If you change the recipe to a popular dish, chances are that not everyone will warm up to its flavor. That's the case with SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike, a game that moves in an entirely different direction from the Fireteam Bravo games that came before it. This time around, instead of being in direct control of a squad commander who leads his team against enemy soldiers, you have command control. You issue orders to a squadron of multiple men, each with their own special abilities and tactics to complete missions in a timely manner. A strategic turn for the series isn't really that bad an idea. However, the way it all unfolds had us fuming.

The strategic interface isn't too shabby. You work with a reliant (for the most part) cursor system, pinpointing locations where you want these men to go and then issuing commands to have them strike at the right moment. When it works correctly, you get the feeling that the shift to full-on strategic action isn't an entirely flawed move, especially when the intensity picks up. Those moments, however, are rare, and most of the game feels broken.

First off, the artificial intelligence is unbelievably lame. Your on-screen comrades have a nasty habit of standing up at the most inopportune moments, even when you don't command them to, taking a few shots as a result. Even issuing a simple order to go from point A to point B is lost on some of these cads, which leads to -- wait for it now -- taking shots from an enemy as they wander to cover. And forget about patching up a wounded soldier. Half the time his comrade completely refuses to do so, insisting that he "can't do that". Thanks a lot, chum.

This leads to another huge problem -- the pacing of checkpoints. Tactical Strike lacks any kind of instant save option, meaning that once you start a level, you have to finish it before you can save your progress. This sucks, especially considering your soldiers act like morons. If you lose your entire team in a pinch (and you will), you can't instantly reload the last checkpoint. Instead, you have to go back to the main menu, select the previous checkpoint you hit and then wait for it to load up all over again..

That's a shame, because Tactical Strike has potential. The visuals look great, with lots of varied locales and above-average animation. (The binocular view is always a nice touch.) It would've been nice to see more cut-scenes integrated into the story, but the ones present and accounted for aren't bad. The music is excellent (even though it plays briefly), along with the in-game chatter between squad mates. It's awesome to hear this team sound off in a professional manner, even when their on-screen characters fail to do so.

Tactical Strike does have strong multiplayer options. You and three friends can join up for a match in AdHoc or Infrastructure, matching tactical wits against each other. Unfortunately, many of the problems that plague the single-player campaign seep into this mode as well, tainting the experience. Winning against a friend with your smarts is one thing, but winning by accident (because their soldiers stand up at an unintended time) is another.

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike could've been a superb follow-up to the Fireteam Bravo games with just a little more time in development to iron out the quirky AI flaws and checkpoint system. Unfortunately, the key words here are "could've been", because with those problems, it disgraces the series.