Introduction

Who would have thought being a virtual hacker would make life so much easier? Coded Arms takes a new approach to the world of hacking where you yourself are the virus sent out to take out other’s terminals and take over, while advancing through many levels to gain new weapons to help along the way. Coded Arms is, at this point in time, the only First Person Shooter for the PSP and it makes good use of what is available seeing as there aren’t dual analog sticks.

Gameplay

Getting started is going to be the hardest part about the game as the controls are a little weird when you first start up especially if you have played the PS2 or Xbox. To move about the screen you will be required to use the analog stick for walking forward along with strafing. The other side of the PSP, where the X, O and so on buttons are located is where you will look vertically and turn left/right. Down on the D-Pad will reload your weapon, Right/Left change weapons and Up zooms in and out. You then have the shoulder buttons, Right for shooting and Left for jumping. You can of course change them in the menu.

Once you have mastered the control scheme, you will begin to get involved in the game, where you engage in shoot outs in smaller rooms and hallways, making for an interesting match up. After certain kills you will be awarded ammo and if you’re lucky armor and weapons. Keeping true to the computer roots all the ammo and guns are named with different extensions, allowing you to differentiate between them.

Coded Arms runs smoothly, even during boss battles which are legendary. The enemies are the brightest of the bunch as they will shoot even if you are hidden behind a wall, but you can be sure they will walk over and let lose a surprise attack on your backside if you’re not careful. You will on occasion even be locked in a room with a bunch of enemies and given a special power up such as invisibility or unlimited ammunition and you will need to kill every single enemy that shows up to be allowed to leave. It can get tricky but it is worth it since you will usually be awarded a new weapon and a new piece of armor.

Coded Arms also offers an online multiplayer component, which I haven’t been so fortunate to test, but if you’re crazy enough you can take it online for a slaughter fest of your own.

Graphics

The graphics are rather blocky, but it still looks good. There is a lot of detail in the walls and enemies making them seem less blocky. Entering undiscovered areas where the system is required to load that area looks the best, a matrix type effect spreads from the point of entry until the entire room or corridor has materialized in front of you.

The special effects such as explosions look realistic enough for a PSP game. When you kill or should I say delete an enemy they die in a final fantasy 7ish way in that they turn a different color and vanish into thin air. The graphics are up to PSP standards and make everything easily distinguished from one another.

Sound

The sound is another area the game pulls itself together with the intense gun fight music that kicks in the moment you come under attack, so if an enemy is about to attack you, you’ll know about it. The music will also quiet itself when you enter an empty area, which will indicate your about to get locked in with hordes of enemies that will spawn the moment those doors close at which point an alarm will sound and the music will pick up.

Overall

Coded Arms is one of my favorite games for the PSP, if you come across this in the store I suggest you buy it. People who are fans of hackers will enjoy this game no matter the amount of experience you may have with hackers and the like. The controls will become familiar in a short period of time and you will be in gunfights with the likes of which you couldn’t imagine.