My initial impressions of SN67 were not favourable. The game just looked and felt mediocre (as anticipated from previous reviews, gameplay videos and screenshots). Occassionally a game rises above first impressions, not so this one and I knew after playing the first few missions that SN67 was destined to be one of my lowest rated games for some time.
For me SN67 has very much an arcade game look and feel. Perhaps this is because it's a clumsy looking 3rd person shooter. It's depiction of Nam is all wrong, for example the jungle is very sparce and the tunnels very spacious and well lit. What SN67 lacks in lush tropical jungle it makes up for with boulder strewn clearings and pathways. For the most part the dialogue is lame and the quality of the cut scenes is poor for a 2004 game. For a DX9.0b game the graphics are very ordinary even at maximum settings. Conflict Vietnam, also a 3rd PS, by comparison, is a country mile in front on gameplay, graphics, dialogue and "Vietnam feel". The only plus is that the period music in SN67 is pretty good, something that the recently played Vietcong 2 lacked.
This game, unlike some of the other more popular Nam games tends to put the spotlight on atrocities, including torture and brutal execution of prisoners, massacre of civilians (although there was a fine line between being non-combatants and aiding and abetting the VC) and displaying grisly "war trophies". Thankfully the average graphics of SN67 tends to minimise the impact of this. Vietcong 2 also depicted war crimes, by both sides, although this was not so confontating, whereas SN67's aim seems to be to gross-out the player. The game is reasonably careful in attributing the atrocities to a renegade VC General Ngo Diem, also known as King Cong, rather than the VC or NVA at large. Think Colonel Walter E Kurz, but this time as a VC ... with the heads and dismembered bodies of US prisoners adorning the places he has visited. Equally, not all your special forces colleagues are nice people either, especially Kowalski (Psycho) and Monty, one driven by insanity the other revenge, both brutal. So arguably you do get a balanced view.
Hanging around the base between missions seems to be par for the course in most Nam games including Vietcong and Men of Valor. In those games you can actually learn about the Vietnam War and its effect in-country and on the home front. In SN67 you can stroll around the camp, chat to nurses or fellow troopers but most dialogue is inane. You can also talk to Deuce who will sell you drugs, girlie postcards, and passes to the "R&R compound" in exchange for chits that you earn for completing missions and collecting trophies, like enemy flags, medals and documents, on missions. Some of these ideas are good, however for me the execution is marred by the 3rd person viewpoint. The alleged performance enhancing drugs Deuce sells don't seem to impact on your character's ability to absorb wounds or run for longer.
The R&R compound is where you and the local ladies can make like rabbits. Again, I'm not sure if this is really neccessary to incorporate into a game, but I expect some do enjoy this vicarious virtual experience. By the way, unlike the various grisly atrocities openly depicted in the game your R&R activities thankfully take place behind closed doors ... an interesting double standard in self censorship. Still some of the camp and R&R compound activities do lend a touch of the "Nam feel" by allowing your character to indulge in some between mission pastimes. However, as with the missions it eventually becomes repetitive and stale.
One could say that, in a perverted sense, SN67 does eventually develop a "Nam feel": after a few missions you keep hoping it (the game) will end soon and that you can get back to "the world" (or a better Nam game). While I could usually only face two missions at most in one sitting I did feel that as the campaign advanced the missions did become somewhat more interesting but alas the gameplay just detracts from enjoying them. Enemy AI leaves a lot to be desired. At times it's like playing "whack a mole" as the VC and NVA keep bobbing up and down and advancing on your position in veritable swarms.
