It's Nam in all it's horror.
The gameplay and levels are very good. It really makde you appreciate what these guys had to go through in Nam. The first level showed that quite well with friendly artillery blowing their own men to pieces and VC soldiers commiting suicide rather than getting taken prisoner. After the first level I was hooked to this game. Other levels include ambushes and guys getting killed by booby traps, raiding villages and searching for weapons, and it made for a disturbing experience. The time spent in between missions was at the basecamp which was pretty cool the first few times. It had some pointless things like stupid "Boom Boom" from prostitues that had horrible voices making you want to bleed from your ears. This feature seemed to have no effect on your character and was a waste of money. The Music in the camp was a good selection from the 60"s era. The first four levels really give you the Nam experience and are pretty kick ass. The rest of the levels are cool to but don't seem to deliver the impact the begginning of the game does. The levels don't have any music which was a nice realistic touch.
At the begginning of the game you get to choose between 3 characters but the story doesn't change at all. Your character doesn't really have much charcter development. You go from a fresh Grunt to a Special Forces guy, and the only things that changes are the way you look and the weapons you get. Some weapons are pretty cool especially the rocket pistol which was quite fun to use.
The sound was awesome and made you feel like you were there and the characters voices were very good. The weapon and explosion sounds sounded very realistic. The only problem I had was that during the cutscenes the sound didn't match with what was going on. Like someone would shoot but you wouldn't hear the shot until a second later. Like I mentioned before the music is very good also.
The graphics aren't the best but they are decent for a PS2. The grainy filter effect was cool and realistic. Character models looked and moved realistically especially when they died. The gore was insane but it made the game very authentic. Characters arms, legs, and heads could get blown off, even the entire person could blow to bits. Grenade explosions were the best I've ever seen in a game. The cutscenes looked very good were very violent and gory.
The A.I. was alright. The enemy would take cover, fight in groups, shoot accurately, and run from grenades. Your squad A.I. was similar but seemed to be more stupid than the enemy.
Overall, this is a great game for anyone interested in Vietnam or just plain war. This game isn't for the squeamish type but It is definately a must have title for any hardcore war gamer.