article

Coded Arms is a first-person shooter video game that was developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation Portable handheld in 2005.

The game takes place inside a virtual reality military training simulator, which has been abandoned. However, the program continues to run, generating enemies for the no longer present soldiers-in-training. The player takes the role of one of the many hackers attempting to break the codes of the simulator and derive the most valuable data possible. The player must explore several "sectors" that are infested with various kinds of enemies, including alien soldiers, bugs and security bots. The only way to survive and get the greatest rewards is by destroying the enemies and the bosses at the end of the most difficult sectors.

Two sequels have been announced, Coded Arms Contagion for PSP, and Coded Arms Assault for Playstation 3

Features

  • More than 30 weapons
  • Random level design
  • Ability to upgrade weapons
  • 5 different weapon attributes
  • Mix and match armor types
  • 3D in game map
  • Wireless Ad-Hoc multiplayer with up to four players
  • Three different multiplayer modes: Deathmatch, Keep the Mark and Last Man Standing

    Equipment

    In Coded Arms, equipment is acquired from defeated enemies. Because the game takes place in a computer program, the equipment and pickups are named with extensions, much like in a conventional computer.
    • .arm indicates a gun
    • .cbx indicates a grenade
    • .dfn indicates armor
    • .utl powerup (i.e. invisibility)
    • .blt ammunition pickup
    • .med health pickup
    • .upg weapon or health upgrade

    Weapons, grenades and armor are obtained by picking up files in the game. All of the weapons and grenades can be upgraded by picking up a certain amount of Opt_Key.upg files (The amount varies from weapon to weapon). The players health starts the game at 100, but can be increased by picking up HX.upg files which increase your health limit by 10 up to a maximum of 250.

    Attributes

    All of the weapons and armour in Coded Arms have one of five different attributes. The available attributes are: physical, electrical, light, fire and viral. Certain attributes are more effective against certain enemies. For instance, bots can be overloaded by weapons with the electrical attribute and bugs usually dwell in the dark so light weapons do the most damage to them. Armor with a certain attribute will be more immune to attacks of that type.

    Game Progression

    A user progresses through the game by completing sectors. Sector 00 consists of one battlefield (Training) with 3 levels that serve to familiarise the user with the game. Sector 01 consists of three battlefields (City, Base and Ruins) and each battlefield has 6 levels. Sector 02 also has three battlefields consisting of 13 levels each with a boss at the 13th level of each battlefield. Sector 03 consists of one battlefield (Infinity) which has an unlimited amount of levels to it. There has been a lot of debate over whether or not there are an infinite amount of levels, but technically there isn't as an infinite number can't be present in a finite space. The difficulty of the game increases as the user progresses through the sectors. All of the levels in the game are randomly generated when you access them.

    Bosses

    There are three types of bosses in the game. They are Enforcer, Mantis and Colossus. In more advanced versions of these bosses, they come with reinforecements. Mantis is a giant bug that is found in Sector 02 Ruins lvl. 13 and Sector 03 infinity lvl. 10, 40, etc. Colossus is a huge towering enemy five floors tall. He is found in Sector 02 Base lvl.13 and SEctor 03 infinity lvl. 30, 60, etc. Enforcer is a robot with rocket thrusters. He is found in Sector 02 City lvl. 13 and Sector 03 lvl. 20, 50, etc.

    Criticism

    Many people have complained that the controls for the game are uncomfortable and hard to get used to, specifically the analog stick. There have also been complaints that the game can get very repetitive and has very little replay value.

    Extras

    Coded Arms comes with a PSP firmware version 1.50 update. This is only useful, however, for Japanese models of the PSP which came with version 1.00 at launch; American launch models have 1.50 preinstalled.

    External links

    PlayStation Portable games | 2005 computer and video games | First-person shooters | Konami games

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Coded Arms".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world