mckmas8808
Legend
In Fireteam Bravo the action is a separate adventure from the console games. It's still in the same universe as the other SOCOM games and three of the areas of operation in the game are similar to the console titles. It will have one new area, though, and that will be taking place in Chile, for a total of four locations. All together, these four spots will be the home of the 14 single-player missions in the game. Just like in SOCOM 3, these missions will have save points spread out through the missions so players don't have to start all over again when they die.
Zipper wants players to go through the missions more than once and so they're including an "Instant Action" option. What this means is that after a level has been completed, players can go back to it and do it again, but with different mission objectives and enemy and object placement. What was once a regular mission can be a hostage mission the second time around or vice versa. Once the level has been opened up it's up to the player how he or she wants to do it again.
In a novel twist, Zipper is also including a "crosstalk" functionality for Fireteam Bravo. If players have both SOCOM 3 and Fireteam Bravo, then they can hook up the PSP to the PS2 with a USB cable and sync up the information. Events that happen in one game will affect the other and in this way the mission structure in both games will be affected. These are the cross-title events and while Zipper is keeping quiet on just what the specifics are and how they will play out we're sure that this summer should reveal some secrets.
Another feature that will be appearing in Fireteam Bravo is the ability to modify weapons and form a new combination. The list of weapons and options may not be as comprehensive as SOCOM 3's list, but with 30 weapons and options the list of possibilities is still impressive. Just like the console version, the goal here is to enable players to custom fit the game to their needs.
Since this is SOCOM that we're talking about it has to have the multiplayer. What would be the point otherwise? It would be criminal to force SOCOM players to just play by themselves and so Fireteam Bravo will be supporting both ad hoc and infrastructure multiplayer modes through a Wi-Fi connection. Unfortunately, Zipper wouldn't tell us just how many people could play in the multiplayer games, but they are saying that players will be able to form clans for some team-based action. Again, expect more details to be forthcoming in the next few months.
These details answered plenty of questions about the items that Fireteam Bravo will be including and provide fans with a reason to look forward to the fall, but there was still one big, fat question: how does it feel? The PSP has one less analog controller and two less shoulder buttons than the console and the console games made full use of the PS2 controllers. Just how can a PSP make a PS2 game live and thrive? By being a little clever about it and tweaking the gameplay while still keeping it fun.
Instead of the four-man team of the console games, Fireteam Bravo has just two SEALs. This helps to streamline the action so that players can focus more on the action and also so that the game is more of a pick-up-and-play experience than the console games which can require a fair share of strategy. This other member will still have the same orders as in the other SOCOM games, but with just one person it's easier to manage. That's not the only change, though, since the SOCOM experience has had to tweak its style of play for a device that has fewer buttons and only one analog controller.
With no right analog controller there is no possibility of moving the camera around and moving at the same time. The regular movement in the game is taken care of with the analog controller where up and down are forward and back and pushing left and right will turn the character. By holding down the left shoulder button it's possible to strafe left and right. And since this configuration is more attuned for a platformer than a shooter, the right trigger is used for locking on to a target.
Playing through the game is not just a matter of holding the lock-on button and shooting, however. When a target is locked onto the aim starts out at the center of mass of the target and will then move on up to the head, but the speed of the aiming is affected by how fast the SEAL is moving and in what position he's in. Running around is the worst way to shoot as this will keep the aim on the centr of mass while lying prone on the ground is the best for headshots. Of course, it will still be possible to go into first-person view to take direct aim at a target.
Even with the controls to take care of the movement and an auto-aiming system there is still the need to take a look around sometime and this is currently being done by tapping right on the d-pad to initiate a free look mode. Of all the buttons, this is the hardest to hit while playing the game since the thumb needs to move back and forth to do it, but after a few minutes of walking around and taking down terrorists we realized that it's possible to use the auto-aim to look at targets and that it gets to be easy to pull off anyway.
The rest of the controls are simple to pull off with the same controls for swapping weapons, firing guns, or changing stance from standing to crouching to prone and back the other way as the console games. After just a little bit of fumbling about and accidentally shooting a hostage (whoops) it's surprisingly easy to get the hang of the old controls with the use of the shoulder buttons to navigate the world and kill the enemies. Pretty impressive for a title that's still early in its development cycle.
The level that we played was in some docks where we had to run around some objects, carefully go through doors, and watch out for a couple of snipers up on some towers. It may have been a simple layout, but it showed off some of the different strategies that will be in the final gameplay. We were able to sneak around corners to snipe some enemies from afar as well as just run around corners and surprise someone with several rounds from a machine gun. It's definitely a different experience from the console games, but it still retains a lot of the feel and could very well be a viable side adventure for the other adventures on top of being a solid PSP title.
After a little bit of time with the demo we still wanted to play some more, but were told that we'd have to wait a little while so that things like, oh, complete missions could be put in to take care of. Seeing the demo running is already looking very good and now there's just the task of telling a story with lots of terrorists and crosstalking it with another game. No sweat. Zipper has delivered before and they should be able to handle this challenge as well.
Link http://psp.ign.com/articles/611/611749p1.html
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Og kush
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