SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo

8.1
Good

Gameplay	8.5	"Although stripped down for the PSP, Socom still provides great..."
Graphics	7.0
Sound	8.5
Value	8.0

By Daniel Needham

As a franchise, SOCOM is one of the most important series of games to Sony, as it has shown the power of the Ps2 offline and online. Now Sony and developer Zipper Interactive are teaming up to take the SOCOM experience portable, with SOCOM Fireteam Bravo for the PSP.

In Fireteam Bravo, players take on the role of Sandman, a Navy SEAL who, along with his partner Lonestar, is sent around the world to help fight in the war on terror. Over the course of the game, the duo takes the battle against terror worldwide in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

SOCOM fans will notice in Fireteam Bravo just how faithful the game remains to its console counterparts in terms of presentation. If you've ever played any of the previous SOCOM games, you should feel right at home here. Zipper obviously went through a lot of effort to make sure that this game came across as more of an extension of the franchise rather than just a port.

In terms of gameplay, some changes had to be made when bringing the series over to the PSP. First off, the squad has been reduced from the usual four-man group to a two-man pairing. This doesn't take anything away from the game though, and in many ways makes it easier to jump into since players only have to watch out for one other person instead of three.

Another big difference in the PSP game is in the controls. Due to the PSP's lack of a second analog stick, there's no way to move and aim at the same time. To compensate for this, the game lets the player use the R button to lock on to enemies as both you and they move. Once locked on to an enemy, the player could unleash a hail of gunfire into the opponent right away, though most of his shots would likely miss the mark. Instead, players are encouraged to adjust their stance and line up a shot in order to improve accuracy. The game also allows veteran players to switch to a "free look" mode in order to gain even more control over the accuracy of their shots at the expense of movement.

The game wouldn’t be complete without a solid multiplayer component, and Fireteam Bravo delivers in this respect. The game supports up to 16 players in a game over Ad Hoc and Infrastructure connections, so get ready for a mini-war right in your pocket against players from all over the world.

Visually Fireteam Bravo looks mostly like the original game in terms of technology. The levels are designed well, since Zipper designed smaller maps for campaign and online, and there's less dead space. However, most levels take place in remote areas, so there are a lot of muddy, dull designs to represent these locations; outside of the wilderness, though, there's plenty of buildings and towers to scope out for enemies to snipe and or evade.

The audio is typical SOCOM - epic music at the title screen, a little jingle when you complete an objective, a female voice spitting out objectives, your team-mates blabbering and giving away your position, and of course foreign enemies speaking in a language that you wouldn't understand unless you had subtitles turned on.

Though partly stripped down for portable gaming, SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo is a very good entry into the series for first timers, thanks to a fun campaign, great online that rivals what you can get on a modern console, and a focus on action rather than tactics. The addition of auto-aim thanks to the subtraction of a 2nd analog stick might be harsh for purists of the game, but it's designed to mimic traditional manual aim by not entirely being 100% correct. Fireteam Bravo is a solid pickup for PSP owners, whether they're veterans of the old games or those experiencing the franchise for the very first time.

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