Vietcong is a great game of the Vietnam War ('67-68) that, if you take the time, can also be a learning experience.
Vietcong, as compared to MOV, has a far more forgiving game save system and a better zoomed aiming system. You can actually dive for cover behind logs or boulders and use the aim button to fire over the cover ... which is very handy. Both games use a "search the bodies" method for gaining extra ammo, health and intelligence. Both games make good use of period music and neither overdoes it. MOV uses letters to/from home to set the bigger picture about the conflict. Vietcong's period feel is captured in Hawkin's bunker through his diary that relates the missions and the broader context. While many will just want to get out to begin the next mission and blast away at Charlie, reviewing the diary and various intelligence/field manual
documents is worth the time spent. The scripted verbal interplay at mission briefings and cut-scenes can be quite enjoyable ... each squad member has his own "character".
You have a good selection of weapons that are unlocked as the game progresses. You can collect the handgun and rifle/SMG/assault rifle/MG you wish to take on the next mission by going to the shooting range/armoury near your bunker before you start a mission. Note that you can always change weapons for those of fallen VC when you run out of ammo or if with the engineer call him over for extra ammo.
Your health decreases with wounds and these can be patched by calling for the medic or using medi-kits additional of which you will find on about 1 in 3 VC bodies (you can only carry one). You will accumulate permanent damage that can't be healed as above but this is quite reasonable.
Friendly and enemy AI is pretty good throughout although you do see some wierd behavious as the AI characters attempt to get onto their programmed paths ... mainly trying to jump over each other. You will notice that the enemy AI is reasonably unpredictable if you have to replay any segments. Having just completed Max Payne, otherwise a great shooter, the enemy AI just did the exact same thing after each load game ... Vietcong, not so and as such don't be complacent.
Basic training at Fort Benning with the hard swearing Sarge was something straight out of Full Metal Jacket ... however somewhat overdone on the expletives and insults ... so keep this game well away from the kids! Four stand alone tutorial "missions", of which the third, on calling in artillery or air strikes using maps seems the most important but I don't recall using the technique in the game(?); the rest are normal FPS movement and shooting tutorials. There probably should be a swimming training course as well. Why? Well, keep in mind you will be going into swamps and along rivers ... but Hawkins cannot swim, and will drown, so stay in the shallow water!
I played the game on "normal" difficulty and it was reasonably hard in places but as long as you check VC bodies for ammor and bandages you should be able to progress well. There is an autosave mechanism that is triggered by walkie talkie contact (usually carried by Delfort when with team or by yourself when on solo, tunnel, missions), in addition there is a quick save system with a limited number of saves which are counted down to zero. Between the two save systems you should get through reasonably well ... however without knowing the length of the missions it can be difficult to know when to use quick save versus waiting for the autosave ... especially in the complex tunnel systems which seem to go on (or up or down) forever!
The first mission of significance is Mission 2: Three Canyons and this has a number of good elements ... winding jungle trails with ambushes galore leading to intense firefights, reminiscent of MOH Pacific Assault, with helicopter insertion and extraction at either end. So you think good, mission
accomplished time for a nice break back from bullets and sweat back at base ... wrong! Charlie's decided tonight's the night for Mission 3: Midnight Surprise ... a night-time infiltration assault of your base by VC tunnelers. Plenty of action in this short but intense mission ... your buddies however tend to block your movement through the trench works ... and you're on your own in the tunnels ... a short sharp journey ending in a nice cut-scene. Now you can really have that well erarned rest.
