Disappointing, disappointing, disappointing. Total waste of time and I am sorry I bothered to play it.
When I began the game, I was optimistic. The two movies at the start are well done; with the first giving background on the Vietnam war and the second introducing you to your squad. But when I started to play, this optimism soon disappeared as I noticed the major problems of the game.
To start with, the combat is so frustrating. Controlling a four man squad, you play constantly switching between the different characters during missions. While you control one manually the others are supposed to be ordered around, but the controls to control them are horribly complicated. Supposedly you are able to make them pick up items, give covering fire, heal other members and outflank the enemy - but the controls were so hard to do that in the end I just gave up and ordered them to follow me. Following and halting were the only ones I was ever able to use without getting shot for my trouble. In general I found it hard to control my squad in the midst of battle, and I think the whole four man squad system just makes the game too complicated and sluggish.
Moving on to weaponry, this was also a source of intense frustration. You can fire your weapons two ways: both of which are as annoying as the other. On the one hand there is the self aimer which is often useless because it can not aim. By using this you waste a lot of ammunition and usually get yourself shot in the process. But on the other hand you have only the iron sights - which sound good in theory but are in fact pitiful and also waste a lot of ammunition. And before you ask, no it is not me that is the problem - the mechanics are just really badly done. Also on the topic of weaponry the change weapon system is completely inadequate, the player having to sift through a long list for the wanted weapon instead of a button to quickly change the weapon as in other games. This makes it hard to use grenades and other weapons to their best ability because you waste the opportune moments by trying to equip the weapons in the first place.
One other aspect of the combat to mention is the enemy AI, which is abysmal to say the least. The Viet Cong have no intelligence whatsoever, and just stand in the open blasting their weapons until they are shot. They do not bother to find cover or use tactics, which just makes the game boring. To me it is one of the biggest downfalls of the game, and is a prime example of how if they had put in a bit more effort then the game play would have been so much better. But it seems they threw in the enemy as an afterthought without caring that the finished product would be a drone with no AI at all. It is all very disappointing and the developers should be embarrassed that they passed this game off as a finished product.
The fact there was nothing original about this game made the game even more of a waste of my time. The story of the squad trapped behind enemy lines against all the odds has been done to death already, and if you want a game to sell you need an interesting story to go along with it. When you go to the movies you want original movies, and it is the same with video games - give us something different! Add in some twists, make your own story! The story of the men shot down behind enemy lines surrounded by the enemy is so boring. If the game had a solid combat system it might be different, but with the combat already the way it is, people do not want to listen to the same old broken record of a story yet again. No effort was put into this story.
And as an afterthought, the graphics were also quite poor. Usually if a game is well done in other aspects then I will ignore the graphics. But if you are going to give me a poor quality story with a shoddy combat system then at least I would like it in good graphics. But once again the game did not hold up, and another point was added to its long list of flaws.
The only positives about the game I can mention would be the soundtrack, because it was great. The tense music of the jungle was superb and the Rolling Stone's 'Paint it Black' blaring from every stereo added to the success. I thought this was the best bit of a poor game, and I am just sorry such a soundtrack was lost on such a washout.
Therefore, all I can say is that the game was a complete failure. It could have been great, and I wanted it to be great - but the tedious combat and lack of effort meant this game can be added to the long list of boring, rubbish games that are not worth renting - let alone buying. So I rate this game 4.5, and I hope never to play it ever again.