ShellShock: Nam '67 Preview

The easiest way to start writing about a Vietnam War-themed action game these days is to comment on the long-standing drought of such games in the marketplace and their sudden, inexplicable appearance over the last couple of years. It's as if the statute of limitations on the Vietnam War as source material for video games were abruptly lifted, and every developer who'd already plumbed World War II for all it was worth were hot to jump on a different historical conflict with less clearly defined moral lines. Eidos and developer Guerrilla's new third-person shooter ShellShock: Nam '67 will set itself apart from the pack of recent Vietnam War-themed games by taking full advantage of the intense violence and fuzzy morality of the conflict.

At the outset of ShellShock, you'll choose to play as one of three soldiers who are just arriving in Vietnam in 1967, when the war was still raging. Immediately you'll be thrust into combat with Vietcong forces alongside a squad of AI-controlled American soldiers, most of whom have already seen plenty of action and are therefore willing to share their combat wisdom with you (and also help you out in battle). Between missions, you'll return to a base camp where you can talk to your fellow soldiers about developments in the war, enjoy some brief downtime before your next assignment, and follow the development of your character as you progress from a wet-behind-the-ears rookie to a hardened soldier who has seen more than his share of the horrors of war.

Once you jump into a mission, the gameplay in ShellShock should be familiar to anyone who's played a lot of third-person shooters. As in many historically themed military games, you won't be able to carry "everything but the kitchen sink" in your inventory--you'll be limited to one heavy weapon, a sidearm or two, and a number of grenades. All the weapons in the game are realistically modeled after those of the period, such as the M14 rifle (which doubles as a sniper rifle when equipped with a scope) and fragmentation grenades. You won't be confined to your American arms, though, since you can pick up enemies' arms, such as the AK-47, after you kill them. Since you can carry only one heavy weapon at a time, you'll have to make strategic choices about whether or not to leave your current gun behind in favor of a new one.

In mechanical terms, the game plays out like most third-person shooters. You can crouch behind cover (so you don't get your head blown off, of course) or go into a prone position to further protect yourself and also increase your accuracy. Lying down will greatly hinder your mobility, though, so you'll have to make sure you're in a defensible position before you go prone. The game's camera is situated behind your soldier by default, but you can go into a zoomed-in view of sorts that will place the camera effectively right on your soldier's shoulder. This gives you a slightly closer view at faraway targets and is essential to picking off enemies that are using cover themselves. For grenade-tossing, the game gives you an easy-to-use arc that shows exactly where your 'nade will land based on your current throw trajectory. Finally, you'll be able to sprint if you need to cover short spans of terrain quickly--although running headlong into an enemy position is never recommended.

ShellShock isn't pulling any punches regarding the maturity of its content. Though Eidos has been pretty mum so far about details on the game, which was only announced back in February of this year, some of the early screenshots have already given ShellShock a reputation as a game that harbors disturbingly violent imagery in its depiction of the war. Indeed, the gameplay is grotesquely gory at times. Enemy soldiers won't just fall down when you shoot them--often a well-placed shot will literally shatter the cranium or sever the limb of a foe, with disturbingly bloody results. The dialogue in the game is also filled realistically with obscenities; admittedly, we imagine the soldiers of the real Vietnam War were foul-mouthed at times as well. In what may well be a nod to Stanley Kubrick's seminal 'Nam film Full Metal Jacket, you'll even be able to seek the "comforts" of indigenous females during your brief R&R time between the action levels.

From what we've seen so far, the graphics in ShellShock do a pretty good job of evoking the tense jungle battles of the Vietnam War. The level design typically requires you to proceed along a preset path, so you can't break from your squad and roam through the underbrush in an attempt to flank the enemy, but the paths you'll tread are filled with dense foliage, such as tall grass and low-hanging trees, and plenty of cover to duck behind during intense firefights. Similar to Guerrilla's other upcoming PS2 shooter, Killzone, ShellShock uses a film-grain-style filter that gives the game a gritty look similar to what you may have seen in old documentary or newsreel footage of the war itself.

The audio in ShellShock provides a nice complement to the game's visuals, as it's rife with realistic-sounding gunfire and explosions that really intensify the combat experience during a heavy firefight. Your men will yell back and forth during a battle to give you instructions or comment on an incoming attack, and the Vietcong forces will also taunt you as they attempt to take you out ("You'll go home in a body bag, GI!"). Also, as was recently announced, Eidos has licensed a good number of songs from the era, from artists like Percy Sledge, Roy Orbison, Sonny & Cher, and The Monkees, and this music helps lend some extra authenticity to the game as well.

From what we've played so far, ShellShock: Nam '67 seems to have quietly coalesced behind enemy lines--that is, inside Guerrilla's office--into an intense action game that attempts to evoke not just the combat but also the spirit of the Vietnam War era. Though we've only known about the game since February, our build of the game seems pretty complete, and indeed the developer has been working on the game without publicizing its existence since 2002. ShellShock is due to hit stores at the tail end of June, and we'll bring you more on it in the near future.