Mission 4, a long and action packed mission, starts as a "walk in the green" with your buddies, ambushed, find KIA and WIA from another insertion group with two guys taken prisoner by VC, fighting along trenchworks leading to tunnels ... again you venture in alone to find your captured colleagues. This is your first tunnel VC experience, on par with that in MOV. You however work your way through, with the requisite firefights and surprises, and out of the tunnels into a steep sided river canyon (or arroyo). While not as claustrophic as the tunnels more excitement is packed into this arroyo than is credible ... it's quite tough and you will find that the VC will appear behind you from a partly shielded gully. Fortunately you can use the numerous fallen logs and boulders for cover but this is intense. So far it was out of the frying pan into the fire ... now its time to add the gasoline ... yes you find a disguised tunnel entrance and enter a very complex VC tunnel complex, complete with school
rooms, hospital, accomodation quarters, punji pits, headquarters, etc ... it's very interesting and historically accurate depiction of a major VC complex. The game is kind enough to let you "explore" the various areas of interest once you have dispatched the VC quards and tunnelers at the locations, before you progress. You also get reasonably regular opportunities for auto save via the walkie-talkie ... so use quick saves sparingly. It is easy to get lost in the tunnels ... I used the flare sticks to mark important junctions.
What is rather unnerving in the tunnels is when they split off ... do you go straight ahead, left or right ... however it is fun to just poke around and see what the path ahead holds ... sometimes it's a dead end or punji pit. Other times it's Charlie and friends protecting his home away from home. To be honest I enjoyed the tunnel missions, having worked underground in my real life career it seems authentic, especially when you turn off you flashlight it's pitch black unlike some games and most movies. When you are underground and turn off your cap-lamp you see nothing, not even your hand in front of your face. The tunnel mission is pretty exhilerating and you do feel genuine relief when you dispatch the VC in a particular underground room ... the adrenalin levels can return to normal ... for a while. BTW, you don't use the C4 that you carry until you are instructed to despite finding several large arms caches underground.
Once you work your way out of the tunnels, alone as the POW has been taken elsewhere, you have to make your way through the jungle to a village where you are picked up in a boat on which you man the M60 and blast away as you make your get away ... akin to those behind the enemy lines car/jeep/truck chase sequences in COD and MOH.
What the tunnels in Vietcong may lack in terms of "atmosphere", as compred to the tunnel experience in MOV, especially in terms of eerieness using lamps, candles, shadows and soundtrack, it makes up for in terms of the sheer scale of the tunnel complex ... it's a 3D wonderland! I recently replayed
the MOV tunnel mission (4th savepoint in the Iron Triangle - Jungle Ambush mission) for comparison and both games do a fine job and are equally detailed; although much shorter MOV's tunnel mission looks better and is more tense simply due largely to the frustrating lack of a quicke save system in MOV. For tunnel work I recommend the PPSH41 ... tried and tested in the room to room battles of WW2.
The next mission (#5) is to rescue that captured POW, the first part of the mission is through a very dark, although moonlit, swamp. After this you end up on a hilltop overlooking the VC jungle camp and seeing the caged POW ... your mission is to get him out ... it can be a bit frustrating and involves a bit of luck. All I suggest is once you get close to the POW cage quick save, give the signal for the diversion and go in blazing with the AK47 like the proverbial Rambo, free the POW and make for the hillside heading along the trail to the hilltop.
Mission 6, a search and destroy across numerous river islands, is pretty tame. Mission 7 begins with you driving a jeep along windy roads in the highlands ... I have never liked FPS games where you need to drive fast vehicles/pilot aircraft using controls best suited to walking or running and this one is a race against time to boot ... did NOT enjoy this! Finally you get to a friendly base under heavy attack and assist in the defense ... spare weapons and ammo are inside the HQ bunker maze.
Mission 8: Radio Run is a good base defense battle, preceded by a helo ride manning an M60 to clear the LZ. VC attackers come mainly from the north towards the wire, but watch your flanks ... you have two strongpoints, west and east and you will find ammo and various heavy weapons, grenades and sniper rifles there ... you'll need them. You fight of the VC until the helo comes to take you home.
