Conflict: Vietnam

7.0
Good

Gameplay	7.0	"Playing with toy soldiers was never as good as this."
Graphics	7.0
Sound	8.0
Value	7.0

By Morgan Bates

The 60's is a decade usually remembered in American TV shows for the hippies and weed, rather than the war the hippies were protesting against: the Vietnam War. Of course, there is a good reason for this: America lost the war. It is very odd then that developer Pivotal Games has opted to create the story around an American squad and poses the question; "who wants to fight a war you know your side has already lost?" Despite this little detail, the story is actually rather entertaining.

In this addition to the Conflict series, you control a squad of four American soldiers, who must fight through 14 missions set in different parts of the Vietnam War. Between each mission, you can increase each soldier's stats in an RPG style leveling up system. Upgrading stats is important, as it will increase the efficiency of the soldier with that particular weapon or skill. As you progress through the game you will take control of several different vehicles including tanks, jeeps and trucks, mark sites for air attacks similar to the air strikes in the Command & Conquer games, and run (or crawl in some cases) around gunning down Vietnamese soldiers, tanks and the occasional chicken.

Once you start the game the first mission helps you get used to the control scheme, how to issue orders to your squad, to heal each other and collect supplies, such as health packs and ammo. The levels in CV range from sprawling jungle levels to Army camps spanning 14 missions against some of the deadliest weapons of the time such as tanks and napalm. Missions are separated by FMV introducing the forthcoming mission. The tanks in this game are hard to destroy and I mean hard, you will die a lot trying to take down your first tank as they can kill your entire squad with one shot.

When your soldier is almost down, they will start to limp along giving you a chance to heal them before the enemy gets that last shot in. However, if enemy soldiers take down your soldier they will not simply die, rather they will fall down and hold their wounded limbs, giving you a chance to heal them before their health runs out completely. If there is one thing I really dislike, it is the save game limit for the level 3 saves, that makes it even more of a pain when you come up against a tough part of a mission if you have already used all of your save markers

Sound effects are realistic and the music in the background is in keeping with the music of the time with bands such as the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane on the soundtrack. The voice acting in the game is good and has some of the best lines I have heard in a war game so far, soldiers even swear as the would in real life - this is not a kids game in case the MA15+ rating on the box didn't clue you in - with the occasional bit of sexual innuendo.

The graphics in CV are ok, the FMV is on the other hand is good, but I have seen better in other Xbox games. Whenever you are shot, a red arrow appears point in the direction the shot came from, unless of course you die instantly, possibly due to being killed by a tank. As you play through the missions the items you have to pick up for missions will light up. Some of the environments look great, for example in the jungle mission, you see the occasional bug fly past and in the village, a few chickens were running around, until I shot them.

Conflict Vietnam supports split-screen for up to four players in Co-op multiplayer.

NZGamer.com - Conflict: Vietnam Facebook

Reply

On 27 October 2008, 06:26PM Posted by swetsalot

I love it ecspecially in 2 player you can run and shoot like a madman and still survive (well sometimes).