Of course the most important thing in a war game is the game play. I think if what you are looking for is a solid war game, well then you’ll find just what you are looking for in Conflict: Vietnam. The game, even on normal, is still quite a challenge, and you should consider yourself lucky to get through it in a decent time. I was rolling along quite nicely before failing my first mission, and that’s when the Viet Cong went all out on me. The Viet Cong are everywhere in this game, and they just keep popping up out of the bushes, just like the war movies and stories I know we’ve all read about the Vietnam War. I’m a big war game junkie, I own just about every modern war game there is, and occasionally I’ll buy the old time war games, such as this one. I’ve played many war games, and this has quickly become one of my early favorites, just for the pure realism. Unfortunately the hardcore realism of some war simulation games will scare away many casual gamers, the hardcore war gamers will definitely find a lot of love in playing this. The edge of your seat excitement is always there. Just close your eyes, and imagine walking down a small, desolate path in a country full of forestation, and a few villages. Everywhere you look there’s trees, grass, and all you can see is right in front of you. Out of nowhere you hear a bullet whiz by your head and quickly hit the ground. That’s the intensity of Conflict: Vietnam. Around every corner a new problem arises. Consider yourself lucky to spot that booby trap the first time, but if you don’t, you could be paying a big price, like your entire team. Just trying to figure out how to walk past the booby trap without tripping the line to kill your entire team strains your brain enough. After every war game I’ve played, I half expected my teammates to be ignorant and walk straight to the tripwire to kill my entire team, but to my surprise they did not. The teammate AI is pretty solid, in that your colleagues will do whatever you tell them to do. The computer AI is not always quite as solid. They will walk directly into your line of fire at time, basically committing suicide. They are Viet Cong, however, so it is highly likely they really did this. Sometimes the computer AI will blindly fire into the trees, and surrounding brush, despite never making eye contact with you. Fortunately your teammates will return the fire, without you ever knowing what was going on.
The graphics are pretty solid, but nothing new to mankind. They are not as good as say, Full Spectrum Warrior, but they are good enough to get the job done. The environments are immersive, and everything you’d expect to find in Vietnam is there. The soldiers are rendered fairly accurate to the ones you’d expect to find in Vietnam, and the Viet Cong look true to their counterparts. While the graphics are not overly impressive, they get the job done very well. You see exactly what you would expect to see in Vietnam if you were to go there today. The modeled country of Vietnam is very dense with forestry, and many very poor villages, such as the Vietnam our soldiers saw many years ago.
Looking past the obvious problems of Conflict: Vietnam, you will come away from the game with a very good war experience. Maybe even a little history lesson can be learned by playing the game, and understanding the dire times these soldiers faced, and the extreme need they had to stick together through it all. Looking at the game from a value standpoint, at $39.99, you do not expect to find a very polished and decent war game. Through the package you find a rare gem. Most war games just try to do enough to be called a war game while still being likeable to the masses. Every now and then though you’ll get one that will portray the armed forces as they are in real life. The game still is not as good as it could have been with a little more time in development, but if you are in need of a Vietnam fix, then this is certainly the best of the current Vietnam games available.
C
A solid but not great Vietnam simulator
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