SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs

SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs is the third major installment of the tactical shooter series developed for PlayStation 2 by Zipper Interactive in collaboration with advisors from the U.S. Navy. From the first entry, the series was known for its emphasis on commanding a small squad, voice orders to teammates over a headset, and an overall more realistic approach to combat than the mainstream action shooters of the time, and the third installment significantly expanded this concept for the console's standards of the day, including demands on hardware and the size of the game world, which grew substantially compared to the first two entries.

Compared to previous entries, SOCOM 3 offered much larger and more open maps, into which drivable vehicles were added for the first time in the whole series – from light off-road vehicles to combat equipment, making it possible to cover a larger battlefield faster than on foot and coordinate the squad's advance over longer distances. The campaign took players to several different regions, including Africa and the Caucasus area, with a more elaborate and connected story than the earlier, more episodic missions of the first two entries offered. Multiplayer, meanwhile, remained the main pillar of the whole series' popularity – SOCOM 3 supported voice communication via the SOCOM headset and an expanded online mode for dozens of players at once, with a more elaborate rank system and unlockable gear, which made it one of the most-played online titles on PlayStation 2 at the time and kept an active community going on the servers long after later entries of the series were released on new consoles. It was precisely this combination of larger maps, vehicles, and voice communication that made the third installment a reference point that later entries kept returning to for years.

Why play it: SOCOM 3 will appeal to players looking for a seriously-minded tactical shooter with an emphasis on team communication, vehicles, and large battlefields – at the time an above-average combination that the competition on PlayStation 2 didn't offer.