Fireteam Times Three
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 goes back into action and we took our first crack at it.
Published: April 29, 2009
The SOCOM brand is a powerful one. It was almost single-handedly responsible for building an online presence for the PlayStation 2, has sold more than 10 million copies all told and racked up an astonishing seven games in almost as many years, three on the PSP alone. That's no small potatoes, so it's not entirely surprising (in fact, it was probably the least surprising of Sony's "unannounced" games shown off at their Gamers' Day event in LA last week). That's not to say we weren't eager to see how the series was going to go into its fourth PSP outing (if you count the far more staid Tactical Strike as part of the series), and after a few minutes with things, we were capping fools left 'n right with ease.
Much of that comes down to the game's focus on making targeting easy; hold a shoulder button to lock on, tap X to fire a burst, problem solved. Hold on an enemy even longer and you'll "supertarget" an enemy making for an almost guaranteed headshot if not a rock-solid hit. The targeting system takes into account enemy movement speed, the movement of your own SEAL out of a 4-man squad, his weapon and more, but it's all handled quickly and easily.
That's a good thing, since this isn't quite as drilled-down as previous Fireteam Bravos. Elements of the previous games are still here, particularly the inclusion of SEALs Wraith and Sandman, plus newcomers Toro and Raven, but gone is the detailed HQ and disembodied female voice piping over the comm system. Instead, the SEALs have been inserted into a war-torn Baltic state to take down the threat of a former KGB operative who has amassed something of a little army for himself. With less of the reams of intel and more of an on-the-fly strategy, the SEALs have to go in more or less blind and make things up as they go, reporting back as they can afford it. Luckily, that's precisely what SEALs have been trained to do.
Instead of a text dump briefing, you'll instead see a 45 second or so introduction to a level featuring the SEALs inserting into an area. Both the pre-rendered and in-game sequences were motion captured (about half an hour of it, in fact) and voice acted with all the actors in the same room, helping to give their response more of a quick report and flow. Facial animation, not in the build we played quite yet, will also be added to give the SEALs and enemies more oomph. About 70 weapons (including claymores for the first time in the PSP games) were cobbled together, most with four hardpoints for things like underslung grenade launchers, laser sights or scopes on top, suppressors on barrels and even the odd melee weapon if you want a sidearm that works at really close range.
All that adds up to is a lot of ways to deal the hurt when walking around the game's levels. Though they aren't quite quick n' dirty affairs (most maps will take at least a half hour and inch toward 45 minutes in many cases), a generous checkpoint system will mean the game can indeed be played in little five minute bursts if you're on that kind of time crunch. We were, of course, and it seemed to work rather well even when we were stupid enough to go charging out into the open. The addition of cover that a SEAL will automatically snap to and protect his head no matter what the height probably helped an awful lot there too.
The game's command system is, not surprisingly, meant to be a quick point-and-order system, though by holding the command button, a more detailed menu for issuing SEAL-specific orders is just a few button presses away. Overall, our time with SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 was much like the game itself: straightforward, to the point and with minimal fuss. We'll crawl into the muck for a more detailed glimpse of things soon.
Much of that comes down to the game's focus on making targeting easy; hold a shoulder button to lock on, tap X to fire a burst, problem solved. Hold on an enemy even longer and you'll "supertarget" an enemy making for an almost guaranteed headshot if not a rock-solid hit. The targeting system takes into account enemy movement speed, the movement of your own SEAL out of a 4-man squad, his weapon and more, but it's all handled quickly and easily.
That's a good thing, since this isn't quite as drilled-down as previous Fireteam Bravos. Elements of the previous games are still here, particularly the inclusion of SEALs Wraith and Sandman, plus newcomers Toro and Raven, but gone is the detailed HQ and disembodied female voice piping over the comm system. Instead, the SEALs have been inserted into a war-torn Baltic state to take down the threat of a former KGB operative who has amassed something of a little army for himself. With less of the reams of intel and more of an on-the-fly strategy, the SEALs have to go in more or less blind and make things up as they go, reporting back as they can afford it. Luckily, that's precisely what SEALs have been trained to do.
Instead of a text dump briefing, you'll instead see a 45 second or so introduction to a level featuring the SEALs inserting into an area. Both the pre-rendered and in-game sequences were motion captured (about half an hour of it, in fact) and voice acted with all the actors in the same room, helping to give their response more of a quick report and flow. Facial animation, not in the build we played quite yet, will also be added to give the SEALs and enemies more oomph. About 70 weapons (including claymores for the first time in the PSP games) were cobbled together, most with four hardpoints for things like underslung grenade launchers, laser sights or scopes on top, suppressors on barrels and even the odd melee weapon if you want a sidearm that works at really close range.
All that adds up to is a lot of ways to deal the hurt when walking around the game's levels. Though they aren't quite quick n' dirty affairs (most maps will take at least a half hour and inch toward 45 minutes in many cases), a generous checkpoint system will mean the game can indeed be played in little five minute bursts if you're on that kind of time crunch. We were, of course, and it seemed to work rather well even when we were stupid enough to go charging out into the open. The addition of cover that a SEAL will automatically snap to and protect his head no matter what the height probably helped an awful lot there too.
The game's command system is, not surprisingly, meant to be a quick point-and-order system, though by holding the command button, a more detailed menu for issuing SEAL-specific orders is just a few button presses away. Overall, our time with SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 was much like the game itself: straightforward, to the point and with minimal fuss. We'll crawl into the muck for a more detailed glimpse of things soon.