Mission 9 is another long and tense one in Cambodia, the first part of which is in the game's SP demo. Your insertion helo crash lands enroute to your main mission and your squad has to find its way through the jungle to rejoin the rest of the assualt force. Nhut earns his pay on this mission. Note that you will again, after a long absence, encounter various VC booby traps; follow Nhut, for example he goes over logs rather than around them for a good reason! After a few adventures during a monsoonal downpour you rejoin the main attack force clear out the VC and head, solo again, into the tunnels. Tunnels are short and lead you to a line of trenches on the hillside below a large ancient temple at dusk. At the temple you encounter many VC before the rest of the team arrives then you are volunteered to go into the tunnels beneath the temple. Only a few VC are encountered before you fall into the depths of the tunnel system and have to find your way out ... it's a veritable maze ... only a few scattered objects (eg. axe, matchbox, pottery, etc) to assist in navigating your way out ... I spent quite a bit of time "going around in circles". Once you are out you emerge in the dead of night on the edge of a VC camp which you can try and go around (difficult) or fight through (also difficult but works)! Once past the VC camp you head down through a dense moonlit jungle towards the river past patrolling VC, cross a wooden bridge fight some more VC, cross another log bridge and head uphill to another ruined temple for extraction ... before you get dusted off you need to fend off attacks by numerous VC ... I had no quick saves left when I got there so it was tough ... you need to find a spot with a narrow field fire and protected flanks. Eventually the chopper arrives! This is one long and tough mission ... being mostly alone. Probably not a good thing to be considered THE best tunnel man in the squad!
Mission 10 sees your squad advancing towards a friendly hill tribe village along a stream with sporadic VC ambushes along route; the VC have already been to the village and fired it; you then seek out the VC stay behinds and then make your way to an extraction point. Mission 11 is fairly easy. Hawkins mans an M60 on a helo shooting up a VC/NVA convoy and is then inserted, again solo, so you can blow up a key bridge and get dusted off before the obligatory bridge explosion cut scene.
Mission 11 is the final mission and involves fending off a series of VC/NVA attacks on your base; you man the bunker MGs until the enemy penetrates the camp; you then fall back to the inner defenses and hold off more attacks; the next day dawns and the NVA advances with its T34 tanks and you have to blow a small bridge over the anti-tank ditch to stop the tanks advancing. The bridge is blown and a cut-scene follows showing the SF team watching while the USAF fighter bombers destroys your former base camp. Game over. It's worth watching the credits with its aerial 3rd person view of an endless battle between your SF team and VC/NVA along a familiar stream ... thus the Vietnam War continues in the world of virtual reality ... no one wins ... just like the real war, I guess.
SUMMARY: Well, it appears that MOV has met its match ... Vietcong is now, in my opinion, the "equal best" Vietnam game available at present. Both games have their strengths ... both look and sound good, both have unique gameplay, both have missions representative of actual engagements, both games educate if you take the time to read the various documents, letters, diaries and listen to the cut scenes.
Subjectively MOV has a better ambient soundtrack, both make good use of popular period songs without you feeling you are starring in Forrest Gump Redux. MOV for me still has the better "Vietnam feel" and has a better visual presentation BUT Vietcong has better friendly AI and HAS a save system that prevents premature hair loss! Vietcong, unlike MOV, is NOT an on the rails FPS ... you can explore the environments without much restriction ... and surprises abound! Both are well worth playing and offer different viewpoints, albeit both from the US side, of the war.
Additional VC pluses over MOV: (1) you can play Quick Fight missions using the great maps as a "lone wolf" or with part or full squad as US or VC player and (2) you can play LAN COOP missions, as a single player (the enemy you kill remain dead and do not respawn), using the some of the excellent multiplayer maps with AI bad guys , though only as US player.
As I'm fully "locked and loaded" I have already started Vietcong Fist Alpha, which is a prequal add-on to this great game (as part of the Purple Haze edition)! Review, should I survive, will be coming soon.
UPDATE: A brief review of the two major Vietcong MODs, Red Dawn and Rising Sun, can be found in my 23 Aug 2009 blog.