PSP Review: SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3
I had the luxury of playing one of my favorite classic games albeit on a different platform, Socom. I remember having the time of my life being the leader of a Squad of navy SEALs with headset and all on the PS2. This time I am playing it on the PSP. And the rules have changed slightly.
This game is a follow on to the previous Fireteam games on the PSP. However you don’t need to fully be aware of the previous story to play it, its explained enough that you can jump straight into the action. The story is interesting and keeps your mind involve. But for the moment lets judge the game on its standalone attributes.
Visually the game looks the part. The video sequences in between the gameplay are great for a PSP game and the gameplay itself looks decent. One problem I always had with first or third person shooter games on portable platforms was visibility. They are usually very poor but with Socom on the PSP I can see rather well! The enemies look the part and are distinguishable from your teammates (which in my eyes is normally a good thing).
Lets get to the good part, the gameplay itself. The training mission takes very little time but gets you up to speed enough to easily take the first few levels. Controls are fairly self explanatory and the use of the weapons is intuitive and well designed. There was one feature however (and this goes for all games to be honest) that I did not like at all, the auto-aim. As always it is something that will never be perfected. A lot of the time I found it rather slow trying to turn to shoot enemies and the auto aim would grab whoever is near the cross hair and not whoever is near you. So I was shooting a guy on a balcony while another was shooting me right in the face. This isn’t a huge inconvenience but the game presents a very real feeling to life. The more you get shot, the less you see and staying alive at times can be difficult. So when you call on your auto-aim, you kinda want it to work first time round and not have to cycle through people.
The AI for your teammates is great. They can command themselves for the most part but respond to your commands as needed. The computers AI isn’t quite as good and I sometime found myself getting into a gunfight with three enemies firing back and another oblivious to anything going on around him.
There are a host of new weapons each so much more fun than the last. Maintaining stealth is always an objective for a SEAL but when someone hands you a shotgun you have to run around shooting anything that moves. Its like an unwritten rule of video games. The levels are well designed and can be tricky to navigate at times. This just adds to the realistic feel in the end and makes the game more enthralling. However I found navigation somewhat temperamental at times. Going down a stairs in a building was difficult as you cant see down without stopping completely and changing your view. I will put this down to the platform rather than the design but still.
The sound effects are amazing and the music really gives you an adrenaline rush. Ever watch 24 or Flashpoint? Exactly like that! Sound can bring a lot to a game and I am glad to see the guys at Socom did this one well.
In conclusion, this is one of the few portable shooting games that I actually like. I find that controls on these types of games are rather clumsy and with the “squad command” part of the Socom games I thought it would be just too much for a portable platform to do. However this game does it beautifully. The game has a great flow where you can just jump right in and you barely even notice you are playing it on a PSP. So I will award this game a 3.5/5! At ease soldiers!
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