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SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs, is a third person tactical shooter video game for PlayStation 2 and the sequel for previous games U.S. Navy SEALs and U.S. Navy SEALs. The game was developed by Zipper Interactive in collaboration with the Naval Special Warfare Command and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. SOCOM 3 was released on October 11, 2005.

General Gameplay

SOCOM III is a third person tactical shooter for the PlayStation 2 that combines the elements of strategy, stealth, reflex and hand-eye coordination. There are 14 different single-player missions: 6 in North Africa, 3 in South Asia, and 5 Poland. There are 5 different ranks that you can play the game in. From easiest to hardest, they are: Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, and Admiral (to unlock Captain and Admiral, one must at least complete commander). One of the main focuses for multiplayer is unlocking new character models, weapons, and weapon attatchments for the online multiplayer mode. As with previous SOCOM titles, every mission has Primary Objectives, Bonus Objectives, and Hidden Bonus Objectives. At the end of every mission, the player receives a grade (A-F) evaluating their performance on the aspects of stealth, accuracy, teamwork, and mission completion. This page refers to the NTSC version of Socom3 unless specified otherwise.

New and changed features

  • SOCOM 3's online and single player modes have new interfaces.
  • Accessories, including scopes, grenade launchers and rifle lasers, can be added to weapons.
  • Players can swim and operate vehicles, including trucks, M1025s (as suggested on the game's cover art), dune buggies, technicals and tanks.
  • Its single player mode is much larger than those of the previous U.S. Navy SEALs games.
  • Online multiplayer games now support up to 32 players (16 for each of the two competing teams, the SEALs and the Terrorists) in one game. (This allows scenarios with full 16-SEAL "platoons" for the first time in SOCOM series history.)
  • Hit detection has been greatly updated.
  • Many character movement features have been added.
  • Maps no longer have set game modes; the various modes (demolition, extraction, suppression, etc.) can now be played on any map.
  • Clan roster size increased from 16 players to a total of 32.
  • In order to hold the increased amount of players, the map sizes have increased significantly.

Single Player Campaign

Fireteam Structure and Movement

Able Element
Specter (the player) and Jester are the Able Element.

  • JESTER — Born and raised in Clyde, Texas, Chief Petty Officer Bailey Ivarsen specializes in Night Fighting and Close Quarters Combat. Jester's primary job is to cover the player, commander Specter. If asked to hold a position too far from Specter, Jester regroups to your position.

Bravo Element
The SEALs in Bravo operate closely together and execute Specter's orders as a pair. Bravo can be almost anywhere on the "op area" of the map, giving you flexibility in suppression of enemy forces, ambushes and extraction of the personnel.

Like in SOCOM II, the Bravo Element is occupied by different operatives, changing for each Area of Operation.

=North Africa
=

=South Asia
=
  • CHOPPER — Joby Hunt hails from London's East End, and specializes in Underwater Demolitions and High Altitude, Low Opening insertions.

  • FLASH — From London's Kensington borough, Osborne Winters excels in Explosive Ordnance Disposal and has extensive Heavy Weapons training.

=Poland
=
  • DEADPAN — From the small town of Barlinek, Poland. Marek Kowalczyk has an Expert Marksmanship rating and specializes in Night Fighting.

Mission Success and Failure

Several factors determine success of your mission. Perfection for any factor is 100% for completing all objectives. You are graded from A to F.

Mission Success
Stealth - Each time your team is discovered and the enemy communicates your presence to others, you lose points for stealth.

Accuracy - Hitting targets increases your accuracy ratings, while missed shots lower it. The accuracy of your teammates are also counted.

Teamwork - Use your team for cooperative engagements. The more you use your teammates during the course of a mission, the higher your Teamwork rating.

Mission Completion - Primary objectives are the most important Mission Objectives and have the largest impact on mission success. Although you can fail secondary objectives and still pass the mission, primary objectives require 100% completion.

