SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo

"Easily the Best Shooter on PSP"

Now don't think going into this that I am some kind of SOCOM fanboy, since this is the first of the series I have ever played. But I still stand by that this is by far and large the best shooter, possibly best game currently available for PSP. Not only is the single player a good legenth and satisfying, but the multiplayer is to die for. Often times thousands of people are online at a time so you never need to worry about finding a game(a la Twisted Metal with its 20-30 people on a busy night). Not to mention is supports voice chat with the PSP headset.

The story is pretty good, but nothing that will keep you on the edge of your seat in suspense or anything. The game is broken down into 4 theaters, or areas. Each theater has a related but seperate storyline. It keeps the game moving and explains to you why you are about to do this mission and why you need to do the objectives, which is a nice change.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are pretty nice and look like a first-gen PS2 game, they more than get the job done. The framerate isn't fantastic, but it stays pretty steady even with a lot of action onscreen at one time. Character models look decent enough and have a good level of detail for a handheld game.

Sound/Music: 9/10
Sound and music blend in perfectly with the tone of the game, that's all there is to say. Never does a song or background tune feel out of place, and all the SFX for the guns sound great. No generic gun noise here, every gun sounds true to its real-life counterpart. The only reason this ins't a 10 is due to some mic problems in multiplayer, but more on that later.

Gameplay: 8/10
The biggie of any game, but SOCOM FB holds up. You control Sandman, one of a two man SEAL group deployed across the globe to carry out special ops missions in an "under-the-radar" type storyline. You can't control your partner, Lonestar, but he is necessary to complete tasks in missions that you can't do such as disable radios. You can issue onscreen prompt commands by holding the O button while the prompt is onscreen, or you can press O at any time to bring up a menu of commands. All of them work nicely and can be a great help in some missions. However the only problem here is that the onscreen prompts don't work very well, you have to point your crosshairs exactly in the direction and be the right distance away from the object for the prompt to work, otherwise Lonestar will misinterept your command as a generic "go here" which can be a little annoying at times, especially when you have 30 seconds to get Lonestar to disable a bomb but you can't get the "disable bomb" prompt to work.

Since the PSP lacks two analog sticks, aiming is taken care of by a lock-on feature that is activated with the L button. However, you can't just lock on and mash X to fire and wipe out any ememy in the game. If you are too far away you miss frequently and make unnecessary noise to alert other guards. Standing, crouching, and prone positions all affect your accuracy and are toggled with the triangle button. Weapons are selected from pressing left on the D pad to drop a menu down, and pressing left again to return. Everything is nice and fluid and works well.

Multiplayer: 10/10
This is the best use of PSP's wifi capabilities yet. Up to 16 players can be in one game, which blows the DS's maximum of 4 out of the water. The online lobby lets you manage clans, create a game, join a game, enter the online community(announcements, your profile and message boards) and see what game any of your clanmates are in. It's all fantastic and I have not discovered any bugs in it.

Multiplayer graphics are just as good as single player, and even with 16 players there is no lag in your commands. I've heard that there is occasionally some lag on slow DSL connections, but I can't confirm that since I use cable.

This is also the first game to support the PSP headset, enabling voice chat both in the lobby and in game. Simply hold O in the game to talk. You have 3 "radio" channels: all, 1, and 2 so you can privately talk with someone on a seperate channel. However, very rarely does anyone use this, so expect a faily constant chatter from teammates during the game. The opposing team cannot hear anything your team says, and vice versa.

Some routers block the ports needed by the mic(mostly NETGEAR ones) but guides are widely available to help you enable them. Some people'e voices come through crisp and clear, while other ones are scratchy and garbled and barely understandable.

Buy/Rent/Don't Bother: Buy
At the $40 price tag, this is a great value. You get several enjoyable hours of single player with the "instant action" missions to complete(lots of them), and then the limitless multiplayer will keep you coming back for a long time.

Bottom Line:
All in all this is a fanstastic title for the PSP. Between a solid single player campaign and mind-blowing multiplayer this is not a title to be missed.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/21/05