SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs

On the E3 show floor today, we had a chance to play around with Jamdat's latest big console-to-mobile project: SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs. The game is a reworked version of Sony's iconic squad-based tactics game, and Jamdat and developer Iron Monkey have been working very closely with Sony to ensure the game retains the original's flavor. Apparently, this collaborative effort really seems to be paying dividends.

This real-time strategy game places your two-man squad of SEAL operatives in Morocco, conducting a recon mission. SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs drew an immediate comparison to Gameloft's excellent Rainbow Six 3 game, which was our mobile game of E3 at last year's show. Just as in the Tom Clancy game, you can play the entire game using the nav pad, thanks to a contextual, cursor-based navigation system. You just point and click on a location, character, or object, and your squad will take the appropriate action, be it moving, shooting, knifing, throwing a grenade, or opening a door. The contextual icons are animated, too, so when you can open a door, it's extremely clear.

Jamdat's game uses a slightly different team dynamic than its competitor. You can access an orders menu with a button press, which also freezes the game so you can pick out a command for your buddy. For example, he might go to open a door while you charge through, rifle at the ready. Or you can have him lay down suppression fire. A Jamdat representative indicated there might also be a sniping order by the time the game goes final. The levels themselves are objective-based. So to proceed, you might have to peer into a certain number of doorways, start up a truck, or clear an area of terrorists. There are several different grades of bad guys, too. The standard guys will actually notice your presence pretty quickly, reacting with a Metal Gear-style "!" above their heads. We were told there will also be attack dogs that will be able to smell you from a distance, as well as baddies with night-vision goggles. These guys can spy you even if you're hiding in the shadows, which would normally disguise your presence.

SOCOM looked fantastic on our preview Sony Ericsson s710. The desert-town environment we played in was tricked out with all kinds of visual details, like palm trees that swayed in the breeze, birds that wandered the streets, and water that dripped into drainage buckets. The game ran flawlessly, even in its pre-alpha state. This lush presentation will eventually be complemented by bits of digitized voice and sound effects, although neither was on display in our demo.

Jamdat hopes to have SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs ready for a fall release, first on Java handsets and then on BREW phones. There's still a lot of work left to be done on the game, especially since Jamdat hasn't even decided on what the final version will offer, but what it has now is already impressive. With more development time, it should be able to go toe-to-toe with Gameloft's new Rainbow Six: Lockdown game, which we'll be previewing tomorrow. We'll check back in with this game in a few months, so stay tuned.