Mission Failure
Your mission will be considered a failure under the following conditions:
  • You, the player character (SPECTER) are incapacitated
  • A mission critical character, such as a hostage or escortee, is killed.
  • A mission critical target escapes.
  • You abort a mission
  • All three of your SEAL teammates are incapacitated.
  • Leaving the mission area (going out of bounds).
  • You kill one of your team.

Online Gameplay

Like other SOCOM games in the past, online play is a huge contributor to the game's success. In SOCOM 3, players can team up with others from around the world and compete as a SEAL unit or Terrorist force.

Online Mission Types

  • Breach: SEALs attempt to destroy Terrorist strongholds. Terrorists use their fortifications to prevent the SEAL incursion, as SEALs break through barriers and destroy key targets. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

  • Demolition: Find the bomb and blow up the opposition headquarters. The bomb, or satchel, is placed on a neutral point in the map, easily accessable from both oppositions. Each team prevents the opposing team's demolition of their base. For example, if the terrorists have the bomb, the SEALs are on the defensive, and must ensure their stronghold remains safe. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

  • Suppression: Fight to the death This 5 minute round deathmatch ends when one team loses all of their players, or when time expires. The team with the most living players wins at the end of the round.

  • Escort: SEALs Move key personel to a secure location SEALs must get at least two out of the three VIPs to the extraction zone, while the terrorist must kill at least two VIPs. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

  • Extraction: SEALs Rescue and extract the Terrorists' hostages SEALs win by escorting at least two hostiages into the extraction zone, and Terrorists win by eliminating all the SEALs. If Seals kill a hostage, a minute is deducted from the mission timer. If the Terrorists kill a hostage, the SEALs are credited as if they rescued the hostage. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

  • Control: Place beacons at all control points Each team must attempt to be the first to plant a beacon at each of the control points accross the op area. Once a beacon is planted, the enemy can't take it away, but they can plant a beacon at that control point. The team who has all of the control points covered first, wins. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

  • Convoy: Terrorists guide a convoy to a loading zone and guide it back to a drop zone The Terrorist team must successfully breach a series of blockades to reach a cargo loading zone. They will have to pick up cargo and continue through another set of blockades to a drop zone. The SEAL's objective is to stop the convoy. If both cargo trucks are destroyed, the SEAL team wins. If at least one loaded cargo truck makes it to a drop zone, the terrorists win. A team may also win by eliminating the opposition.

Online account verification

Zipper Interactive decided to require SOCOM 3 players to verify their identities by using a credit card. If the players do not verify themselves, they will neither be granted ranks, nor allowed to join friends' lists, ranked games or even clans. It was a controversial decision; many players have responded with ire on the game's official message boards, and several have formed online petitions to protest the change.

The SOCOM blog, set up by the Sony PlayStation team to give players a look at the making of the game, stated that this was meant to keep SOCOM cheaters away from the game, but it has not stopped cheaters. The cheaters can also use credit cards to log on and freely exploit game glitches, since no one monitors matches. Zipper, however, does encourage using the ingame exploit forums to report cheaters. As of February 2006, bans have been made, indicating that Zipper's credit card verification system has been at least marginally effective. This was removed in the PAL version due to the use of central station.

Ranking system

The SOCOM 3 ranking system uses many more naval ranks than the previous versions, including most of the enlisted and officer naval ranks. The requirements for attaining higher rank when you start as an enlisted Seaman is different from the system used by the officers. Advancement in the enlisted ranks is attained by playing in full games, regardless of the outcome.

Enlisted Ranks
RankNumber of games played
Seaman Recruit0-4
Seaman Apprentice5-14
Seaman15-24
Petty Officer Third Class25-39
Petty Officer Second Class40-54
Petty Officer First Class55-74
Chief Petty Officer75-100

After completing 75 games and having 50 wins, the player is moved to the officer rankings, where rank is determined by the player's place in the game ladder. For example, the lowest rank of Ensign is assigned to the lowest 19%.

