SOCOM Fireteam Bravo
The most fun you’ll have shooting terrorists on your PSP.
Tags: SOCOM Fireteam Bravo Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by David Hinkle on Nov 28th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| SOCOM Fireteam Bravo (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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The SOCOM franshise has been an enormous hit for Sony, with many thanks to Zipper Interactive. All its popularity is greatly deserved through solid controls, excellent multiplayer, and an attention to detail that creates a surprisingly realistic experience. Through the tour on the PSP, you’ll be downgraded to only two operatives, but overall the experience is closely compared to that of the console titles. This is, at its core, very much a SOCOM game, just scaled down for the scaled down platform.
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The areas in which SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo take place closely mirror that of the recently released PS2 title SOCOM 3. Traversing through Poland and areas of Asia, you’ll find a very similar feel toward the missions and presenation of the portable title to that of the console one. In fact, Zipper Interactive has included a Cross Talk ability which lets you augment missions on both platforms depending on how you handled them. For example, should you complete all side objectives, as well as the main ones, you’ll unlock multiplayer skins and weapon sets for use on the PSP. Figuring out the different combinations of unlockables between each platform is quite fun and easily achieved due to the smooth controls of the SOCOM operatives and usually easily-accessible tale of a land in peril.
In playing through Fireteam Bravo, you’ll be in charge of the duo of Sandman and Lonestar, two of the 4 operatives found in the PS2 title SOCOM 3. In going through the various missions, you’ll uncover the game’s story, which revolves around the usual plot of terrorists planning on doing some disasterful things to America, the land of the free.
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Many of the controls from the console versions have easily transitioned over to the portable unit as well. Context-sensitive actions and many of the overall orders you can dish out to your comrades made it into Fireteam Bravo, implementing almost perfectly to the somewhat downgraded control scheme of the PSP. The AI of your teammate and enemies is excellent, allowing your teammate to neutralize enemies on the move when delegated toward advancing to a certain area on his own and respectavilely allowing your enemies to respond realistically toward your advancements from within a building and while in great numbers in the field, such as bait tactics and flanking your position. These things have been implemented excellently and allow for an almost indiscernable single-player experience from the campaign when directly compared to the console titles bearing the same name.
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This brings us to the new control implementation which is the new lock-on targetting ability. While SOCOM purists may have thought this to be a silly addition and going against the great, realistic play of the SOCOM franchise, the lack of dual analog sticks causes this implementation to be necessary to the franchise’s survival on Sony’s portable. Pressing the right trigger will cause you to lock onto the nearest opponent in view, but while one might think that there is an overall delegated range for this lock-on ability, it would surprise said individual that this is mandated by whichever weapon set each operative takes into the field. Sub-machine guns might have the benefit of a higher rate of fire, but they’re only able to target enemies at middle-to-close ranges, whereas the sniper rifles and scoped arms are able to target terrorists at farther ranges. In doing so, the lock-on targetting meshes into the game well and from the outset feels natural to the overall formula of the game.
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Multiplayer has also been included into Fireteam Bravo, allowing for 16 players to participate in both ad hoc and infrastructure play, and almost identically resembling the experience of the console titles. Gametypes are Suppression, Extraction, Demolition, Free-For-All, and Captive. Of all the gametypes, Suppression and Captive are likely to be the areas where you’ll spend most times, Suppression being your usual team deathmatch and captive being the same, but allowing you to be revived by a teammate. Playing in full games runs relatively smoothly, although it should be noted that loading times are a bit longer than usual.
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The title is weakest when it comes to the graphics, with environments displaying some very boring and low-res textures. Character models are fairly generic and offer little to no variety. The overall theme of each area is varied both in the architecture of the buildings and overall look of the inhabitants, but there just is no variety within. The cutscenes look well enough, as each character model looks, moves, and sounds realistic. Overall, the graphics are a bit average for the PSP.
On the whole, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo is worthy of the name SOCOM and manages to transition to the PSP very well. The amount of multiplayer gametypes, maps, and players going at it at once is impressive for the new system. While the graphics take a pretty severe blow on the PSP, the controls and fun gameplay outweigh the visual blemishes of the title. If you love SOCOM on the PS2, it’s safe to assume Fireteam Bravo on the PSP will delight.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Lock-on targeting implements well + Multiplayer is excellent + Cross Talk + AI of your teammate and enemies |
8.7 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Graphics aren't that great - Camera can be a pain on occasion |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| True to the console versions and will surely please any SOCOM fan. | |
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Tags: SOCOM Fireteam Bravo
Posted by David Hinkle on Nov 28th, 2005 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
