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SOCOM: US Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo 2 Review
Reviewed: January 17th, 2007
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| Official website: | Zipper Interactive |
| Developer: | Zipper Interactive |
| Publisher: | SCEA |
| Genre: | Tactical Shooter |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Platform(s): | PSP |
| Media: | UMD |
| Release date (US): | November 7th, 2006 |
| ESRB Rating: | T |
| Rating: |  |
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Editor's Review
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo was a remarkable game for a number of reasons when it was released. The game delivered a great tactical shooting experience on the PlayStation Portable as well as excellent online play, two accomplishments that, unfortunately, have been elusive on Sony's handheld. On top of that, Fireteam Bravo introduced new features like real-time voice chat and PSP and PlayStation 2 connectivity. The sequel, aptly named Fireteam Bravo 2, contains all of the same features of the first game, along with a brand-new single-player campaign, slightly refined gameplay, and new and enhanced online multiplayer content. The result is a game that isn't quite as initially impressive as its predecessor, but is still easily one of the best all-around shooters available for the PSP.
With more than 40 weapons in the game, there are plenty of ways to take out your enemies.
Fireteam Bravo 2 once again puts you in the fatigues of Sandman, an elite US Navy SEAL. The single-player campaign takes place in the fictional country of Adjikistan, where paramilitary forces are up to all kinds of no good, including drug and weapons trading, slave labor, and more. It's up to you and one computer-controlled teammate to sneak and shoot through 14 different missions in the campaign. Each mission requires you to complete a handful of objectives such as securing an enemy official, rescuing hostages, collecting intelligence, and destroying enemy assets. In addition to the primary objectives, there are numerous secondary and bonus objectives that you can complete to earn points, which grant you rewards such as new weapons.
This points system provides incentive for you to be thorough and cautious rather than simply rushing through a level blasting everything that moves. The way it works is you earn command equity points for completing nonprimary objectives in each mission. As you rack up the command equity points, you'll have access to some useful bonuses that you can use in the midst of a mission, such as supply drops to replenish your stock of medikits, and air strikes, which can be called in to clear an area of enemies. The counterpart to command equity is local influence. You earn local influence points for safely rescuing civilians during each mission. In exchange for treating the locals well, they'll help you out by giving you black-market weapons and helpful information such as the location of all of the enemies in an area. The local influence and command equity systems work well in Fireteam Bravo 2 because the rewards provided are immediately useful--much more so than the usual unlockable extras that you'll find in other games.
The basic gameplay in Fireteam Bravo remains the same as its predecessor. You play as the commander of a team of two SEALs. You have to make your way through each level completing objectives, but of course you'll encounter plenty of enemies who will do their best to foil your plans. If you prefer, you can try to be stealthy and sneak past enemies, or you can take a more direct approach and just run in, guns blazing. Even if you try to use stealth, you'll eventually have to resort to using force because of the way the levels and mission objectives are designed.
Fireteam Bravo 2 looks much like last year's game, which is both good and bad. The levels are all large and varied, and they all look good, with impressive draw distances that allow you to observe and snipe enemies from afar. The backgrounds and structures also look good, with seamless transitions between expansive outdoor battlefields and close-quarters interior areas such as buildings. And although the maps cover a lot of ground, they take only a few seconds to load before each mission. The character models look good, too, although because there aren't very many of them, you'll end up seeing the same enemies over and over again. The frame rate remains steady as you move through each level, even when you're fighting one or two enemies at a time. But if you're ever fighting three or more enemies the frame rate drops dramatically. It's usually quick to recover, but the slowdown is annoying nonetheless. The sound in Fireteam Bravo 2 is great, with a range of distinct gunfire and explosions that sound loud and forceful even on the PSP. There's also a ton of voice work in the game from civilians, teammates, and enemies. All of the voices sound good, and, more importantly, they don't get annoying or repetitive. The music is all very grandiose and dramatic, with loud orchestrated tracks that triumphantly blast your ears each time you complete an objective.
Our verdict:
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 is a great all-around package for any shooter fan with a PSP. The single-player campaign will take you six or so hours to complete, but you can go back and replay cleared missions with different objectives and try to earn more points. The online multiplayer works well, is full of features, and has plenty of varied maps and game modes to keep you playing. Add it all together, and it's apparent that Fireteam Bravo 2 goes a long way to close the gap between console and handheld games, which is impressive in and of itself - but it also happens to be a really fun game.
Detailed Features
 | Tactical shooter game |
| Sequel to SOCOM: US Navy Seals |
| Large and varied levels |
| Fast-loading maps |
| Fully voiced |
| 14 different missions in singleplayer campaign |
| Fully voiced |
| Local Influence rewards those who help local causes and limit civilian casualties - Use them to gain access to new weapons, equipment, intel, air-strikes and local support |
| Command Equity system provides rewards for how well core aspects of a mission are completed |
| Battle through 10 new multiplayer maps, as well as most of the original Fireteam Bravo maps, and three new game types (Tug of War, Capture the Flag, Target) playable in Infrastructure Mode and Ad Hoc modes |
| Multiple terrain types, weather conditions, enemy types and encounter possibilities |
| Dynamic non-linear missions, with 40 deadly and authentic real world weapons |
| Fully voiced |
| Single player and multiplayer, squad-based |
Screenshots
User Comments
THis is truly a good game for the PSP. I was amazed at how well I was able to control this game. I could command my teammate almost as easily as I could control myself. Zooming in and out was easy. Aiming was easy. Weapon selection was easy. But here is the problem. The game is easy. The single player game hardley ramps up with any difficulty. Even when you drastically change the dificulty level. The graphics could possibly even be called poor. Finally, there is no major creativity here. Over and over again you do a very similar thing. Go in and take out the bad guys, or go in and save a good guy. Though this is fun, creativity is appreciated. All of that said. This game does have online multiplayer in a big way, and yes it does support voice chat and microphone headset use. Incredible that a PSP game can do this.