SOCOM 3

The first two games in Zipper Interactive's SOCOM series have been insanely popular, mostly due to their fantastic online play for up to 16 players. This year, Zipper and Sony will release a third game in the series, and as you might expect, the third game is bigger, offers more options and adds lots of interesting enhancements.

Some of the new ideas for SOCOM 3 are common-sense enhancements that do make the gameplay deeper and more varied. You'll now be able to swim, which opens up a lot of stealthy water routes. You can submerge underwater for periods of time to avoid detection by nearby enemy patrols as well.

The game will have a handful of different vehicles, including fast-moving assault trucks and armed boats. Each vehicle will have multiple mounting points, so you can enter as a driver or just pop right in to one of the turret spots. You'll find turreted positions that contain mini-guns, grenade launchers, and so on. This makes the vehicles potentially very deadly when they're full of troops, and ready to frag your sorry behind.

SOCOM 3 will contain approximately 30 different weapons, including assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, pistols, mines, and grenades. You can also customise many of these weapons with 20 different attachments. These will include suppressors, optic systems, and grenade launchers. A new weapon in SOCOM 3 is the air burst grenade launcher, which locks onto a target, then explodes a few feet above it, sending the shrapnel raining down on any enemy foolish enough to duck behind cover. Ouch.

As mentioned above, SOCOM 3 will include an improved weapon system, and as always, terrorists and SEALs get unique sets of weapons. This time though, the guns can be modified in various ways. For the ultimate in accuracy, you can slap on a long scope and a rifle laser or if you need extra firepower you can equip an underslung grenade launcher or shotgun attachment on many rifles. There's still a nice selection of shotguns and submachine guns that can also be modified, as well as the pistols, which include Berettas, H&Ks, and Desert Eagles.


Teamwork has always been a big part of the SOCOM single-player game, as you're always rolling with three other soldiers. Commanding those troops will be easier this time around thanks to a radial menu. The breaching system has been enhanced, and you'll now be able to lead a breach yourself, rather than always letting your team do the work. Your teammates will react more intelligently to orders, and enemies are much better about not standing out in the open and letting you put holes in their heads. Enemies will be quick to flank you and will attempt to find cover. On top of that, SOCOM 3 allows for more enemies to be active at the same time, so you'll encounter much more resistance from your foes.

In the regular game, the control is focused on Specter, the leader of the SEAL team, but once in a vehicle it's possible to swap characters as you please. After driving into a climatic situation a quick button tap will cycle through the other SEALs so that the player can man the turret and have an active role in hunting down terrorists. A couple of taps later and the player can be back in control of the Humvee or boat.

The game will also feature the ability for Alpha and Bravo teams to split up, each taking a vehicle. Some of the terrorist vehicles only hold two or three people at a time and since it would take forever to wait for a lonely SEAL to catch up on foot, this only makes sense. All of this helps to keep the game moving along quickly and lets players stay in the action rather than play a waiting game like in previous SOCOM incarnations.

The AI has been advanced to a state where the terrorists react to the player's actions much more than before. What is most apparent at first is that the enemies are more careful. Instead of standing out in the open they will peek around corners and even fire blindly, just sticking out their arms and the gun to take a few shots.

The terrorists have also been given different statistics to judge their abilities and one of these is courage. If the terrorists outnumber the SEALs and the player chooses to hide behind a wall, then they'll rush in thinking they have the advantage. If the player rushes the terrorists and takes a few of them out, the survivors will be much more careful, and will take in to consideration things like; tactical positioning, number of reinforcements, and whether your team is backed by artillery or not.

All of these new features create a world that is fast, seamless, and fluid experience that is looking to retain the fun of the previous two games and take it all that much further. With beautifully rendered environments in Morocco, Bangladesh, and Poland, this is a title to keep an eye out for when released in New Zealand in November. With six million copies of the franchise already sold, it's impossible that this title will be ignored.

So lace up those issue boots, get back in the trenches, and get ready to eat rations of porridge as this title is due to be released on November 15, at a RRP of NZ$129.95.