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CHARLIE DOES SURF!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: June 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, what more is there to say, this has to be one of the most enjoyable and exciting FPS games based in a war setting. Being the type of person who enjoys FPS games based around real conflict I have immensley enjoyed games like Medal of Honour and such, I used to think Allied Assault was the best wartime shooter but I think Vietcong has snatched that throne now. The boys at Pterodon have really done a great job with this one it is obvious that they have done their homework as to the environment and feel of the war, and the times. The oppresiveness, fear and disorientation of the jungle has been captured perfectly, with expansive and detailed environments.

The singleplayer is excellent, the first thing which really jumped out and grabbed me about VC was the realism of the combat, I have exeperienced some of the most intense firefights ever in an FPS with this little gem. There is none of the run and gun Quake style fighting here, it is ass in the grass realistic fighting. Moving from cover to cover, hearing the VC shouting commands at each other and moving onto your flank while you and your squad desperately try to fight your way out of the killing ground you have suddenly found yourselves in.

The gameplay itself has a swag of very nice features;

- The system of command over your teammates is both functional and quick to use, plus easily mastered quickly which helps you get right into the game.

- A comprehensive weapon line up including;

VC
AK-47, SKS Siminov, SVD Dragunov and Mosin Nagant 91/30 sniper rifles, Degtarev MG, PPSH-41 and 43 SMG's, Bazikahal double barrel shotgun.

US
M-16, M1 Carbine, M1 Garand and Winchester 70 sniper rifles, M60 MG, Thompson and M3A1 SMG's, Remington 80 shotgun, M79 grenade launcher (singleplayer only).

- The use of iron sights for aiming, it is so refreshing to have a game where you actually have to aim with your sights.

- The system of interchanging your weapon with that of a dead VC as well as searching him for ammo and intel is quite a unique feature which really adds to the realism of the game.

The missions themselves are entertaining and varied, although the voice acting of your teammates is a bit cheesy I still like the way that the terms and language used by the troops in Vietnam was recreated in the game. Living in Australia I got the uncensored version (I feel sorry for all the US players who are victims of unfair censorship). Now I have the joy of being surrounded by a group of realistically foul mouthed soldiers, plus having some nice blood and gore effects which aren't over the top like many other games. My only complaint with the single player would be that there aren't enough damn missions!

Now for the life and soul of the contemporary first person shooter these days... multiplayer. All I can say is wow, this game sure is addictive! This game's environments and features like iron sights really combine to make quite a unique multiplayer experience. The gameplay is like no other FPS online, hiding, caution and teamwork trully pay high divends in VC, trying do run and gun will do nothing but get you wasted very quickly. It also has a class based system with Soldiers, Machinegunners, Snipers, Sapper/Engineers (and yes they can lay booby traps hehehe), Medics and Radiomen who call in air and mortar strikes.

Multiplay also contains a lot modes, there is;

Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag - Need I explain these?

Assault Team Game - This is different for each map, ranges from completing an objective like 'Kill the US Pilot' while he is armed with only a pistol and the US side have to defend him, to simple search and destroy the enemy. In this mode you can't respawn.

Real War - There are a certain number of control points on the map and your team has to capture them all to win.

Last Man Standing - Exactly like deathmatch with no respawning, the last man standing at the end of a round respawns next round with extra health and an M60, everyone else only gets a pistol.

Coop - This is one of the unique features of Vietcong, all players are on the US side and they have to go through and clear a map full of AI generated VC, it's great fun to get together with friends (or clan mates) using a voice communication proggy and fight an intense battle.

The only real shortcomings of the multiplayer are the relatively small number of maps, and some curious lag anomalies.

There's been a lot of bad reviews over bugs, PC Gamer gave 'Line of Sight: Vietnam' a higher score than Vietcong. Do not take this as gospel and go buy LoS: Vietnam instead of VC, VC is a much better game, and personally I don't know what the hell the PC Gamer guys were smoking when they pulled this one. The fact is that Vietcong was extremely buggy upon release and had immense framerate problems due to poorly implemented Securom disk protection on the CD's and it still does have technical issues. But a lot of these bugs were addressed within weeks by the 1.01 patch, if you live outside the US and buy the game it is already patched to 1.01. Now there is patch 1.02 on the horizon which looks to deliver new skins, maps, weapons and fix a lot of the bugs.

All in all I think Vietcong delivers a solid offering of both single and multiplayer action. It is a fresh, unique and promising game, although not forgiving to the lower end systems, I have a machine double the recommended specs and it just runs the game comfortably. I'd advise all fans of FPS games to look into it, especially those tiring of the mundane run and gun formula...

excellent realism, raises bar in today's standards

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: February 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

On trying the game from various game demos that i test from fileshack.com, I could tell that it wasn't just any other "this is realistic" game. VC offers a real jungle world where players can hide in the scenery and pick off the enemy from a distance.

