Genre: First-Person Shooter
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Coded Arms makes use of a complex 3d engine that features floors-above-floors, high resolution, 16-bit textures, and some beautiful alpha/filtering effects that combine to make for a gorgeous first-person foray. The 16:9 aspect ratio gives the player quite a field of vision, and, in its entirety, Coded Arms is probably as sharp as anything else on the PSP so far. With this engine, Konami has a tool by which to deliver some very fine PSP first-person action.

Coded Arms makes due with an average rock/techno soundtrack that does little to impress. It's not really annoying either, and the music only plays when an enemy is near the player, so much of the time is spent listening to the player's boots clanking on the metal or concrete floors that populate the maps. Gun sound effects are well done, but the game is mostly generic sounding.

Coded Arms takes cues from Wolfenstein 3d, and uses room-door-room style combat. Unfortunately, the random level generator lacks enough variables to make maps that are memorable or unique. There's also far too much z-axis fighting, doors open automatically when you approach and close when you step backwards, and guns need to be reloaded far too often. The concept is potentially a good one, and the game plays mostly well, but there's several annoying design choices as well.

The bosses are absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, everything in between these bosses lacks character, color, and variety. Gameplay seems to alternate between "fun" and "extremely frustrating" in equal portions. Fortunately, I can see a ton of potential, and some trivial changes could take this idea to the next level: take the RPG elements and apply them to the character as well, get rid of the random maps or revamp the map generation algorithm, add outdoor and map hub areas, eliminate most of the z-axis combat, and change door behavior. As it is, for the patient, Coded Arms can be a lot of fun if you can get through the frustrating parts as they come.