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SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 Review for PlayStation Portable (PSP)

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 Review for PlayStation Portable (PSP)

So-SOCOM

Buying most recently released video games is almost like getting two games in one. Almost every new game ships with a multiplayer component nowadays, hoping to provide players with something to keep them coming back long after they’ve finished playing through the single-player campaign. While it is possible for both portions of a game to be great, more often than not it seems like it’s either one or the other that carries the load. Frequently it can seem like the added multiplayer is almost a throwaway, tacked-on experience and the single-player portion of the game is ultimately all that players are left with. However, there are also a few cases where the single-player campaign winds up being the big disappointment, leaving the comparatively better multiplayer experience as easily the best part of the package. Sadly, this second scenario is where SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 (FB3) finds itself.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 screenshot

There are many things that contribute to the completely lackluster single-player experience in FB3, not the least of which is a lame storyline filled with more clichés than can be counted. Players are put in control of a SEALs team tasked with a super secret mission in the fictional country of Koratvia. While this mission is supposed to be dangerous, it is also related that it should be a quick get in, get out job for your team. However, since it isn’t endorsed officially, should anything go wrong you and your team will be on your own… ugh. I’ll give you two guesses as to how that goes. From start to finish the storyline is incredibly bland and uninteresting, maintaining the same impact whether you fully watch the story segments or just go make a sandwich while they play out. Since the story is what is supposed to drive me through the campaign, not enjoying the story left me feeling like I was just marching through levels blasting random people with no purpose or care as to why.

While story may not be that big of a factor for all players, the awkward controls, poor A.I., linear missions, and extreme ease of getting through the game will surely affect everyone who plays FB3. Controlling a third-person shooter on the PSP certainly isn’t what you’d consider ideal. The developers have certainly tried to make it work without having a second analog stick, but even though they’ve done a fairly commendable job, it still feels very convoluted and unwieldy. For example, you can lock onto target enemies with the R button and fire using the X button to take them out. Most of the time this works fine, but if you’d like to take a more tactical shot, perhaps going for a single headshot to conserve ammunition rather than pumping a ton of needless shots into an enemy’s chest, you’ll need to take your thumb off of the analog nub in order to press up on the D-pad so that you can aim using the weapon’s scope. This is fairly clunky and often not worthwhile as it leaves you momentarily unprotected since you can’t move.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 screenshot

Luckily, though, getting killed isn’t usually something you need to worry about. One reason why this is the case is that most of your enemies seem to have very little intelligence. You’ll see some enemies making use of cover but they’ll eventually either continue to peak out in the same two spots again and again or just decide to run in the same circle until they are eventually shot. Other foes won’t even make it this complicated, instead just standing out in the open waiting to eat a bullet. My personal favorite A.I. failure happens when you attempt to take out enemies at a great distance with a scoped weapon. Even if you have already killed numerous nearby enemies, directly next to or in front of them, if you are far enough away from your target, they’ll stand completely still and just wait for you to line up another perfect headshot.

Things get even easier when you factor in your squad mates who are actually surprisingly competent. You can issue a variety of orders to your allies such as moving them to a specific position or telling them to attack a particular target, but this is often just a waste of time. Either they’ve already engaged the enemy by the time you manage to issue whatever order you had intended to or you have come to the realization that your orders just seem to be slowing them down. Left unattended, your teammates are actually incredibly accurate and manage to take out most enemies without a problem. Even if they do manage to take too much damage during a firefight and go down, they can easily be revived by you or another member of the squad. They’re also quite good at reviving themselves as well, essentially making you a fairly useless part of the team, especially when you consider that if you go down, then you’ll immediately be forced to restart your game from your last checkpoint.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 screenshot

With your importance to the squad being reduced to essentially just moving forward so that your A.I. teammates can continue on with their slaughter, it would have at least been nice if not all of the missions had been essentially the same as the last. Besides a few standout moments such as a night vision-fueled creep through a building or a bazooka fight with a helicopter, every mission feels pretty indistinguishable. The basic formula seems to be to get from point A to point B, kill a horde of enemies, tell teammates to open a door, survive another horde, and repeat indefinitely with a few smaller groups of foes occasionally thrown in to keep you awake.

Thankfully, though, FB3 isn’t a single-player-only title since it comes with some enjoyable multiplayer options as well. FB3’s four-player co-op and sixteen-player competitive multiplayer can both be played either ad hoc or online in infrastructure mode. While the co-op mode still suffers from some of the aspects that take away from the single-player campaign, at least you can actually feel like a valued and necessary member of the team when playing with your buddies. Playing cooperatively through custom missions can also be quite a bit of fun, as it will allow you to tweak any mission you’ve already beaten to better suit your preferences. You can do things such as change how many enemies will populate them, what weapons they’ll carry, how difficult they’ll be to take down, and even things like what type of objective you wish to complete.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 screenshot

Custom missions can also be a great way to accumulate Command Equity (CE) points. CE points are essentially the in-game currency that you’ll use to buy things to customize your character, weapons, etc. for use in multiplayer. While you’ll also earn CE points when playing in single-player, creating your own custom missions will allow you to see exactly how many points you’ll earn depending on the choices you make concerning your enemies and their difficulty. If you want to go for a ton of CE points in order to buy better customization options, then you can make your custom mission’s adversaries into crazy killing machines.

While FB3’s competitive multiplayer doesn’t really provide players with anything completely original, it does supply you with enough modes and customization options to keep things interesting. You’ve got five modes total including Free-For-All, Suppression, Demolition, Tug of War, and Team Leader. Essentially these are just fancy names for the standard multiplayer mode types you’d expect like deathmatch, team deathmatch, blowing up objectives, holding control points, and protecting a specific team member. To me, the most entertaining was the Team Leader mode, which has one player being assigned as the leader who the other team is gunning for while also being protected by his teammates. If the leader gets killed, then whoever killed him becomes the leader and the chase begins again.

It is truly a shame that the single-player component of this game is so disappointing because the multiplayer is actually fairly decent and entertaining. Honestly, if there was no multiplayer involved I would urge you to stay far, far away from this game. However, if you go into the title looking only for the online experience that the game provides, you should be able to find a fairly enjoyable time. Still, if you’re hoping for a game with both a good single and multiplayer experience, then you may want to take a look at some of your other options.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.8 Graphics
The visuals are pretty good despite some bland environments and reused enemies. 2.6 Control
The precise and intuitive controls you’ll want to have for this experience have been shoehorned to work on a system that lacks a second analog stick. As such, things that should be easy are made more difficult and you’ll never feel like you’re as in control as you’d like to be. 3.8 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Good music, sound effects, and voice work help to somewhat spruce up the otherwise uninteresting single-player campaign. 3.4 Play Value
While I found the single-player campaign to be extremely lacking and short, the multiplayer component of FB3 helps to salvage this package by providing a replayable and enjoyable experience. 3.2 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Enjoy access to over 70 weapons and items. Weapons can be customized for use in the game’s four loadout slots, as can the three available squad mates available in single-player mode.
  • An almost limitless combination of custom missions, gear, weapons, and difficulty settings.
  • Allows new ways for players to interact, expanding on the team-orientated, authentic, military action that the SOCOM US Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo franchise is famous for.
  • Unlock gear and weapons, and earn medals and ribbons as you complete objectives, either offline or by teaming up online.
  • Engage in online versus fire fights of up to 16 players, as well as four-player co-op battles across eight maps via ad hoc and infrastructure connections.

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