On trying out the sniper, I felt like I was an actual GI employing "jungle warfare". In other games you just point and click, but in vc you have to think like you're in the jungle to survive. If you just run out you'll surely be sniped from a distance by enshrouded enemy snipers. If you crawl or quickly dash from bush to bush, the chances are greatly lowered.

The game offers a wide variety of actual guns used in nam including the tommy gun, m16, AK-47. So far the demo offers 3 modes of play: capture the flag, assassination, and all out death match. Get this game if you're looking for something that will be fun. After 40 hours of playing this, I'm still not bored.

Excellent excitement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: December 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing the multiplayer demo of this game for several days, and it is fantastic. The lush jungle environment is beautiful (even on a 2 year old computer - 800mhz and GeForce 2 card is adequate). The game offers strange emotional punch as you are able to play both sides of the questionable war. Politics aside, the complex jungle landscape makes patiently hiding pay off as you are given powerful sniper rifles and camoflague.

I am not an avid FPS gamer, but this one is simple to learn and actually gets the heart racing. It is difficult to tell friend from foe at a distance in the jungle, and "friendly fire" is common in this game as well as in reality.

great FPS game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is good, really good. I've had this game for a about a week it I'm hooked. I love the levels. The level I'm on now is my character being a tunnel rat (searching Vietcong tunnels). It scares the hell outta me. I shot the walls countless times now.
For the real review, the graphics are excellent, the sounds are very realistic, and the gameplay is is really good. It is like you signed up and got shipped over to Vietnam. The drill sergeant yells at you and insults you. All around it is a realistic non Doom, Quake, Unreal game fun tactics game.

Not for the "Run & Gun" 1st Person Shooters

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: February 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game rocks. (Or at least the demo does as the full version isn't available yet) You can feel the terror as you try to walk quietly throught the jungle. Suddenly you hear a bullet whiz past your head. Where'd it come from? You look around and all you see is the jungle, you try to listen and all you hear is the wind in the trees and agitated Howler Monkeys. Finally, you catch a glimpse of something to your left about 30 yards out. You spin and shoot as a second round sizzles past you. Time for a grenade. You pull the pin and count 1,2,3, and heave it in the direction you thought you saw something...4,5 BOOM! Your ears ring as you see a lone black pajama clad figure scurry out of the bush away from you. You fire two rapid bursts from your M16A1 service rifle and the figure falls lifeless, to the ground. You breathe a sigh of relief and give thanks to your God, suddenly, horrifically, a third bullet slams directly into your chest with a sickening thud, your heart beats wildly in your ears..."Son of a B&%^^%*ch! I've been bush whacked" are your final thoughts...surroundings fade to black...all is quite, now.
If you sincerely love Quake, Unreal 2003, and Serious Sam, this may not be the game for you. However, if you want to experience realistic Jungle Warfare and hunt a deadly human enemy with realistically modeled weapons, look no further.
John F WIllis

Beautiful, but EXTREMELY frustrating

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: September 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Unfortunately, I can not share the enthusiasm of my fellow reviewers.

The game has a lot of good sides. The graphics are beautiful. Asides from the character interaction with the plants (brushing up to plants or pushing them out of the way), this game features some of the best plant, jungle, and mountain settings I've ever seen in a game. Mission design is also OK, although not great.

THIS GAME HAS ONE BIG PROBLEM THOUGH: Gameplay! I do not consider myself the world's best FPS player, but I also ain't the worst. Normally, I play FPS games on the hardest possible setting. This one, I played on "hard", which is the second hardest setting. And still, I was so frustrated by this game that I decided not to finish it half way through (which is a first for me).

I mean, don't get me wrong: I like that there finally is an FPS game where it is not unrealistically easy for the player to kill the enemy and where the enemy doesn't have an unrealistically hard time to kill the player. But in this game, things are outrageous! It is almost impossible to kill with one shot, while the enemy seems to be able to do that all the time!

To give you an idea of what I am talking about: I am in a scene where I need to enter a tunnel. I have a machine gun, and I already know that there are several vietcong just beyond the tunnel entrance. So I beging to lay down fire, and empty the whole magazine on the 4 of them. And guess what: At least 2 of them survive entirely unharmed every time! And not just that! But they turn against me, run towards me (while I am still firing), pull up their guns to aim (I am still firing), and kill me with a single shot!

