Vietcong 2 – PC – Review

Vietcong 2 takes place during the 1968 Tet Offensive placed in
and around the city of Hue. There is a pretty good storyline derived from
first-hand accounts and memories from Special Forces and infantry servicemen.
Players will battle across 14 distinct locations as they progress through the
game. For the first time in the Vietcong series, players can play two
story-based single-player campaigns, allowing players to experience both sides
of the conflict. Players will wield more than 50 weapons from the era and can
command some military and civilian vehicles to gain the upper hand.

Players will have to complete the US campaign to unlock the
North Vietnamese campaign. Both campaigns play a bit quickly on the normal
setting, but like most FPS games, longevity will come from Multiplayer, which
thankfully this game supports. The US campaign centers more around an Urban
setting while the Vietcong campaign puts you back in some real lush forests.
Both offer a variety of objectives and are quite enjoyable to play.

Visually the game lacks real immersive graphics that as gamers
we have come to expect from recent releases. Unfortunately Vietcong 2 doesn’t
even compare. The graphics look a bit behind the times, say 2-3 years. With new
releases constantly raising the bar for eye-candy, the game just looks too blah.
Still it is fun to play but lacks luster I have come to expect from this genre.
Audibly the game does support 5.1 surround and does sound pretty good. No real
music from the time, in other words artists like Hendrix or CCR, but the music
definitely reflects the era. Whoever wrote or performed it did a great job. The
sound effects reflected most everything we have come to expect in wartime FPS.
Gunfire and explosions ringing in your ears from a nearby KA_BOOM, it’s all
here. The voice acting was pretty decent, but very repetitive. And the language
could rival any Vietnam War movie, The F-Bomb is dropped quite a bit, but hey
that’s war.

Vietcong 2 does support Multiplayer and has some great games
like Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Co-op, and CTF. At the time of the review
there were some problems with the CD key for games played on the Internet via
Gamespy. These seem to have been worked out for the last few games I have
played. Though the company says it tested the online play for three months, they
are pointing the finger at Gamespy. In either case I feel this is a perfect
example of why game makers should support their own multi-player hosting and
stay away from other vendors.

Some pointers I would have would be to check out the alternative
key mapping options. The default keys you learn from the in-game tutorial are a
pain if you are a WASD player for movement. The alternative keys such as F (USE)
and C (command) are much better than having to reach around the board. It’s
great if you’re a lefty though and use your left hand for the mouse and your
right for moving with the arrow keys. In either case I guess you could say the
controls cater to both types of players.

The early part of the campaign has you talking to players that
you really do not need to and at first gets old really quick. Thankfully you do
not do this through the whole campaign. I understand the developers’ intentions
in trying to deepen the storyline but if I need to know something let me run up
on the guy/gal and let them speak to me. Please don’t make me click on needless
characters repeatedly and keep asking the same question just to find out I could
have bypassed them entirely with no effect on the game. Again thankfully after
the first couple of objectives this goes by the wayside.

The combat focus on the game is pretty good on the normal
setting and can be a bit challenging. I had to question some of the team AI but
the enemy was pretty good. Your medic and engineer seem to have suits of armor
and when they do buy it, miraculously they come back to life. In short you can
do quite well by sending them in front of you and taking the brunt of the
battle, or keep your medic close, and constantly get healed darn near
infinitely. Same holds true for your engineer – a constantly re-supply of ammo.
Not all missions will have them near you, but when they are the realism goes
right out the window.

In short is the game fun? Well, it is for now. It just can’t
compete with games that also have in-game command capabilities like Brothers in
Arms or great combat like Call of Duty. The game plays fine, but visually it
falls a bit short of those titles and upcoming releases. My favorite part of
this game will be the capture the flag in multiplayer. Many wargames have
forgotten this tried-and-true favorite, and I am pleased to say that it is
offered here. Hopefully when more players get online, I will get to play it. For
now deathmatch games have kept me quite busy.

Review Scoring Details for Vietcong 2

Gameplay: 7.0
The action is not too bad but the whole talking to people, and having to hit
a key to do it gets annoying as all heck. Fortunately that didn’t last long. The
AI of the friendlies had me screaming get out of the friggin’ way more than
once, and it seemed that most doors opened inward which more often than not I
was too close to open and fire into the room effectively. Sure some doors I can
see that happening, but like I said more often than not. They had some good
ideas, but just fell a bit short.

Graphics: 7.0
Visually this game looks a bit dated. It lacks the stunning detail that we
have seen in most recent FPS games.

Sound: 7.0
The sound effects are pretty standard for the genre of the game. Though the
voice acting was not too terrible, it was just to repetitive at times. It
supports 5.1 surround and has pretty decent music. Some later missions in the US
camping had some sound clips breaking up like hearing two radio broadcasts at
the same time but only every fifth or so syllable. It was in Vietnamese so who
knows what the heck was being said. I think it was like "can you hear me now?"
My point is that there are some sound issues that need to be worked out.

Difficulty: Medium
You can toggle the difficulty to make the game as hard or as easy as you
like. Fumbling around the keyboard can be quite a challenge until you set the
keys for your liking or take the time to learn the default layout and the
alternative keys. Works great if you are a southpaw.

Concept: 8.0
I like what the developers have intended for making a bit more of a
storyline with interactive characters that you talk with. Unfortunately, there
are ton of characters early on that you end up talking to that you could have
passed by and wouldn’t change the game at all. This takes away from the fighting
and gets old real quick. Two story lines are a great idea.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Yes, it’s available with up to 64 players at a time. Unfortunately there
were some problems when the game was released and hopefully everything is on the
straight and narrow by the time you read this. Again I played in a couple of
games that seemed to be fixed after a few days of disappointment. Thanks guys
for bringing back CTF

Overall: 7.2
Not totally bad. The game had some great ideas though it fell short in many
ways. The missions themselves are quite interesting and fun and admittedly I did
enjoy them despite some of the shortcomings. I guess for a MSRP of about 30
bucks that’s a fair price if you are fan of the genre.