Perhaps best known for spearheading the Network and headset support of Sony’s sophomore console, the SOCOM games have continued to breed a strong solid company of titles that would mirror their online success on Sony’s handheld.

Now under the watchful glare of a new developer, SOCOM has been taken into new waters for its latest PSP mission. Many will argue it’s a dip inside a shallower pool of combat, but it’s certainly at a temperature that feels suited to the handheld.

Let’s be honest, the PSP struggles with frenetic war shooters. Its doughy analogue nub lacks precision, and your right thumb’s desperate want for another disparages dual-analogue controls that many console gamers are now accustomed to.

Intuitively, Slant Six Games has realised this and doled out the combat and precision to your men, leaving it to you to simply keep them alive long enough to set their cross hairs over the enemy, get them in prime position to launch a clean, swift attack and avoid any unnecessary, messy gunfights.

Rather then the usual third-cum-firstperson viewpoint that the SOCOM series is established for, the gameplay has been switched in favour of an RTS, point-and-click system, which feels very similar to the Full Spectrum Warrior series.

Positioning your reticle inside the gaming field, you can select the method in which your team approach their marker, and see how they will utilise relevant cover via ghostly silhouettes that position themselves respectively against objects.

You can opt to take to your mission as a complete unit, or splinter your troupe of four men into two fire teams: Alpha and Bravo. This is where the tactics of the game really come into play. And thanks to deft level designs, you’ll soon cotton on to using one team to occupy the enemy and the other to flank them into submission.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect about the game is the level of control that you have over your team, and how intuitive barking orders at them feels. Fans of the series may be concerned about being asked to take a step back from the front line, but worry not, because the game still retains that tactile action of the series and it’s surprisingly easy to re-acclimatise to.

Perhaps our only gripe is that its action can occasionally become a tad disorientating, especially when frantically flitting between both teams to check their status, and the difficultly curve jumps sporadically after its baptism mission.

SOCOM: Tactical Strike marks another solid appendage to the series, and has us eagerly waiting what Slant Six is planning for the PS3 with SOCOM Confrontation.

Stuart Hunt