The PSP has seen many genres so far, and now it’s time to bring a new one to the plate. Konami is getting ready to release Coded Arms for the PSP in early July. Coded Arms is a virtual themed First Person Shooter that features RPG style elements, multiplayer, and a random level generator. All of these features sound too good to be true, but Coded Arms will indeed bring them to the PSP.
Coded Arms puts you into a virtual-reality combat simulator that is used to train troops and prepare them by putting them in harsh war scenarios. Unfortunately, the simulator became corrupted by a bug in the system and forced the government to shut the combat simulator down. The AI of the simulator was too smart and refused to let the government shut it down. You are an extraordinary hacker, and your mission is break into the system, destroy all of the assassins that get in your way and shut down the simulator once and for all.
According to some screenshots, the environments will include some old looking warehouses, ruins, and a cityscape which looks like it’s straight from The Fifth Element or Blade Runner movies. Each sublevel is randomly generated to keep the freshness of the game high. The visuals and graphics look absolutely stunning on the PSP. Explosion and weapon effects look fantastic. These graphics and environments look very polished.
Some levels will have obstacles to overcome. For example, a “system overload” will shut off all exits of a room. The only way out is to kill all enemies in the room you are in before you can leave. Other obstacles make you hunt down a certain enemy before you can move on to the next level.
This is a FPS, so you’ll get all of the basic FPS weapons. These weapons include the shotgun, assault rifle, pistol, RPG, and sniper rifle. Of course, like many other FPS games, there are always unique weapons. Since the setting of this game is futuristic, there are laser pistols, pulse rifles, and plasma launchers. One thing that I found surprising was that there are landmines in this game. Landmines in a FPS!
Since you’re just a hacker using a simulation, you don’t destroy enemies, you delete them. By deleting some enemies, you can acquire files, which are power ups. These power ups are used to increase your defense and offense capabilities. If you find a .dfn file, you can increase your defense and have stronger armor. If you have a .wpn file, you can increase your offense and you’ll receive more powerful weapons.
Now, the multiplayer experience can handle up to four players on WiFi. The multiplayer only has 3 modes: Deathmatch, Last Man Standing, and Keep the Mark. Deathmatch and Last Man Standing are pretty easy to figure out. Keep the Mark however, is a mode where you kill the man who holds the mark. Coded Arms allows you to change the settings of the multiplayer mode in many ways. You can change the map size, time limit, weapon availability and frag limit. One unique option is limiting players to only the weapons they’ve collected in the single player game so far.
With great visuals, unique weapons, and great multiplayer settings, Coded Arms promises to please PSP owners. The idea of a handheld being used to play a 3-D FPS game against other opponents online is just too good to turn down. Expect Coded Arms to be released for the PSP in early July.