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SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo E3 2005 Hands-On Impressions

Zipper Interactive gives us a detailed look of its upcoming handheld shooter.

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This fall, SOCOM is coming to the PSP. This new SOCOM game is called SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo, and it will feature much of the exact kind of content you'd want from a SOCOM game, with both single-player and multiplayer components peppered with the same kind of addictive shooting action you've come to expect. At E3 2005, we sat down with developers from Zipper Interactive to get a feel for how this new portable shooter plays. For those who have been aching to take their favorite tactical shooter into the portable realm, this one seems like it could more than suffice.

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Click to enlarge

Much of the demo we saw revolved around the single-player components of the game. There are 14 single-player missions in the game, many of which mirror missions from the upcoming PlayStation 2 SOCOM sequel, SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs. However, there will be an exclusive scenario set in Chile. You will find a wide variety of missions in the game, including hostage rescues, insurgent attacks, stealth missions, and recon assignments. The single-player action will work much the same way as the console games, although you will only have one artificial intelligence-controlled teammate, as opposed to the usual three. You'll be able to access a menu that doles out commands to your teammate as you play. If you want him to move in to attack, stealthily open up a nearby door, and so on.

Control is a huge factor in SOCOM's playability, and Fireteam Bravo, despite featuring a different type of control scheme, seems well-balanced in this area. As there is only one analog stick on the PSP, you'll find that the camera always moves behind your character wherever he moves. If you need to adjust the camera to keep an eye on a specific enemy, the developer has added a target-lock feature that adjusts your focus to stay on that enemy solely. Now, we know what you're thinking. An autotarget? That's totally cheap, right? Not at all, it seems. The target lock gives you a specific focus on an enemy, but it doesn't guarantee an easy kill. If you aren't in a great position to get a shot off, like in a crouched or covered position, you'll have a tough time getting a quick kill. Different weapons also have different accuracies with the autotarget feature.

One of the biggest features Zipper is touting is connectivity between the PSP and PS2 versions of U.S. Navy SEALs. The developer has included what it calls cross-talk objectives in both versions of the game. Different cross-talk objectives exist on each system, and when you sync the two games up, the achieved objectives on each side will play into the other game. For example, if you find a weapons cache in a level on the PSP, it will change the scope of the corresponding mission on the PS2. You'll also be able to unlock cross-talk skins and weapons into each version of the game. Zipper states there will be a one-to-one ratio of objectives on each version.

Of course, it wouldn't be SOCOM without multiplayer, and Fireteam Bravo will most certainly bring it to the table. Unfortunately, our demo session with the team didn't reveal a whole lot of specific details, but some general info was revealed. The game will support both ad hoc and infrastructure play. When playing online, you obviously won't be able to voice-communicate with your teammates, so Zipper has included a context-sensitive button command that lets you send general commands to your team. Unfortunately, no real info was provided to us on how many players could play at once or how many maps would be available for multiplayer, but Zipper assured us that you would get a multiplayer experience comparative to console play.

The graphics in the game look to be coming together pretty well. The character models are nicely detailed, and they look just about as good as they do on the PS2. The environments don't sport particularly great textures at this point, but they are large environments, and they seem to have a good number of enemies scattered about. The frame rate looked OK, though it was definitely a bit on the choppy side. Zipper specifically noted, however, that the game would run much faster upon its release.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo is due out this fall. We'll bring you more on the game as it becomes available.

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