Review of SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals-Combined Assault – Limited Edition Score

SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals-Combined Assault

Original Soundtrack from the Video Game

I’ll be honest, I’ve never played the SOCOM series of games. I’ve always wanted to, but just never have. So this review of the La La Land Records release is solely on the music itself.

As most of you know who read my soundtrack and score reviews… I have to experience the music in the given media first. Before I believe I’m able to give a review of the music outside it’s original medium. As I stated above, sadly this is not the case here. Even though I went on YouTube looking for “silent” playthroughs, that didn’t happen.

 There are 19 total tracks for SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals. I’ve listened to this score for hours, before sitting down and writing this. Just so I could get the feel of the music. I have to say that I’m loving the themes Jim Dooley has come up with here. In Track 1: “Socom 3: U.S. Navy SEALs Fanfare” it’s 21 seconds of completely uplifting heroic action music. That then folds into Track 2: “Socom 3: U.S. Navy SEALs Main Titles” which is a slow build up to getting into the action. It feels like some Navy general is giving a speech to amp up the troops. Track 10: “More Than One Way to Skin a FATCAT” opens up with some deep bass tones and very evil sounding music. It then gets into what I can only describe as hunting music. Like in the game you are hunting the villain. Reading through the liner notes for this La La Land records release Jeff Bond goes on to tell us how Jim Dooley got the job. Apparently the people putting the game out wanted a big Hans Zimmer like feel for the soundtrack. After listening to this, I can see where they were going with that. Before this I’d only really heard Dooley’s name attached to the Epic Mickey 2 score. However after looking at his credits… WOW the man has put together some great film scores. Stuff like Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean and more. It also helps that he worked with Hans Zimmer too. The final track here on disc 1 is Track 19: “Ambush” and it very much is a all out attack on the enemy kinda theme. Lets face it folks it has to be a very daunting yet privileged task to write and come up with music for the U.S. Navy SEALs! Dooley does a damn fine job here!

Disc 1 Total Time: 59:29

With the Combined Assault section of the soundtrack there are 22 tracks on Disc 2, and Jim Dooley returned to score this one as well. It opens with Track 1: “SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault Main Titles*” Which has some awesome choir vocals behind the music. This score features tracks like “Urban Warfare*” and “Convoy Assault*” I like both these tracks, but I feel the vocals are a bit too much at times in the background.

Disc 2 Total Time: 58:09

Final Thoughts

SOCOM 3 and Combined Assault are wonderfully done scores. They give you a sense of what it would be like to be a U.S. Navy SEAL.  You can get this score from LA LA Land Records directly!