Fist Alpha is a short but satisfying and worthwhile add-on to Vietcong. New missions, maps and weapons.
The first mission, Thunder Over the Jungle, sees your character leading a routine jungle patrol and then being instructed to rescue a downed USAF pilot. This mission plays out in at least two alternate ways or timelines! If you follow Nguyen, your Kit Carson scout, you are likely to encounter the pilot after finding the crash site hiding from the VC patrols in the jungle south of a rope bridge that leads to the helo LZ clearing ... you simply escort the pilot there repelling a number of VC attacks and are extracted. If however you (Douglas) "freelance" and lead the team along different routes you will eventually find the pilot has been captured, bound and taken to a hidden VC jungle camp ... on this timeline you must rescue the captured pilot (kill the guard watching over him and cut his bonds) and blow the ammo caches hidden in the VC camp, before being evacuated at the LZ.
Now if you followed Nguyen and got to the evac point the VC camp is abandoned as they have attacked you enroute but you are given instructions to blow the ammo caches. [My 16 Aug 2009 blog and comments goes into this revelation in some more detail.] There are a number of pathways from the crash site and you will encounter more or less VC depending on the path selected there are even some natural cave tunnels above river level to the east of the footbridge Nguyen leads you over, one is a shortcut to/from the crash site the other takes you to the ledge where the VC snipers who overlook the valley with the dust off/VC camp location are positioned and you can shoot them as you exit the tunnel.
Based on this "discovery" I replayed some of the mission segments from Vietcong and it is apparent that there are a number of ways to complete a mission in Vietcong/VCFA. Basically the timeline develops differently if you follow Nhut/Nguyen or use your own initiative ... sometimes you do end up
tripping a booby trap or encountering more or less VC/NVA enemies. So debatably Vietcong and VCFA are NOT as "linear" as most story driven FPS games. All I can think is that if you accomplish your primary objective, in the case above to evacuate the downed USAF pilot, and don't trigger any
secondary ones, the mission is successfully completed. Logically unless you "see" the VC camp you cannot be instructed to blow the ammo cache as neither you nor HQ know of its existence. This is canny programming! I previously commented in my Vietcong review that the maps allow a great freedom of movement "off the rails" so it appears the programming is flexible enough to accomodate alternate approaches to mission completion which makes the game or its component missions eminently replayable.
So I guess before or after a firefight and a quick save, get out and explore it's worth it ... occassionally you will find/or be found by a well hidden VC or booby trap or perhaps discover a shortcut or flanking position! Now I'm not saying "go and smell the roses" when you are in the heat of battle but the Pterodon designers have created expansive and detailed maps with lots of surprises rady to be discovered.
The second mission, Op Golden Gift, involves a visit a nearby hill tribe village and meet the friendly locals just in time to repel a VC attack ... watch out for the VC coming in from behind the chief's hut on the hill! Your team is then lead by the chief's son, Lim, to a well defended rope bridge over a very deep gorge that the VC are using; you need to blow the bridge and then evacuate from a nearby LZ. A plus here is there are a number of alternate routes to get to and shoot at the VC camps at either end of the bridge.
The third mission, Op Pandora's Box, involves a helo insertion, preceded by numerous M60 strafing runs, to clear an area surrounding a temple for a landing. Once landed you need to fight uphill towards the temple complex ... the VC bar the doors; blow them with C4 and proceed to eliminate remaining VC before finding the hidden tunnel network with weapons and recovered bombs galore under it. Blow the tunnels and make way to helos. Alas this mission is fairly lame in the campaign as most VC are cut down by the M60 runs. However it is excellent as a Quick Fight as there is no helo mounted M60 prelude you have to fight ALL the VC to get up and into the temple (or even more fun as the VC defending the temple). I wish more historically themed shooters would let you fight as the "bad guys" albeit, as in many post-WWII wars, it becomes difficult to say who qualifies as the "good guys" and "bad guys" ... all shades of gray to me but I digress.
The fourth mission, Night Guard, sees you and Nguyen assigned to an MG bunker fending off a steady VC assault on your Nui Pek base camp ... this is quite tough but you do have a variety of useful weapons on hand: sniper rifle, M60 and M79 blooper. Eventually you are sent on a mission with Bronson through the minefield to destroy three VC mortar positions and then return to the base (I returned via the dry stream bed to the hill overlooking the camp without encountering any VC ... it was one of at least three paths back to base) to discover that Nguyen was killed during the VC retreat.
