Vietcong

Struggling through the Vietnam swamps

Vietcong is a new FPS from Take Two set during the American invasion of Vietnam. It casts you as an experienced soldier being brought into a new company, where you take command of a squad of soldiers for most missions although there are a few solo ones thrown in for good effect. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to survive the war and help the American effort. Whilst the Americans ultimately lose the war, the game is full of jingoistic, racist content reflecting the attitudes of the time. This is not a politically correct game or one for the timid. The blood flows freely and death is doled out in high doses.

The game offers several play modes. The missions can be played through in sequence creating a story mode that flows right up to the closing months of the war, and once completed, missions can be played and re-played in any sequence. Quick fights are available in which you can choose the level of enemy opposition and the number of members of your squad. You can place yourself against impossible odds on your own or take a full squad against small numbers of Vietnamese. The game is also online enabled allowing gamers to make up squads to battle through missions or have squad based deathmatches with one side as the Vietcong and the others as the Americans.

Sounds of the jungle

Defend the base from the incoming VC hordes

The point man is a Vietnamese fighting for you and during many of the battles you’ll hear little apart from his racial insults directed at his countrymen. The rest of your squad swear like sailors as well, makes you wonder what they teach in the military! Hearing your comrade’s cries does help to create an authentic sort of atmosphere, and the audio is generally well implemented. For instance, as you turn your character the sound pans between speakers so, if your characters left ear is towards the sound source and the right is away the audio only comes through the left speaker and not the right.

The musical score is 60s and 70s rock music with the opening scene backed by Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”. In-game sound effects are well treated. Guns sound realistic and grenades that explode nearby leave a ringing sound going for some time after. The squad members all have distinctive voices and give suitable phrases when spoken to during the game. Between missions you can walk around camp, visit the shooting range, or talk to the other characters.

Hey Joe, Where you going with that gun in your hand?

When crawling through VC tunnels keep an eye out for boobytraps

There is a wide range of weaponry available from knives and pistols to sniper rifles and anti-tank weapons. In an effort to make the weapons handle realistically the developers have gone a bit over the top. None of the weapons are particularly accurate save for the sniper rifle. The weapons can be carried so that a cross hair appears on the centre of the screen for aiming, or an aim mode can be used so that you look down the barrel of the gun to line the sights up. Accuracy can be improved by crouching down or lying down and using the aim mode but the gun still wobbles around making it very difficult to get a clean shot.

When you fire a weapon, a realistic kick is generated moving the sights up the screen. If you use an automatic weapon and hold the shoot button down then the sight gradually climbs up the screen. The different members of your squad all handle their weapons well and are pretty impervious to enemy bullets. They’re also very good at spotting the enemy, which can be useful as spotting the VC in the undergrowth can be pretty tricky.

Graphic violence

Using the undergrowth to provide cover during battles

Vietcong’s graphics use a custom 3D engine – the Pteroengine – developed by the team at Pterodon. The jungle looks good and sounds good. It appears realistically modelled with trees, undergrowth and rocks that can be used to provide cover from enemy fire. As you make your way through the jungle you need to keep an eye on the floor for booby traps. On the first jungle mission the point man will direct you to disarm traps but after that you’re on your own. It’s also worth following the root your point man takes to avoid falling into holes in the ground that are set as traps.

The character models move well and intelligently switch between standing, crouching and lying down. As your squad mates move around the map they are well animated with touches like the medic opening and unravelling bandages to heal you.

Into the tunnel

The jungles are well modelled and detailed

Vietcong is a game of many missions. These start out with jungle missions where you track VC’s, and some of the missions even see you following the enemy down into their tunnels. Here you must crawl around in darkened tunnels peeking around the corner and stopping when you hear Vietnamese voices. These tunnel missions are atmospheric but are also rather tedious. The rabbit warren tunnels that the VC used are reduced to a single path through the mission with paths that branch off quickly coming to a dead end. The tunnels are dark and uninspiring but have plenty of enemies to dispatch. The later missions see you trying to defend the base or other outposts against the VC onslaught. The missions are suitably challenging and varied to keep you entertained for ages. The story is well conveyed through the cut scenes and missions.

Vietcong is a well-presented FPS with good quality animation and graphics but with a flaw in the weapon handling. If it were possible to be more accurate then the game would be a bit more rewarding. The sound quality is high with good effects and well-implemented stereo effects, and the available weaponry is wide ranging with each weapon useful in different situations. Plenty of variety throughout the game is provided with the different missions, which should guarantee for plenty of hours of gameplay.