Now to the missions ... well, there are eleven of them and there are some good ideas but most seem to follow the similar pattern of insertion, ambush, advance, ambush, advance, complete objectives (usually blowing stuff up with C4 or by shooting fuel drums), advance, ambush ... extraction. During all this you are remorslessly killing scores of VC/NVA who seem to appear from nowhere. The narrative, such as it is, is advanced via the pre-mission briefings and inter-mission in-your-face cut-scenes. As no walkthrough exists for the game I thought I'd give a (very) brief annotated run through the missions:
1. First Kill: introductory and training mission; simple jungle patrol, caves and destroy enemy AA guns with C4.
2. Hearts and Minds: booby traps, rice paddy ambush; search and destroy enemy caches in village, rescue journalist.
3. Fort Assault: a pretty full on mission with the need to clear two sets of bunker complexes in order to assault an old French fort that has "Welcome to Hell" painted in blood on it ... shades of Apocalypse Now meets The Deerhunter; free the POWs in the King Cong's chamber of horrors and escape the fort (time limited) before it explodes.
4. Night Watch: defend the now captured fort from a VC/NVA and sapper (suicide bombers) night assault.
5. Getting Special: recruited into the special forces you embark on a misty night mission blowing up lots of sampans.
6. Monty's People: your Montagnard scout is missing and you need to find him; rainy night mission, village, rice paddy ambush, rescue elders, ambush; destroy enemy camp.
7. Artillery Hill: destroy sampans; knock out enemy AA guns allowing for airstrike. Destroy enemy base in caves.
8. Men Down: ride helicopter manning MG strafing VC before insertion; clear urban area of hordes of VC.
9. Radio Silence: tunnels; building clearing in VC whorehouse.
10. Diem: battle through a large temple complex in what is probably the best looking mission map; boss fight with the almost indestructible King Cong (why have a boss fight in a supposedly historical shooter?).
11. China Beach: shot down en route to China Beach; captured by VC, held in tunnel complex, escape and return to defend your base; defend hospital and LZ, evacuate nurses; defend bunker against VC and sappers (suicide bombers).
Thankfully, THE END.
SN67's checkpoint based save system at times leaves a lot to be desired. I recall thinking I had completed a difficult multi-objective mission only to be cut down by a hidden enemy before I had passed the invisible checkpoint and having to start the whole tunnel clearing caper again. However, once you get used to the health system, which essentially means seeking cover until your health returns, you can pace your play and avoid your untimely demise. Even if you get used to, or at best tolerate, the clumsy gameplay neither the jungle or alleged tunnel clearing missions are very convincing. I played the game through on medium, which was challenging enough. I later replayed a few missions on easy and on this setting SN67 is really a run and gun shooter.
Glitches: well there's a few texture clipping issues, dialogue and character lip synchronisation, unavoidably shooting the drill instructor at the weapons range as the action button acts as a fire button with this character. Also there is a post-installation problem with scrambled graphics that effects some NVIDIA cards including mine ... look here for the well documented though simple solution: http://forums.mariosworld.org/showthread.php?t=195
Finally, the best weapon: starting about mission #8 you get the "Death Machine" which is an M60 with a back-pack ammo container holding 1,000 rounds. While not historical it is recommended to fend of the hordes ... although the RPD is similar and available in most missions from VC KIAs.
OVERALL: I bought this game after having read the reviews here at GameSpot so I knew I was likely to be disappointed ... being right is not always a good thing though! Despite some good ideas in mission progression, mediocre gameplay is what ultimately ruins this game for me. Thankfully I only paid $5 for it. All war is brutal; SN67 captures this brutality but whether the game is glorifying the horrors or trying to deliver a moral lesson is unclear.
Unless you are really a die-hard Vietnam game collector (guilty your honour) you should probably avoid buying this (at any price) and play the excellent Vietcong and Men of Valor FPS games (also reviewed by me at GameSpot) and you will NOT be disappointed.
BTW, I'm also playing Conflict: Vietnam, another 3rd person shooter, albeit more akin to a squad-based tactical shooter, and it is way more enjoyable, realistic looking and evokes a real "Nam feel". The jungles look like jungles, the tunnels like tunnels ... I could go on. Review of CV to follow in a week or two.