The fifth and final mission, Fist Alpha", is "off the books" in Cambodia this time with Nhut as guide. The mission is in three stages of arguably increasing difficulty. The first part sees you and team on route to the mission objective which results in a number of running battles against VC and NVA who come from all sides, including areas you thought you had cleared behind you, until you get to the transition point. This is tough, but in a good way. As elements of the subsequent mission segments require stealth I, with hindsight, would recommend the (silenced) Sten SMG. I went with my usual M-14 and had to rely on the silenced S&W which is not particularly effective unless you get a head shot which in the secong segment is difficult as you need to get close to the target and once you are seen the alarm is sounded and it's "mission failed". Anyway, the second segment requires you to sneak into a short tunnel system and blow up a radio, the tricky part is doing this undetected, however soon as the radio blows it's time to use your regular weapons and grenades. This is one of those move ... quick save ... move ... quick save type missions which can be somewhat frustrating. After this you need to blow up two howitzer positions and fend of VC counter attacks.
The final stage, which some dislike, involves an initial stealth section, basically eliminating VG MG and AA posts without being detected, again I was stuck with the silenced S&W. Your team splits into two groups, one to take overwatch positions on either side of a VC camp in a valley and the important thing is to use the map to get Crocker and Hornster to their assigned positions. You will need reasonable topographical map reading skills to find the MG posts (all marked) and then find Defort when the radio icon comes on.
After that its off to accomplish three key objectives: kill to VC commander, capture documents and blow up the fuel tank (either with C4 or just shooting it up with an MG). There are at least four main ways into the camp valley and the north and south approaches are safer than the one to the east which has a whole bunch of VC "sleeping" in little huts nearby. Note that the fuel tank, of the three objectives, MUST be blown LAST or it's "mission failed". Once done scamper back to meet the rest of your team assembled at the LZ for evacuation, fend off a final assault by the VC before the chopper arrives. Once the chopper takes your team out the B52s arrive to obliterate the VC camp in a nice cut scene. Mission and game over. Yes, alas that is it ... five missions and three of them quite short. But like Vietcong the end credits are entertaining ... it looks like the same VC versus SF skirmish along the river, only this time a herd of water buffalo have wandered into the fight.
My favourite weapons in Vietcong/Fist Alpha are the M-14, SVT40 (both on single shot mode), Degtarev MG and of course the PPS-41 for tunnel work. My favourite mission in VCFA, despite its hair pulling/teeth gnashing stealth sections was probably the most challenging. I think in Fist Alpha the real pluses are the SP Quick Fight "missions" and new multiplayer maps as some of the maps are great and you get to explore them to a greater degree than you do in a campaign setting.
Weaknesses, well apart from knowing that Douglas dies, is that for me the narrative structure is not on par with that in Vietcong. Also I found Douglas' character was difficult to identify with ... Vietcong's Hawkins is more the world weary type anti-hero that appeals to me and perhaps more what you might expect in a unit like the Green Berets. Also the sound track was not up to the Vietcong standard albeit the ambient jungle noises were very well done again.
What I find truly incredible in both Vietcong and it's Fist Alpha expansion is the level of detail in the maps especially as each game installs off 2 CDs, not DVDs! The character graphics are not cutting edge by 2009 standards, but are still VERY good ... sure it's not GRAW, R6 Vegas or COD4 "cinematic quality" but all the other elements make up for that and I'm yet to see better jungle environments (except perhaps in MOH Pacific Assault).
MODS: As part of this playthrough I have also tried the two major Vietcong mods available, one "Red Dawn" is an offical Pterodon MOD, apparently done during the staff's "spare time", with a fully scripted single player mission, Rice Fields. You play as Hawkins, inserted alone to recover a downed chopper pilot lost in a maze of rice paddies and being hunted by the VC. Hawkins only has a sniper rifle with limited ammo and has to get past a number of very good VC snipers and roaming VC patrols. When you get to the bodies of the VC you have sniped they have alternate weapons and ammo galore BUT none have a much needed medikit. So, unless you are a masochist I'd try this mission on "Easy" first. There are also ten new multiplayer maps modified to play co-op, including seven where you get to play as VC; plus there are a few with AI bots for a few of the CTF and ATG games (which I as a non-online player would normally miss out on).
The other MOD is "Rising Sun" by a German "Vietcong clan" which is a remake of mission #5 from Vietcong, that is tracking the POW, with some terrain and skin changes like a dam replacing the bridge, tunnels replacing a trench, etc with an abrupt change from an Arroyo-like setting to Halong Port at night to rescue the POW using that dreaded stealth gimmick.
SUMMARY: Fist Alpha is a short but enjoyable experience ... I guess rated as an expansion it should get a similar same rating to Vietcong but I guess I was expecting more single player content. However taking Fist Alpha AND Red Dawn together it is ratings-wise almost on par with Vietcong. Certainly the additional missions and multiplayer maps and unlocked "Quick Fight" mission maps make Fist Alpha (and Red Dawn) a worthwhile addition ... I'm not sure how Fist Alpha was priced when released, as compared to Vietcong, but it is a enjoyable "free" extra as part of Purple Haze.