Game Reviews

As an allegory for the life of a soldier, SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 is exceptionally effective.

Sporadically exciting disorientation, long periods of tedium punctuated by nagging doubts about your mission - war is a serious business. But accurately simulating the drudgery of the battlefield seems an odd remit for a game.

Of course, surrounding yourself with people you can trust takes the edge off things, and will help to find enjoyment in dour situations. But the insipid greys of your surroundings, nondescript eastern European melodrama, and the sense that you've been here many times before will eventually consume you.This is a great shame, as the SOCOM series has long been a bastion for players seeking a more sober take on the strategy shooter than that provided by the ever more bombastic Tom Clancy franchises.

The PSP releases have also been technically impressive games, whose eye-catching visuals belie a complex strategic underpinning. Fireteam Bravo 3 develops one of these traits whilst inexplicably backtracking on the other.

Fireteams are raised from two to four members, giving you the option to split into three groups: Able, Bravo, and protagonist Wraith. This not only adds to your sense of commanding a genuine team, but allows for some relatively complex flanking and building breach manoeuvres.

The game is most rewarding when played as intended, carefully planning each move and ensuring the odds are stacked in your favour by picking off individual enemies quietly and efficiently. Running in all guns blazing is equally effective, if not quite as satisfying.