|
Vietcong 2
Vietcong 2 is set against the turbulent
backdrop of the 1968 Tet Offensive and throws gamers into the ancient
city of Hue during the Vietnam War. Once again, developers Pterodon,
manage to capture the feel and look of the 1960's with not only an
engaging storyline but also some sturdy gameplay. Unfortunately Vietcong
2 may not be as popular as its predecessor because of the dated graphics
engine that is unfortunately not comparable to games such as Quake 4 or
Serious Sam 2. It's a tough world out there and Pterodon may have
dropped the ball on this one.
The storyline of Vietcong 2 once again revolves around the Vietnam war
and the game starts during the Tet festivities of Vietnam (New Year)
where you find yourself being called back to duty and unfortunately
leaving your "love me long time" girl behind. The beauty of Pterodon is
that their games are generally designed for the adult market so you can
be sure that the storyline of Vietcong 2 contains enough adult content
to make even the most humble of gamers blush a deep red. And just when
you think it's going to be a leisurely walk to the barracks, the player
is immediately thrown into action and Daniel Boon's life is once again
thrown into turmoil with some of the scariest urban and jungle warfare
out there.
The gameplay of Vietcong 2 is a combination of first person shooter
meets squad based mechanic that actually fits the genre of this title
perfectly. Vietcong also features over 50 authentic weapons of the era
to help immerse the player into the deadly Vietnam War. Vietcong 2 also
offers a few different gameplay modes such as campaign and even some
great multiplayer modes that offers up to 64 players at once for some of
the best death match of this side of Doom. As with all first person
shooters, Vietcong 2 is your traditional shoot to kill game but unlike
other similar games on the market at the moment, this title relies more
on thinking rather than killing because remember, you're playing in the
jungle here and those VC's are damn sneaky. The artificial intelligence
of the game is rather quite adept, although sometimes your squad members
do some unusual things when the action heats up.
Graphically Vietcong 2 is an extremely dated game that would of looked
brilliant about two years ago. Although the characters have realistic
texture details, they move with a robotic feel and unfortunately the
backgrounds of the game are little to be desired that looks rather bland
and polygonal. Even on our test machine, a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz, the game
still suffered from the same frame rate issues of the original game
which unfortunately goes down to bad programming. With that said, the
game does contain some nice lighting and shadow effects but
unfortunately it can't compare to the competition.
However, the musical score of Vietcong 2 is great and almost transforms
you into the world of the 1960's. The voice acting is a little too
contrived and forced but ironically actually suits the genre when the
actors start camping it up. The sound effects of the game have been
directly taken from a Hollywood war blockbuster and you really need a
good speaker setup to get the true sound benefit from this title.
In conclusion, Vietcong 2 isn't a bad game but unfortunately it arrived
in the wrong year and if it came out about 2 years ago, it would have
been a highly prized game. Perhaps next time Pterodon will fix the bugs
and give this game a much needed revamp, both graphically and with the
gameplay. Probably worth a rent before a buy, unless you're a die hard
Vietnam war nut!
 |
