GC: Hands on with PSP's Coded Arms: Contagion

Considering what we thought of the original Coded Arms, as well as the long delays its sequel's suffered from, Coded Arms Contagion wasn't a game we thought we would be excited to play. But by the end of a long day at the Leipzig Games Convention, we were worn out, stressed out, strung out.

Frankly, we needed to shoot something.

So as we fired up a fresh game of Coded Arms Contagion, we weren't expecting much beyond the opportunity to unwind with some mindless blasting action. As it turned out, we were pleasantly surprised.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. The PSP wasn't designed with first-person shooters in mind and just like its peers in the genre, Contagion's control scheme is clunkier than a JCB made out of Duplo. Like the original, (and pretty much every other PSP FPS game) the analogue nub deals with moving you forwards, backwards and strafing, while the four face buttons take care of aiming your weapon. The left and right shoulder buttons deal with firing and jumping and the D-pad is assigned to weapon selection. It's a necessary but far from elegant solution.

We quickly got over this reliable disappointment, however, and moved on with the tutorial. Soon we were schooled in the intricacies of aiming and firing the different weapons, throwing grenades, blowing up barrels and hacking turrets thanks to the instruction of our Military Command HQ identikit colonel.

With the boring stuff out of the way (which was mercifully short), it was on with the combat. The AI opponents put up a convincing amount of resistance, reacting to where we took cover as opposed to staying locked into a specified pattern, which made for some satisfying firefights.

The basic premise is similar to the first game; while immersed in a new virtual reality combat training simulation, you (Jacob Grant) lose contact with your squad. As it turns out, some pesky hackers have managed to tamper with the simulation, prompting all manner of unexpected changes to occur within the virtual world. This means varied and exotic weaponry starts to appear (which is upgradeable), as well as some increasingly warped enemies to sling guns with.

You have 15 levels to find your squad and escape the wonky program, a structure which sounds a little tighter than in the previous Coded Arms game, though we were only able to play through the tutorial and the first level, so it's hard to say for sure at this stage.

Visually, the build we played was certainly impressive. The effect of any dispatched foe or item evaporating in a speedy haze of computer code looked great and there were plenty of atmospheric lighting and smoke effects throughout. It does seem that like its predecessor, Contagion is going to be pretty much based around big rooms joined up by corridors, but as long as the AI drones are smart and there's a decent assortment of types, it could be an improvement.

That said, movement was a teensy bit slow and we were also concerned by the apparent lack of the auto-aim function that aided the first game's combat. Ultimately however, we found it tested our FPS skills in a way we weren't expecting and hence we left the booth satisfied. The jury remains out, of course, on how this feeling will translate to several hours of play as opposed to the mere 30 minutes we enjoyed.

The inclusion of eight-way deathmatch multiplayer, via either ad-hoc or infrastructure modes (which we didn't get to try out), might also give Contagion a lift – always assuming developer, Creat Studios has fixed the rumoured lag issue.

Coded Arms Contagion is due to be released in Europe on November 31st.