Vietcong is easely an overlooked and underrated gem
Let me list you the cons and pros of this game:
The Pros:
+ Excellent presentation
+ Great aresenal of real life weapons reminiscent on the Vietnam War era
+ Very likeable and believable characters
+ Great animations and shooting mechanics
+ Fun multiplayer
The Cons:
- Bugs and glitches that plagues the base game (without patches)
- AI could have been better
- Vietnam difficulty makes the game almost virtually impossible to play
Presentation:
Really authentic as it gets, this is one of the strongest points the shooter has on its favor. Everthing from setting, to characters, are very detailed and very reminiscent to the Vietnam War era.
Gampeplay:
This game comes with all the shooter mechanics that gives the sensation of realism, so I consider playing it as a realistic experience, but I'm still aware this is just a videogame where you can save and load your progress. First, you can carry a primary weapon, be it an assault rifle, submachine gun, machine gun, shotgun, etc., a sidearm, a knife, and grenades. Also, this game has a health bar, that if it's depleted, you can recover a part of it using a medkit or calling your medic from your unit. That's right, this shooter let's you play as the leader of a unit or squad, which has its special perks: you have a medic who can heal you anytime you're hurt; you have an engineer who can give you ammo in case you're running low; there's the radioman, who can, at certain mission, give coordinates for artillery support; there's also the pointman, who can take you to the objective within the safest route possible; and last but not least, you have a support gunner on your command. You as the player can do pretty much everything, you can use radios to report to base, check your map on real life manner, check enemy corpses for ammo, grenades or medkits, fire weapons from the hip or aiming down the sights, you can crouch and/or go prone, lean right or left so you can go behind cover and shoot even behind it. Now, the AI sometimes leaves something to be desired, but they react very quickly to everything you do. This is one of the main reasons i believe this game was way ahead of its time
Single Player Experience:
The games comes with a campaign that last depending on the difficult, +12 hours, which I highly recommend to play it on normal difficulty, because even on hard, is a really frustating experience. Also, there's a "quick action" mode where you have to kill all the enemies on a specific map.
Multi Player Experience:
I remember having fun playing numerous rounds of tdm and ctf, that even now, there are still servers with matches up and running. The multiplayer part of this game was, and still is, so popular because it has a class based system, where it goes from assault to recon classes.
Graphics:
For a game from that age, the game looks really good and very detailed, from textures to weapon and character models, and all from a game released like 8 years ago.
Sound FX:
This game sounds just right, and if there's one thing for sure, is that you'll love the music themes of the game, that just screams Vietnam War era.
Lasting appeal:
Every two years or so, I feel like replaying the campaing or have fun playing some multiplayer matches, because the game is that great, so when you buy it, you're in for a treat.
Overall:
Long before other shooters like Battlefield or COD (especially the first BlackOps) used the Vietnam War setting, this game takes on that setting like no other, I'm telling you, this is the most authentic Vietnam War shooter released so far you'll ever play. This game is definetely an overlooked and underrated gem that you need to play before you die.