Officer Ranks
GradesRankDistance from top of Officer Ladder
Junior Grades Ensign81-100%
Lieutenant Junior Grade66-80%
Lieutenant51-65%
Mid Grades Lieutenant Commander41-50%
Commander31-40%
Captain21-30%
Flag Grades Rear Admiral Lower Half11-20%
Rear Admiral Upper Half6-10%
Vice Admiral2-5%
Admiral0-1%
Fleet AdmiralTop 10 players

However, the ranking system has encountered a few problems.

Bugs

Some unfixed bugs are still left in the game.

As of November 2005

Vehicles
  • A player killed by gunfire will be considered "killed" again if they are run over by a vehicle before their dying animation is complete.
Ranking system
  • Some players' stats are unrecorded for various reasons.
  • Extra headshots are quite often added to final points
Boundary Exploitation
  • It is possible to get to certain locations outside the "edge" of the map. This may be done by drifting the vehicle towards the location you wish to get to, in addition to other means.
  • Players are able to go inside boxes, and similar objects that have no obvious entrance.
  • Through a glitch, players are able walk in the sky above other players. These "skywalkers" are very tough to hit from the ground.
Sounds
  • Single shots are played sounding like multiple shots. (This doesn't occur when using the single-shot firemode.)
  • When a door is opened or closed the sound effect can be heard anywhere on the map.
Player Outfits
  • A Seal may have the weapons and outfits of a Terrorist, or vice-versa. This glitch may be either achieved intentionally or unintentionally, but some players have learned to exploit this.

Spectator Players
  • As of late January, players have managed to access the armory as a Spectator. When they enter the game they cannot be seen by anyone unless one joins a game late with a "Spec Killer" having already done the glitch, They can move around undetected and kill anyone they wish. Only explosives and vehicles can kill them. The spectator is not listed on either team's roster but still receives kills, deaths, wins and losses as a normal player.

Under Map
  • Some players have managed to get under the specified map and cannot be killed by the normal player. These players once under the map can kill any player on the map if they are visible. The glitch user must go back under the map every new round or game (they don't stay under the map forever). The player once under the map may not get out unless the round or game ends.

Wrong Map
  • Very rarely it has been known to happen that one or more players end up playing a different map to a majority of their teammates and enemys. It is caused by a loading error where-by a different map than the one selected by the host is loaded. When this happens the affected players can still talk to their living teammates, but are unable to affect any of the events in the "real" game.

Patches

On December 22, 2005, Zipper Interactive released its first SOCOM 3 patch, which addressed disconnects, ignored weapon selections, some voice chat issues, ladder bugs, skywalking and other serious bugs. It also removed the ability to create 1-round ranked games.

SOCOM 3 will be sending another patch out effective in the middle of March that will be effective against the 'spectator glitch.'

Downloadable maps

Zipper has recently announced that new downloadable maps will be available in March to coincide with the new downloadable patch. The maps are said to be upgraded versions of the maps Last Bastion, After Hours, and Liberation, all of which were only previously playable in U.S. Navy Seals if they were downloaded from demo discs from a game magazine and put onto the PS2 HDD. Since the HDD has ceased to be supported by Sony, Zipper has said that the new downloadable maps will be available only through SOCOM 3 Online and can be saved onto an external USB Hard Drives (Or the PSP).

On June 27th, 2006, the three aforementioned maps were finally released in a "Map Pack" amidst much delay. There was a patch released on this date that among bug fixes added the "Socom Store" under the Community section, which allowed players to download the maps to the PS2 Hard Disk Drive (HDD), PSP, or an external USB drive. The current map pack is available for free, but will have to be bought after the two-week trial period ends on July 11, 2006 for $5.99. This will be the future site of downloading the new map packs, for an estimated price point of $5.99 each.

References

External links

Official sites

Community & Multiplayer Competion

Forums

2005 computer and video games | Third-person shooters | Multiplayer online games | PlayStation 2 games

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs".

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