With a 'save anywhere' facility provided you can breeze through virtually any level within 20 minutes, half an hour tops, with the level design largely based around prescribing enemies in manageable clusters. The only time they really pose a major threat is when they're hidden behind bushes, which proves to be something of an annoyance as they still have unerring accuracy. The main point to note is just how accommodating the AI is, standing still while you fill them full of lead, and generally being as thick as possible. Unless you're particularly fond of completing games in record time, then it's probably advisable to plump immediately for 'Vietnam' difficulty, although that in itself doesn't necessarily make the game any more fun. The most astonishing part of VC's conversion to console is just how easy the game is by default compared to the original. Occasionally this is supplemented by an engineer to supply more ammo, while a specialist machine gunner helps out when the going gets really tough.Įxcept it doesn't. If you don't fancy landing in a pit of excreta-tipped wooden spikes or blowing your face off by triggering a trip mine, then sending the pointman guarantees a safe passage the medic patches you up when necessary and the radio guy provides little more than the tech to talk to your superiors and get updates. Playing poo-sticksįor the most part you're creeping around deadly trap-laden environments in a gang of four, with a pointman, medic and radio specialists forming the core of your squad. Think Rainbow Six on console, without the ability to really direct them in any meaningful way beyond a few basic commands. Some go for the pure FPS, Medal Of Honor-angle, Shellshock preferred FPS gameplay but in the third-person (as odd as that sounds), Conflict transplanted the Desert Storm gameplay almost exactly, while Vietcong tackles the conflict as a pseudo squad-based affair from the first-person. Set by whom, we know not, but it's a bizarre gaming gold rush to say the least. Throw in the forthcoming Men Of Valor (heck, even EA's World War II based Medal Of Honor: Pacific Assault is jungle-based) and it's as if the whole world is competing for some holy grand prize. Could Vietcong buck the trend?Īnother problem this late-late Vietcong conversion faces is the fact that since we played it in the early part of last year there's been a whole pile of Vietnam-based games - Line Of Sight: Vietnam, Conflict Vietnam, Shellshock: Nam '67, and of course Battlefield Vietnam. But then we remembered that most PC to console conversions are pretty ropey. The prospect of a tarted-up console version with a few extras sounded appealing an extra 18 months of development time to sort out some of the minor niggles, the annoying levels removed, the best ones from both the prequel Fist Alpha expansion pack and the full game as well as some new ones thrown in for good measure sounded exactly how we'd have pitched the project. The constant feeling of fear the game inspired with its relentless VC onslaught, its superbly spot-on 60s parody soundtrack, the (then) unique atmosphere of jungle warfare and a great multiplayer mode made it a firm favourite with many of the more discerning PC crowd. For all its glaring technical deficiencies, the original PC version of Vietcong simply had that X factor about it that made it feel much more than your average run and gun slog.
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