Gameplay
Gameplay
As the introduction hints, Vietcong is one explosive game. One moment you’re trekking through the beautifully designed jungle undergrowth using traditional FPS tactics like you haven’t a care in the world, the next moment you’re under fire from VC hiding in the bushes, behind rocks and behind trees! You take cover, thinking that like a normal FPS, the enemy will wander out into the open for you to ‘frag’ them. Although this time they hide behind the rocks taking random pop-shots to keep you pinned. This is no ordinary shooter!!
Ask anyone who plays both Paintball and FPS games, and they will tell you that there is a huge difference between the two. Real life military conflict means that you use cover, fire at enemies insanely in hopes of accidentally hitting one or pinning them down, and having bursts of sheer madness and confusion when you yourself are under fire. You even have to take aim in this game if you want to hit something accurately, although you can fire without properly aiming if time is short (certainly not as precise as aiming though). While a normal FPS is simply just you running down corridors blasting enemies running at you. No game has EVER achieved anything close to the mayhem of real life conflict, until now.
In da Nang
Set in Vietnam of 1967, you are US Special Forces soldier Steve Hawkins. There is no traditional story of a big bad guy character, or an evil plot to take over the world. Its just you in the middle of the Vietnam conflict with your team and military missions to perform.
There is no traditional hero role where you save the world or determine the entire conflict, you just do your bit to survive and ensure the mission set to you is done.
Missions can range from defending outposts, to hunting down pockets of resistance, to checking up on the condition of villages. Nearly all the missions will have you on the edge of your seat, treading carefully and soaking in the atmosphere like sweat on a towel. Vietcong just oozes atmosphere. Of course, not all missions work as well. Some are just way too short, one whole mission comprising about six soldiers to fight before suddenly ending. The last mission also is a bad note to end the whole game on, despite the rest being absolutely superb.
Monkey Mayhem
A typical mission involves you and your squad moving through the jungles of Vietnam, hunting down an enemy using accurately detailed Vietnam era weaponry. It’s usually eerily quiet before a conflict, and then all of a sudden you make a noise or think you see an enemy and BANG, all hell breaks loose. Bullets appear from nowhere, loud noises fly all around you, leaves and debris disperse near you and whooshing noises of passing bullets get closer.
The developers have created an enthralling experience which makes you truly feel as if you're part of the conflict. Often, when you finally take the enemy down and go to check their corpses, you’ll realise to your horror that what you thought was hundreds of soldiers was in fact only two or three lightly armed rag-tag fighters! All that chaos, confusion and noise and it was only three guys!! When they say that in Vietnam, “for every one VC soldier taken down the US fired about million rounds of ammo (on average) to get him”, I can believe it. No game has ever captured this madness.
You can’t get a good atmosphere in a game without having great visuals to really believe you’re actually there. Again, perhaps another first, Vietcong produces a believable and beautiful jungle landscape to fight in, complete with some wildlife like birds, butterflies and frogs.
Just take a look at the screenshots. Yes, they are in-game graphics. Trees, bushes, rocks, shallow streams, logs… the battlefield is simply stunning and full of different textures. You can even utilise all this cover to protect yourself! Objects such as rocks can be leaned over to assault the enemy with fire, before backing down for cover when returning fire comes your way.
It’s not only you that can do this either. The enemy does a SUPERB job of taking advantage of the terrain as well. Ducking behind cover, throwing themselves to the floor if things become too heated, leaning (yes, LEANING, no longer exclusive to the player in FPS) to take shots at you. It’s just as people would do in a real conflict to protect their own hides, not like the gung-ho suicidal approach most FPS’s enemies conduct. Vietcong gives you totally believable terrain and experience.
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