E3 06: Coded Arms: Contagion Impressions

LOS ANGELES--The original Coded Arms was a PlayStation Portable proof of concept of sorts--proving that, yes, the PSP is capable of supporting the first-person shooter genre. Regardless of the lukewarm critical reception, Konami is going ahead with two more games in the Coded Arms series--the PlayStation 3's Coded Arms: Assault and the upcoming PSP sequel, Coded Arms: Contagion, which Konami formally introduced the game at today's press conference.

Like its console big brother, Contagion is a sci-fi shooter that takes place in a cybernetic world. They enemies may be virtual, but they're no less deadly, and you'll be running up against plenty of opposition if the trailer shown at the press conference is any indication. There's not much subtlety here; you load up your automatic weapons and blast your way through multiple levels, some of which are open-air, some of which are enclosed.

Contagion takes place on A.I.D.A, a virtual military training base, and your job as the main character will be to stop a group of cybernetic terrorists who are intent on infiltrating the base's program and swiping top-secret military data. In order to bring down the bad guys, you won't be just blasting with your gun--the demo also showed off cool technology such as infared vision, which you can use to spot hidden enemies.

With fully customizable controls and wireless play for up to eight players (via both infrastructure and ad hoc), Coded Arms: Contagion looks to be a promising sequel to the original. It's due for release early next year, and we'll be bringing you more in the coming months.