

The online maps are so much bigger this time around. Some of the maps are so big that you can fit up to SIX Socom 2 online maps into one Socom 3 online map.

The detail is excellent. You can choose to play in either a daytime setting or a night time setting. The maps are very easy to get used to especially for missions like Convoy, Control, Demolition, etc. since all of the points of interested are marked.

But these much bigger maps can be just as big a problem. More on that in a bit.

GAME PLAY

The new missions are great!

There is CONVOY (my favorite) where the Terrorist team must drive a convoy of trucks to one of two (or sometimes three if I remember correctly) load zones and load cargo onto a cargo truck and then drop it off at the drop zone while the SEALS try to stop them. It is a great concept, but 9 times out of 10 it can be a big bore-fest. Since all the SEALS have to do is stop the convoy from reaching the drop zone, most of the time all they will do is plant mines at the load zones and then camp somewhere with sniper rifles or assault rifles with a scope attachment. Because of this, it is not unusual to enter a Convoy game that has not started yet and see 16 SEALS already greened up against 5 Terrorists. And almost every Convoy mission ends with either the SEALS easily wiping out the Terrorists or time expiring which also gives the SEAL team a win.

CONTROL. Each team must take control of all 5 control points on the map by planting their color smoke at each designated area as marked. First team to reach all 5 or the team with the most control points marked when time expires wins.

And there are the usual EXTRACTION, DEMOLITION, SUPPRESSION, ESCORT and RESPAWN modes as well. You can choose to play any map you want as any kind of mission you want. You can even choose to downsize the map for a smaller setting.

Here is the problem that can take all of the aforementioned points and ruin it for people online. With the maps being so much bigger in this installment, the amount of camping that goes on online is ASTRONOMICAL!

This time around, you can modify your weapon and put not only a scope attachment on it but a grenade launcher attachment on it as well. And specifically because the scope attachment option, it is not hard to end up in a game with 32 people and have almost every single one of them camping to the point where every round ends with the time expiring.

Speaking from experience, it can get so bad that you will see a situation of 9 people against 1 with three minutes remaining in the round and everyone, including the group of 9, will not move a muscle until the time expires.

I personally don't see the fun in camping for 5 minutes or more but that's just me speaking as a guy who likes to run and gun it.

One of the best features in this game is the use of vehicles not only by land but by sea. However this feature is really taken advantage of online by people who would rather drive around and run into people instead of getting the job done. And you will even see people spawn-camping with a vehicle during a respawn game.

OVERALL

This game can be so great online but it is plagued by the very people who play it online. Not everyone mind you but definitely the majority of online players can ruin the experience. People who are so adamant on winning MVP or having their name on the top ten list that they will ruin the game for everyone else by playing cheap and boring. If you are like me, you will be begging for Socom 2 after about a month of playing this game online.

RENT OR BUY

BUY. Despite my and many many other's frustrations with this game online, the offline single player mode is very good. But online, this is mostly a sniper's game. If you are all about sniping, chances are you'll love it. If you like to go full steam ahead like I do then you might not have a good time playing online unless you are fortunate enough to find people who, like me, play for fun. Have fun winning. Have fun losing. The way it should be but unfortunately most of the time it is not.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/05