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Good idea, poor implementation
By Martin
Kingsley
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The jungle settings make for tense
gun battles
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The idea of team-based
combat is one that's been hit and miss in the videogame industry.
One franchise that seems to have gotten it right, however,
is SCi's "Conflict" series, which started with Conflict Desert Storm.
The next game in the series moves away from the 1990s
theatre of war in Iraq and goes back in time to the late 60s, to
the Vietnam war.
The premise behind these games is fairly simple - kill
the bad guys and complete the mission objectives, such as defuse
a bomb, napalm a village full of innocent civilians or go behind
enemy lines to save a hostage, all with four team members at your
disposal.
You can order them to do various things, such as dance
the funky chicken or scout a specific area. The big problem I find
with Conflict: Vietnam is that it is a good game, but only after
you line it up with the recent Vietnam-game competition, which has,
let's be honest, been particularly crap.
Seeing as we're such nice people here at Web Wombat,
we've decided not to compare SCi's latest with the competition,
instead judging it on it's own merit. As such, the first fault we
find is with the graphics.
If C:V came out as a second-gen game, I could probably
understand it, maybe even be impressed by it, but today is not 2000,
it's 2004, and we've just had Doom 3.
Sure, it's a PS2 game, but that's no excuse when you take into consideration
efforts like Free Radical's recent Second
Sight.
Textures are drab and blurred; character models are
lacking in detail and uninspired in design, and levels look positively
sparse when put side-by-side with PC games like Vietcong and Battlefield
Vietnam. It's less like Vietnam and more like your next-door neighbor's
untrimmed backyard.
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Graphically, Vietnam leaves a
little to be desired
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More noticeable even than the above is the invisible
constraints put on exploration. Specifically, one cannot wander
far from the beaten path, lest you run into an ethereal brick wall
that prohibits you from further bushwhacking.
I know it's there to conserve memory, but in this day
and age it's more than a little disappointing to see a modern developer
like SCi pull such old-fashioned tricks in the name of frame-rate,
particularly when the end result looks like this.
A nice soundtrack and the occasional bowdlerised crack
from your Marine buddies liven up the atmosphere somewhat, but it
really needs some Jimi Hendrix and maybe the occasional Rolling
Stones track, both of which are notable only due to their unfortunate
absence.
Also leaving something to be desired is the AI, which,
while decent, has some serious problems with path finding (a common
occurrence in a lot of games today).
While the above criticisms might make Conflict Vietnam
sound like a bad game, it's actually not. There are some nice set-pieces,
some of the missions are quite innovatiove and the action can get
very frenetic at times. The multiplayer option also makes for a
good bit of fun with friends.
For those who enjoyed past 'Conflict' games or team-based
shooters, this could be your cup of tea. For everyone else, it'll
be good for a rental.
Game: Conflict: Vietnam
System: PS2
Players: 1-4
Online: No
Developer: SCi
Distributor: Atari
Rating: 65%
(Ratings
Key/Explanation)
Conflict: Vietnam is on the shelves now.
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