SOCOM is the ultimate tactical shooter game, right up there with games like Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell. In the numerous and popular SOCOM games that have been both on the PS2 and PSP, you play as a U.S. Navy SEAL and your missions are far from easy. Whether you are infiltrating enemy territory to rescue hostages, or blowing the lid on a large drug plantation, the missions in SOCOM are very true to real life events. The newest SOCOM installment for the PSP, Fireteam Bravo 2, follows up on the previous PSP game Fireteam Bravo that was a hit and one of the most played online games.
Like all SOCOM games, before you begin a mission, there are a plethora of options, settings, and information you can look through before deploying. This large menu area, known as the campaign lobby, is a little overwhelming at first, but provides lots of useful information and settings. It includes stats on all the missions you have completed and how well you have done. It also allows you to retry missions and includes a neat new feature called crosstalk. With crosstalk you can synchronize your save game data with Combined Assault (for the PlayStation 2) and it will affect what happens on the other team’s missions and also unlock hidden objectives, weapons and character skins in both the PSP and PS2 games.
By going to the operations map, you can select from a few missions you wish to deploy on next. After selecting a mission you will be brought to the mission lobby. The mission lobby is a whole new set of information and settings to fool around with before finally getting into the game. Of course, you can always jump right into the game and forget about all the extra information and settings if you really wanted to. The main purpose of the mission lobby is to change your weapons if needed and then finally deploy on your mission.
The controls for shooters on the PSP have a history of being lacklustre. From annoying camera problems to extremely hard aiming with the small PSP joystick, aiming and shooting on the PSP seems to be difficult for developers to master. Luckily the aiming and shooting controls for Fireteam Bravo 2 are fairly easy to use once you have figured them out.
Instead of spending minutes trying to aim up your shot with tiny pixels on the screen, all you need to do is hold R button and your aim should lock on to the closest enemy. The locking on system is very easy to use and works well most of the time. After this, all that is left is the shooting, which is done with the X button. Although aiming and shooting are very easy, the game still requires a lot of stealth and tactical planning. Besides just aiming and shooting, you can also crouch, lay down, do a quick 180 degree turn, and even strafe. Strafing is extremely useful while moving around the levels and it is great that it is easy to use.
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