SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 3
The SOCOM series hasn’t been getting rave reviews since Slant Six took over from Zipper interactive, but with their latest offering on the PSP they may manage to change some opinions.
SOCOM Fire Team Bravo 3 (FTB3) is the latest in the long running SOCOM series and the fourth game to grace the PSP. The game itself has three separate modes: the campaign, Co-op and competitive multiplayer.
The campaign puts you into the shoes of Calvin “Wraith” Hopper, who is in charge of an elite SEAL team. You set out to track down a former KGB agent, but things don’t run so smoothly. The team is sent on a short but interesting journey as they try to figure out what is actually going on. Whilst there is a story; it, like in most shooters, is predictable. It will keep you playing through. The Campaign will take you from between five to ten hours the first time through, depending on which difficulty level you decide to start with.
The game play in SOCOM FTB3 is its main draw. You, as the player, get to control Wraith and the entire team as you try work your way through the missions. With very easy and intuitive team controls, that are perfect for the basic layout on the PSP, you get to order your men into position and even set how aggressive they are. This system works surprisingly well. But in a few instances it was a bit of a struggle to get the team into the right place, as vertical aiming is not possible without zooming in with a weapon.
Speaking of weapons, there is A LOT of them, over 50. Each can be customized with scopes, sights and a variety of other attachments. According to one of the game developers the customization is nearly “limitless”. However, you will end up using only a select few. This is the case especially online.
The way in which you use the guns is fairly ingenious as well. Due to the PSP’s controls and lack of second analogue stick, you have to use the X, circle, square and triangle buttons to aim. You can get used to this extremely quickly. Not only can you do this, but there is a lock-on system making aiming and killing the enemy fairly simple. It is possible to snipe most of the enemies from a distance using a scope in good SOCOM tradition. Although we found that on almost all of the difficulty levels it was easier to rush in behind some cover and use the lock-on system to quickly clear the area.
The graphics of FTB3 are fairly good for the system, and the cut scenes use the same in-game graphics that allow players to be immersed at all times. Another aspect we were pleased to see in FTB3, that developers usually miss out on, was that during a cut scene whatever weapons you had equipped your team with would show.
The entire game can be played with up to three other players. They can either be friends that own PSP’s or people online. The empty spots will be filled in with AI players that do a descent job. During the time we tested the game we experienced very little lag, even when playing on the Japanese or American servers. The only real issue that we had whilst playing the Co-op portion of the game was that it was far too easy. Even on the hardest setting players were able to stroll through the areas with ease. If you did manage to get yourself killed, the other players were able to resurrect you (unlike in the single player campaign: when you’re dead, you’re dead) making it even easier.
Where the game really shines is the competitive multiplayer. With ad-hoc and infrastructure support it allows you to easily access games and it only takes around thirty seconds from main menu to sitting in a game lobby. There are several different maps and modes to play. Each is customizable, making it stand out from other titles on the PSP. FTB3 has full clan and friend support. The only downside to this is that there is no way of adding people if they are offline. In order to access the online portion you will need to have a PSN account, and use a code provided with the game to unlock the multiplayer. This is a bit time consuming but fortunately you only need to do it once.
The game play in competitive multiplayer is exactly the same as in the campaign. We would recommend new players to complete the story first so they have the necessary skills to compete. Otherwise they may be subjected to a bit of heckling. The matches themselves can be over very fast or take some time: depending on the mode and tactics used. Teamwork however seems to be the key to winning most matches and it is made extremely easy with voice chat support. Luckily for most PSP owners (unless they own the first few models) they will have built-in microphones and can take part easily.
A large majority of the flaws we found in FTB3 were down to the community itself. The EU server was pretty much dead, but with the ability to migrate and make use of the US and Japanese servers you should be able to find many a soldier to do battle with. Another issue was with the lobbies. There is no set time limit before games start, so you have to wait till everyone “greens up” which can take some time. The kick feature is one we found to be extremely annoying, especially when playing on the same side as a few clan members. The members of your team are able to kick any players out with a simple vote system. We witnessed players being kicked for a variety of reasons, either they were too good and stealing all the kills, or they were not helping the team enough. The system itself would be fine, but can easily be abused, and is.
All in all, SOCOM FTB3 is a really good game, and one of the best shooters on the PSP. We would suggest if you have a PSP at least try out the demo on the store, it does not show off the online but it gives you a good idea what the game is all about.