After a number of attempts, I finally make it into the tunnel, clear out everything that is in there, and pick up a semi-stationary machine gun. Since I have played through the scene several times already, I know that more VCs will be waiting for me at the tunnel entrance. So I position myself close to the entrance and ready my stationary MG. I hear them talking and come closer, so I begin to fire. The 3 of them run into my fire. I hit them with all head and body shots. A whole amo belt worth of heavy fire. Yet not a single one of them goes down! Instead, one of them raises his gun and kills me with a single shot! And I am even in a prone position and mostly taking cover around the bend of a tunnel!

Give me a break! Vietnam certainly was tough, but I refuse to believe that a VC walks away entirely unharmed after taking 50 or more bullets to the head!

Oh, and what makes things worse is the save-game system, which only allows a small number of saves (around 4, typically) in each level. So you will play through the same stupid situations over and over again.

Also, the team mates are just plain dumb. They are OK when it comes to fighting the VC, but they move around like complete retards. In a game that features a lot of tunnel-fighting, it just isn't OK that your team mates block you from moving back or forth. This happened to me a number of times. All you can do is go back to the previous save-game. Argh!

Thanks, but no thanks! This could have been one awesome game. Technically, it certainly is. But play-balance-wise, someone took a lot of shortcuts. A bit more testing and fine-tuning would have turned this into a 4 or 5 star game. I play a lot of FPS games, and gameplay-wise, this one comes in dead-last!

Best FPS; environment and squad tactics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: February 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Counter Strike, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon, Raven Shield (demo); this beats them all. The environment is awesome, first game where the environment is a pervaisive factor in gameplay. Crawl in water, through ferns, hide in bushes. Multiplayer action is awesome on broadband; 50 players in a battle. Very realistic in "vietnam mode", no fake sights like Ghost Recon (which I played routinely since it was released). This game forces you into cooperative squad tactics. Feels more "natural" than the others (peeking over rocks, around trees). Sound effects great. Jungle, jungle, jungle; very cool. Can run at 2048x1536 w/radeon pro and get 40fps with all features!! try that in any other game! Good rendering engine.

An amazing work of art...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: April 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Vietcong has so many exquisite qualities, specifically expressed in missions, that I had great memories of those times going through the valleys and streams and jungles. You feel like you're right there, in Vietnam, under the dense jungles, with the wild birds making unheard-of noises.

I couldn't believe some of the levels. They're just so realistic and exciting, that once you're done with this game, you'll miss those prestigious moments. Half of the levels are situated under big jungles with flowing streams with valleys atop. While the others are in the plains, compared to the dense jungles.

The missons, I thought, were impeccable because of how captivating they were with the air-support bombs, seeing enemies getting blown 50 feet in the air. Exciting stuff.

This game can get funny in segments of the game, especially in the briefings when you get your assignment. Your other team members may insult each other because they may dislike each other--one of the funny parts of the plot.

I perceived something that didn't really exist in other first-person shooters, though. Like, for instance, in one of the first two missions, you'll get unexpected surprises at times, like a sniper on top of a hill, shooting at people, and you're assigned to kill him... I thought those were some great moments of the game.

Vietcong, I highly suggest for anybody that's a fan of first-person shooting because there's something, some entity in this game that makes you long so much for new objectives and missions, which can't be set aside.

I don't believe it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: April 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Simply stated, Jack of all games, put out a heck of a game. One of the most realistic military games, I own, other than Conflict Desert Storm, and The Deadly Dozen The Pacific Theater. PEACE: disabled american vet.

Not as good as it was hyped to be

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: April 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Iam not a very good reviewer of games but as a person who is very familier with the special forces in vietnam i must say this game is not as good as it could have been..
This game lacks many things that should have and would have been very easy to add into the game..
ok where do i start. WEAPONS.
The game does not get the weapons right.. ok sure it got the m16a1, ak 47, and m60. but what about the most popular used SF weapon around in NAM, the CAR-15 (aka xm177 and colt commando). anybody who knows SF in Nam would know that 80 percent of a team would be carrying them..
also forgot to include more popular weopns like, m72 law, m14, what about the m40a1??????? that was more popular than the garand..
what about the door guns??????? browning 50 cal????? SF teams would never have that..
1. way to heavy!
2. wouldnt need that much fire support on there LZ (because SF LZs where rarely every 'hot'.
They couldnt even get the door guns right..THEY HAD M60 DOOR GUNS PEOPLE!!i wonder if they even did much research???

But there are a few positive things about the game. such as the uniforms, landsacape (in some missions) and gameplay is ok..

cmon guys you could have done better.. u know it..

GO CHECK OUT THE NEW VIETNAM GAME MEN OF VALOR: VIETNAM IT LOOKS ALOT BETTER.

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