Despite being the third in a series of long running games on a high end console, SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS looks surprisingly bland. It seems that more time was spent on the cutscenes than was on the in-game content. Models are rife with jagged edges, and the level of detail on both people and environment is disgustingly sub par. The quality of the graphics has an impact on gameplay as well as on the aesthetic appeal. Trying to spot enemies, or any other character for that matter, with the naked eye is an excruciating task, forcing you to rely on the radar or to painstakingly scan the horizon with binoculars every few steps.

The sound, while mostly clichéd, is still rock solid. Voice acting is good and does well to distinguish characters from one another. The in-game dialogue also helps the exposition of the story. Sound effects are hard hitting: gunfire makes your speakers rattle, and explosions will tax your subwoofer. The music is overly patriotic and almost silly, but it fits the theme of the game well.

SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS is the latest installment of the classic console shooter. In it, you lead two squads of two Navy SEALS, each on missions to thwart evil in the world. What set these games apart the most from their competitors is the integration of voice commands, both for online and offline play. While this gimmick was enough to garner quite a bit of interest in the previous two games, it seems like old news here in the third one, as these features are supported only by new maps and a lackluster single player experience.

The Single Player Campaign is a dreary sequence of boring missions. The themes vary between each mission: escort, search and destroy, assault, and even stealth. However, the core of each mission stays the same, and that is to go from waypoint to waypoint and kill everything in between. The ways you can go about doing this are misleading, as the game tries to give you a sense of open endedness. However, you are practically given orders by your intelligence crew as to what to do, effectively taking the decision making out of your hands.

There is the option of trying to go about completing missions in different ways. If you embark on this endeavor, you will quickly realize that there is nothing simpler or faster than just running through the level with your guns blazing. And while you can alter the gear of your four SEALs at the beginning of each mission, there isn’t ever really a benefit of doing so. It is up to you to pick the weapon you think is right for the mission, and invariably it ends up being the biggest and loudest one.

You are not alone through these missions, and this is a slightly redeeming quality of the SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS’s Campaign. The four SEALS are split up into two teams, with you as the leader of one of them. You can give your team commands either through an in-game interface, or through a USB headset. Though at first it seems that this feature will add a grand new dynamic to the game, it becomes almost obsolete due to the poor AI, as well as the fact that you can take on the enemies almost single-handedly.

Vehicles have been added to SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS to emphasize the vastness of the new maps. While they are fun to drive around in and shoot people with, they don’t quite serve the purpose that they were intended for. Most can be horribly abused to get around sticky situations where other tactics were intended (sneaking into fortified compounds is no problem when you kill everyone before hand with a truck mounted .50 cal). Also, vehicles are unrealistically blocked off from certain areas that the developers didn’t want to allow them in. A small fence is enough to thwart the advance of a tracked vehicle with a cannon. These flaws not only ruin the illusion of reality, but make the game much less fun.

The biggest selling point of the game is its Multiplayer capabilities. In this version of the game, up to 32 people can battle it out online in seven very different types of missions. This is where the fast-paced, unrealistic character of the game shines, as well as the voice capabilities. The online interface is also well done, allowing players to easily tap into the useful resources of SOCOM 3.

SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS is not a hard game to get into, nor is it a hard game to play through. The Single Player Campaign offers little challenge in the way of thinking, as it mainly comes down to twitch skills. Even then, much of the action takes place from a distance, unless you simply want to run through the thick of enemies and squeeze hard on the trigger and hope for the best (which also isn’t that hard). The difficulties arise in the inherent flaws of the game. The graphics make it hard to see anyone at a distance, and the AI is cumbersome and unrealistic. Enemies will watch their buddies get shot right next to them and not react, and your own teammates will get caught on corners while trying to clear rooms.

SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALS’s controls are solid, but can be a tad too deep at times. While the game is entirely playable without a headset, if you don’t have one you must resort to using the game’s menu interface to give commands to your squad. There are so many different commands that can be given that it can easily overwhelm the new player. The system is not impossible to work with, but it takes some getting used to.

SOCOM 3 isn’t the greatest single player experience, but it can be rewarding if you go online with it. For the newcomer to the series, it is probably worth the Multiplayer experience alone, but it is hard to justify dishing out another fifty bucks for larger maps and some bigger online games if you’ve already invested in the previous titles. Overall, this game would do best as a weekend rental for any type of gamer.