SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike PSP review

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike for PSPSOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike takes place in the midst of rising instability, insurgents have abducted the U.S. ambassador. Sanctioned by the Panamanian government, an elite fighting force from the country of your choice will be deployed to rescue and extract the ambassador. If you choose America, you take control of an entire SEAL team and engage in real-time tactical combat, where you evaluate each situation, determine a plan of action, and then execute on your command.

System: PSP
Genre: Action-Simulation
Release dates: November 6th 2007 (USA), December 7th 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1-4
Developer: Slant Six Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Origin: America

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike screenshot

A unique take on the complex action seen in the SOCOM franchise, Tactical Strike is a strategy spin-off that requires concentration of your mind and your strategy skill over your trigger finger. You are in command of four soldiers (broken into two smaller fire teams), and you’re able to issue commands to either team, an individual soldier or all four guys at the same time. You must manage the placement of your men in the Set-Up mode, then carry our orders in the live Execute mode — each stage is a critical part of getting the job done and getting every soldier out alive.

Players will also be given the option to play as international Special Forces from the German KSK, Australian SASR, Italian 9th Parachute Assault Regiment, Spanish UOE, American Navy Seals, British Special Air Service, South Korean 707th Special Mission Unit, French GIGN, and the Dutch Korps Commandotroepen, all supported with native languages.

As mentioned, your team is called in to rescue the ambassador to Panama who has been abducted by radical insurgent forces. With the consent of the Panamanian government, guide your team as they are drawn through Panama’s urban and industrial centers and then out into the deep jungle surrounding the Panama Canal.

In the briefing room, your default loadout among the troops will consist of a sniper rifle, two assault rifles and a heavy machine gun. Able element is the sniper and assault member while Bravo is the machine gun and assault. As always you can return to missions you have completed to redeploy and improve or you can use the instant action feature. The game consists of multiple maps, each with a numerous amount of cover to hide behind.

Building on the legacy of SOCOM online play, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike offers multiplayer games of up to four players in both Ad Hoc and online Infrastructure modes. With SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike’s new gameplay format each player controls a team of four soldiers delivering an online experience unlike any other.

Watch the SOCOM: Tactical Strike launch trailer.

So what are the main features of SOCOM: Tactical Strike?

* Designed specifically for the PSP, the unique interface allows players to control and coordinate different members of the fireteam while experiencing the action from each soldier’s perspective. Players can issue tactical commands to individual soldiers, fireteam elements or their entire fireteam.

* Authentic, reality-based combat, where tactics determine the outcome of each encounter.

* Compelling single-player campaign featuring a contemporary narrative based in Panama.

* Guide your team of four through nine non-linear missions, each created with unique scenarios and challenging mission objectives.

* Enemy intelligence and behavior have been enhanced with realistic vision and hearing, sophisticated AI and the ability to communicate with each other.

* Open play invites replay, and improvement is rewarded with command equity, allowing players to upgrade their skills, weapons and equipment.

* New gameplay format makes SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike easy for anyone to pick up and play while providing a depth of strategy and tactical training that will appeal to fans of the franchise.

* Play as any one of nine Special Forces each with unique loadouts and weapons.

* 2-4 player Ad Hoc mode and online Infrastructure play with voice chat.

Watch the SOCOM: Tactical Strike tutorial gameplay.

Now let’s see how much fun SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike is on a scale from 1 to 10?

FUN FACTOR – 7.5
Tactical Strike is a strategy game that forces you to think out the consequences of your actions or risk losing your four-man squad. This way you’ll find yourself forced in tense tactical gameplay situations where you can use your overview of the huge detailed maps to take the necessary steps (you command their moves, fire to attack or suppress fire up close, and throw grenades or snipe from afar) to achieve your mission by: A) facing enemies head-on or B) avoiding enemies to extract your team more safely. Don’t think you can shoot your way through each mission, you’ll really have to be smart about finishing the tricky levels. Once you get a hang of the user interface, the main campaign and five different multiplayer modes (local and online) are great fun to play through. As with most PSP games with detailed environments like this one, the loading will take a while. The camera perspective will take some getting used to too. If you’re not sure if this is the game for you, don’t forget you can download the SOCOM: Tactical Strike demo from the PlayStation Store directly to your PSP. Overall, if you like squad-based shooters and have a strategic mind you should check out this more tactical PSP-exclusive SOCOM spin-off.

Graphics – 7.5
The user interface looks very slick and I was surprised by how great the game’s graphics are when you look at destroyed vehicles and lush forest environments in the huge detailed maps. The whole layout for each map is very polished and refined to the point where you can always approach your objectives in different ways. Animations could’ve used some more detail, but what’s present makes your Tactical Strikes look good.

Audio – 8.5
The nine different Special Forces units you can choose from, actually mean that the game can be played through with nine different language dialog tracks, those being: German, Australian, Italian, Spanish, American, British, Korean, French and Dutch! Your standard war zone themed music fare is present, but there’s not nearly enough of it. Sound effects from the weapons firing are great. And like mentioned before, the various Special Forces units with all different dialog add a lot of authenticity to the game, even if the story plot doesn’t bring anything unexpected to the table, these different language tracks come back with surprising fun effect in multiplayer. The voice acting is great as you get briefed, watch cutscenes and are thrown into the action with your squad.

Ingenuity – 7.5
The controls in Tactical Strike are a major departure from SOCOM’s usual run and gun gameplay. It instead focuses on being able to execute maneuvers and keep tight control of your four man squad. The gameplay is similar to Full Spectrum Warrior, but still includes first person sniping. You can turn on a tutorial during missions to get all the controls and commands explained to you as you play, handy. You’ll be up to speed in no time to think up specific strategies and execute them according to a coordinated plan. The one thing that’s a big bother with the execution of every plan you make is the camera perspective that won’t allow you to look around a corner. The controls will definitely take a while to get used to, but it ends up being fun thanks to a slick control interface.

Replay Value – 8.0
Few missions will take you longer than an hour to complete, so your playtime is somewhat limited. This is made up for by letting you replay previously played missions as many times as you’d like or directly play instant action missions, which make sure you get varying objectives to complete. As for multiplayer, you get 4-player matches going both locally and online (voice chat supported), these modes are fun and contain varying options like free for all (deathmatch), suppression (team deathmatch), VIP escorts, demolition (attack-and-defend) and collateral damage (another standoff but with more vehicles to protect) that all require lots of teamwork. These will definitely extend your playtime.