Distributed by
Sony

Price: £24.99 Players: 1 plus online Vote and comment on this game: View Comments Share This new title is similar to, but more fluid, than the previous SOCOM titles, but not as good as my favourite, SOCOM U.S. Tactical Strike, which felt like it gave you more precise control over your men in terms of directing them. Why don't they use it here too?? There are 9 missions, including the tutorial, in this entry and the story sees you doing battle in a similar way to the previous ones, the main aim at first being to find a big head-honcho called Gozorov, a former KGB agent who stands accused of withholding information on a forthcoming attack with weapons of mass destruction. As usual, you take the main role of Wraith. When I first started playing this series of games, they were difficult to get into, but the more I stuck with it, the more I became totally gripped and now I love them, even though they do have their fair share of gripes. You're up against the Koratvia Revolutionary Army, or KRA, and the objectives laid out on the map with a green arrow. As you go from one area to another, one good thing is that you can tell your men to open doors and clear the area with a frag or flashbang grenade. I like to stand directly in front of the door so I can snipe the baddies while this happens.

In each mission, there are tasks to complete such as disabling vehicles, taking photos or retrieving sensitive information. However, in each case all you'll have to do is direct your men where they need to go and the required option will appear making it easy to know what you have to do, while shooting baddies, securing hostages and reviving your men along the way. Most of the time while you walk about, your soldiers are fairly intelligent in that they'll try and hide quickly behind walls when under fire, rather than sit there taking a bullet-riddling time, although once in a while one will stick out without comprehending that he's being cannon fodder so this does become rather infuriating and as you're being fired on and they can be patched up later, I just let them take the hits since they can't be bothered to dodge out of the way and I'll sort them out after. That's one gripe with this where I just don't feel I have as much control with this sort of game as I would like. Sometimes your men just start firing at the enemy even when you haven't told them to and would rather they sit still - okay, so you can instruct them to 'fire at will' or 'hold fire', but it does get confusing in the heat of battle to the point where sometimes I'll aim to throw a flashbang in to blind the baddies, only to find that by the time I've launched it, they've all been killed by the rest of your team - who then start walking forward. And then should "OW!" in unison because of said flashbang(!) Similarly, you can only tell the others where to go - you can't swap into their shoes and move them yourself. Note that you are part of the Able team (not Alpha?), meaning you can opt to move Able, Bravo or all four, although when moving Able team you're only telling one bloke where to go since you'll only move in the direction you push your joystick. It's easier just to let them follow you for most of the time. Moving in general is a pain as you have to hold the left-shoulder button to allow you to strafe, whereas just using the joystick turns your man around. This is a situation where you could really use two joysticks. That's what a PSP needs, not a separate screen and lack of UMD drive(!) Other than that, I'll try to tell them to throw a grenade at the baddies, but it's such a faff to go through those motions that I've taken 20 bullets in the head by the time I've completed the action, and also by then, the baddies have sent a grenade back our way so my guys will throw nothing as they're too busy running for their own lives. Another pitfall in trying to get them to do this came when I pointed in the direction of the baddies, told a guy to throw the grenade... he threw it at ME! I had to RUN!

Graphics and sound are fairly functional without being particularly outstanding in any way, but given that you're mainly just directing your men about they do a mostly reasonably job. There weren't any major camera angle issues in this title though, which was good news. Throughout the 9 missions, which makes for an incredibly brief and linear game, the game is mostly not at all difficult, and overall I find it to be great fun, but when you come across the APC (armoured vehicle) and the helicopter, they are a royal pain and require RPGs and hand grenades, almost to the point where you think you'll never defeat them. Oh, and one irritation is that one of the objectives is always "avoid detection" in the current location - which is impossible. Note also that there are multiplayer options to this title, but I'm purely a single-player game fan. One important tip I have for you: When you're in a new area, you'll find the baddies all carry similar guns, so swap one of yours for theirs and as you kill more of them you'll be able to get plenty of ammo as you go through the level. Finally, when I came across a big Lenin head in one level, as I pointed my gun at it, a green circle appeared. What on earth was that about? I pointed the same gun at other things, including walls, but they didn't show the same thing. I tried shooting it but nothing ever happened. Anyone know? Visit my DVDfeverGames Youtube channel.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2010.