Very enjoyable!
It's hard to describe the feelings you go through when playing this game. I enjoyed a lot the other two previous games from the series, so I was really looking forward to play this one, despite all the negative criticism. However, it disappointed me. I must confess I didn't like it at first. In fact, it felt kind of boring and "glitchy". Let's see the reasons:
In the first place, the camera. Well, it's very similar to the first games. However, when you run, it has the incredibly annoying tendency to tremble a lot. It hurts the eye. At least mine did. I have the feeling that the programmers had the intention to make the camera behave that way, because it really makes the action more realistic if your field of vision trembles a bit when you run; the thing is the camera effect is exagerated. You know what happens when you make love over the laundry machine? Well, that's the closest I can find to describe the trembling.
Now, the menus. Well, both inventory and order menus suck. And they suck hard. In the previous games, you had to assign a key to summon the inventory menu, and then you used another key (or the mouse wheel) to cycle through it. In this game, that's history. Now, you have to assign necessarily TWO keys, one for the "next" and other for the "previous" item, because there's no longer the "summon" option. And that means one key wasted. In a tactical type game, one key can make all the difference, because you have the liberty to do lots of stuff, like selecting weapons, team members and throwing grenades; having to assign two keys to cycle through the inventory is just a plain waste of keyboard. The order menu isn't so bad as the inventory menu, but once again you're forced to waste keys unnecessarily. In the previous games, when you wanted the whole squad to follow you, you just had to make a combination of keys. ALT+F, for instance. Which means you could use the single press of "F" for something else. Now, that's history too. You have no longer a combination option, instead you have to choose a single key for that action. Another waste of keyboard.
Well, the things I've just described are basically what pisses me off. Now, the good things.
Graphics:
Amazing, that's the best word I can find. They really make grow on you the jungle feel. There were times I found myself crouching and staying low when exploring the jungle, because I was affraid of alerting any vietcongs, or crumbling through a very well hidden booby trap. Awesome, really. However, it's a pity they sacrificed the overall playability to have such amazing graphics...
Sound:
Great! And the songs are awesome too! I especially recall one mission in which you go down the river on a boat shooting vietcongs and listening to 60's radio music. Oh man, that was really cool.
Gameplay:
If we put aside the camera thingy I didn't enjoy that much, it's okay. The characters move very smoothly, and it's especially very nice when you move lying prone.
This game may not add anything new to the genre, but these Conflict series are the very first games I play of tactical war games, and I've enjoyed them a lot. The story is very immersive, you have to interact with lots of surprising characters that appear throughout the missions. It's not only shooting and accomplishing military objectives, believe me.
In the overall, I'd say it's great. However, I wouldn't recommend to buy it - rent it first. In my personal experience, as I've explained, I didn't like the game when I started playing it, it just caught me now, because I've insisted on playing it.