By Gary Kearney

As I write this it is the end of November 2006 and to put it bluntly Sony has been having a very bad time as of late. Just to mention a few items of embarrassment for Sony; there was the exploding battery recall, the multiple PS3 delays, the backward compatibility problems with the PS2, the root-kit installation issue with some of their music CDs, and the, to put it mildly, botched launch of the PlayStation 3. So it seems to me that any bit of good news regarding Sony would be welcomed. That brings us to SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 for the PSP. Is this a ray of light in an otherwise dark year for Sony? Read on and find out...

I like my PSP but with all the cool things going on in the console world I rarely get to play it. But I think that may be changing now that I have spent some time with SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2. This is a very good game, portable system or not. I'm not sure if anyone told the developers, Zipper Interactive, that portable games aren't supposed to look this good or have this much depth to them. I for one am glad that they missed that memo. This is a great game and is just about reason enough to own a PSP.

The sun is setting on these terrorists.

Fireteam Bravo 2 takes place in the fictional land of Adjikistan where they are trying to set-up a democracy and going through the growing pains that entails. This means that things are generally out of control for the new country with everything from slave labor to drug trafficking running rampant. The Adjikistan Government asks for the U.S. Government's help and that's where you come in as stud navy SEAL Sandman. Well actually Fireteam Alpha went in first but their helicopter was shot down inside insurgent territory and now it's Bravo's time to shine!

The single player campaign takes place over 14 different missions, or chapters, with several sub-missions within each. The action is familiar for anyone that has played any similar tactical shooter. You and a computer-controlled teammate are given a briefing at the beginning of each mission. These range from going in a blowing up an important piece of enemy equipment to rescuing hostages to capturing some of the bad guy leaders. The game is both linear and also allows you to choose which sub-mission you attempt next. What this means is you do need to finish all of the sub-missions before a new chapter opens up, but it's up to you in what order the sub-missions are completed. In a nice effort to expand the length of the game there are several opportunities to go back to a completed sub-mission and play what are called dynamic missions. Going back to do these dynamic missions, while not needed to finish the game, are well worth it because you can gain cool weapons.

The basic idea of the sub-missions is pretty standard. Your team gets dropped off somewhere near your main target. Along the way to the main objective you will run across a lot of mean people who want to do you harm. You will also be able to find various type of intelligence like maps and journals, sometimes finding them are required to finish and other times they are bonus items. Along with the mean people I just mentioned there are often innocent villagers that are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This means that you really can't go through the game shooting everyone in slight. If you treat the civilians well during the game you will increase your “local influence” points. Doing this will mean you get better information from the locals and some nice black market weapons. You also earn “command equity” points by completing missions and uncovering intelligence items. These points can be used to call in a much needed air-strike or a supply drop. While it is possible to finish the game without ever needing to use either the local influence or command equity, both add an interesting element to the game.

Page 2 of 2 »