REVIEW: SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo
If Xbox owners had Halo 2 as a first-party title to gun down their enemies online, there's little doubt that the PlayStation2 equivalent is Zipper Interactive's third person tactical military shooter SOCOM US Navy SEALs series. First released on PlayStation2s in Europe during 2003, the franchise's PSP debut aims to bring the same strong tactical shooter experience with engaging multiplayer options to the portable platform.
Beginning in the Chilean countryside, Fireteam Bravo's campaign features fourteen missions that take players from Chile, across the Atlantic to three other areas: Poland, Morocco, and South Asia. Dropping the standard four-man SOCOM team, Fireteam Bravo consists of two soldiers codenamed Sandman and Lonestar, with players controlling the former and issuing orders to the latter. Tied into the storyline of SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs, which has been released simultaneously on PlayStation2, the links between the two titles go a little deeper than just a parallel storyline with skins and weapons becoming unlocked when such 'Cross-Talk' missions are accomplished. Visually the game of course retains that SOCOM style with a sufficient amount of detail paid to the characters, though some of the animations in Fireteam Bravo do seem a little rough around the edges at times. There's a variety in the maps across the four locations, and the game also benefits from the widescreen of the PSP, which means that the various HUD elements never feel like they clutter the view.
Read the entire review here.