The keyboard and mouse versus the joypad war is over, and the loser is the PSP. It had to happen, but even so we’re slightly miffed that handheld SOCOM doesn’t provide an elegant system for moving while looking. It comes as a shock, especially after many hours enjoying full body mobility in this months’ SOCOM 3, but as with most things it’s simply a matter of adjustment and growing new calluses on a hand you never thought could be used that way. SOCOM on PSP is not a perfect translation of the PS2 giant and it’s all the fault of the controls, since every other sector holds up to handheld consumption. The guns, the tactics, smaller all-new maps are present as expected, along with a rougher frame-rate. But rather than being able to aim with the analogue switch and move with the face buttons with shooting you have a whole new bastardisation of the old way of doing things. You can move forward and backward and turn using the Switch button and then things start to require dexterity. To strafe you must hold down the left shoulder and use the Switch, to look around you must stand still and press the right directional button – then look around from a fixed point. You can’t move and look, you move. Stop. Look. Turn off free view. Move. But that’s okay realism fans because Zipper Interactive have totally bypassed this problem. You can also lockon to enemies and move, and fire! Sure, it takes a lot off the point of it being a strategic shooter but that’s because it isn’t anymore. It’s not a bad thing in itself but it does mean that this isn’t SOCOM in your hand. It’s pale simulacra SOCOM. An okay shooter. Just.

We’d be bally idiots to compare this to SOCOM 3 in any other aspect but its basic form. For example while adopting different stances affords a semblance of stealth the auto aim means that you’re often best off just being ready to fix a target and shoot while moving – just like you would in Tomb Raider. Monitoring the enemy through binoculars while preparing for a surgical strike is proved less worthwhile because you can simply Tomb Raider your way out of a firefight. And if you’re not locking-on then you’re moving without looking. While the game takes this into account (especially in Ad-Hoc play) it does turn the whole exercise into less than a diet version of a great title. If SOCOM 3 is champagne then welcome to barley water. SOCOM for children.