Digital Bridges' Platoon, based on director Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning Vietnam drama from 1986, is an interesting, ambitious squad-based shooter. Unfortunately, shoddy controls and confusing goals make it less than fun to play.
In Platoon, you maneuver a team of six soldiers through various jungle missions that range from stealing a jeep to saving an American prisoner of war. Armed Vietcong soldiers are the game's main threat, and their booby traps and land mines run a close second.
You choose two soldiers, from among a total of six, for each mission. Each of the six soldiers has his own strengths. Sgt. Cain is both a tunnel rat and a guy who defuses bombs. Lt. Wolf is a sapper, so he's a master of explosives who, in this case, employs grenades in his trade. St. Hawkins is a sniper who's good for his precise aim. Doc is a medic who can heal other team members. King is a heavy machine gunner, so he's good for unveiling a heavy-duty curtain of lead on enemies. Finally, there's Weaver, a solid, all-around soldier.
The most radical part of Platoon is its unusual overhead perspective. Instead of turning the character in the desired direction, the game actually spins the landscape, keeping the soldier in the center of the screen. It's an interesting approach that has been used in some console games, but a Series 60 cell phone (like the Nokia 6600) doesn't have the 3D capabilities necessary to do it well. As a result, big objects like trees seem fine, but the view distorts the location and appearance of smaller items, like ammunition boxes and other soldiers. It's especially difficult when you're being ambushed, because turning to face an enemy soldier can seem to change his actual location.
The controls work reasonably well, but they are somewhat confusing because of the game's rotating landscape. Keys 4 and 6 turn the background counterclockwise or clockwise, while keys 1 and 3 make the soldier strafe left or right. The 5 key fires and * or # uses the soldier's special weapon, like Wolf's grenade or Doc's healing power, for instance. It's difficult to line up shots, because the rotating landscape seems to shift the location of all the in-game objects.
On the other hand, the gauges in Platoon are clear and unobtrusive in the upper screen corners. The left corner displays a traditional compass, which always points north. On the right is the soldier's energy bar, a picture icon of the current character, and your ammunition. Additionally, your soldiers sometimes engage in bits of dialogue; these appear just below the game's compass. They'll say such things as "I'm being attacked!" and "VC are everywhere!"
The missions themselves aren't that long, but they are pretty difficult--mostly because of a general lack of information in the game. For instance, mission three requires you to disarm trip wires before you can finish it, but you aren't given that information when you are selecting from the six characters for your mission. As a result, if one of your two selected characters isn't Cain--the bomb expert--you'll die during the trip wire part of the mission. If there is a way to defuse trip wires without Cain, the instructions don't list it.
The instructions do a reasonable job of outlining the controls, but your soldiers' various skills and items aren't mentioned. It takes a bit of guesswork to figure out that the random yellow boxes labeled "G-10" contain grenades and that the camouflage boxes contain bullets. Furthermore, an early mission has you steering a hard-to-drive jeep, even though the game gives no instructions on how to do so.
The combat isn't superfrequent, because there are usually a dozen or fewer enemies per stage, but it is interesting. The enemy soldiers will hide in the bushes, crouch down on the ground, and even shoot from trees. There is a real sense of danger and occasional paranoia while walking through the dense jungle. Unfortunately, some of this atmosphere is ruined by the game's bullet effects, because shots oftentimes come out as half-inch-long lasers. However, all of Platoon's explosions are spectacular. They're gratifying spectacles, even if you do happen to be in the napalm.
Sound is sparse in Platoon, but that's appropriate considering the environment. Again, explosions are a big plus here, putting a nice, pungent sound through the cell phone speaker.
With clearer objectives and better controls, Platoon would have been a fun title. Unfortunately, there are way too many problems throughout the game, resulting in an experience that's just too frustrating to recommend.
