![]() Co-ordinating your tactics with someone and yelling your on-the-hood plan is just a great gaming experience. This was the one feature that made the big screen sequel 'Earned In Blood' so ludicrously satisfying, and it's therefore thrilling to see it implemented here too. You can either fight another player head to head, or you can choose to indulge in co-operative skirmish missions. The dialogue is a bit broken and abrupt, but I just don't care.Īnd there are some fun multiplayer options too. I never found myself needing it, but at least it has been implemented with a little more intelligence this time around. It was immensely messy and almost useless in the PC version but it's been cleaned up here and has at least a little functionality. This option pauses the action and pulls the camera out. What is superior to the big-screen version is the overhead tactical view. This happened to some degree in the PC version, but it seems far more acute on the PSP. The in-built inaccuracy and defensive shield created by being under cover also means you get some 'Naked Gun' moment where you're opening up with everything at enemy stood the other side of a log and just not hitting him. Unlike the big-screen version I found myself sitting back and using the crosshair zoom to snipe while making sure I had positioned my men in a suitable place to charge the last few metres. This means that using your men to cover while you rush in and cap the bad-guys is generally inadvisable. I found myself slipping in and out and wondering why they hadn't chosen some other method of rounding your intended target. I didn't encounter any other show-stoppers though, so fingers crossed.Īnyway, the target strafing is rather awkward since the system seems unable to keep 100% locked on your intended enemy. I suspect there might be a couple of other minor bugs kicking about too since there were a few other rough edges, like characters not facing you when they're talking. The tutorial for this stopped working about half way through when I first played it, which I initially assumed meant I was a ludicrous spazzer, but I quick restart allowed me to get through. After a large number of embarrassments you'll get a grip and begin to push your men around in the right way, ordering them to lay down fire and letting them take cover. Holding down one button and releasing it is simple enough, but using the thumb stick to let them know where to go is exasperating. What's slightly less convincing is how the controls are implemented. That's pretty much the meat of the game right there: working out who to suppress, how to flank, and where to use cover is the constant challenge in Brothers In Arms games, and D-Day has this concept covered. An on-screen indicator tells you whether the Nazis are keeping their heads down and once they're suitably suppressed either you or your men can assault their position - preferably legging it round the side to remodel their faces with some fresh metal teeth. A look-and-click interface allows you to tell your men where to take cover and which enemies to shoot. ![]() The frame rate is a bit choppy, but it's certainly playable.įor those unfamiliar with the Brothers In Arms way of doing things let me assure you that it is deeply satisfying. Get them into trouble and they'll curse you with the same distraught voices that screamed their way through the big screen games. D-Day gives you complete control over where your boys move to and what they shoot at. I've heartily approved of this concept since the first moment I outmanoeuvred a Nazi, and it's excellent to see other games now making the same moves. I think it's worth comparing how the PSP version manages to boil down its big brother to this miniaturised form.įirstly and most importantly: the tactical process of covering fire and flanking manoeuvre remains intact. Nevertheless Brothers In Arms was once a fresh young face amid the recent shooter masses and it wowed us with its tactical cleverness and thoughtful use of cover. But such grumbles are hardly valid: would I be making them if this was a brain-derailing puzzle masterpiece or PSP-only racing game? Probably not. Hell, a gamepad and 30-inch TV would be more convenient, and I wouldn't be lying upside-down with my feet in the air, trying to stay comfortable. It's not right: it feels like tiny, fiddly hard work - and handheld consoles need to roam free. I'm craning my neck, thumbing my tiny comrades through familiar sequences of suppressing fire and Nazi-flanking without travelling a step. Instead I'm hunched in an armchair, two metres from the PC where I first played the original game. To review D-Day with any sense of perspective I'd have to be on the move, taking the coach to St Ives or bastardising my biorhythms on a flight to Kuala Lumpur. There's something weirdly laborious about PSP conversions of big-screen games.
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