Vietcong 2 review

Fans of the original Vietcong’s natural environment and trial and error shooting will find little of the same in Vietcong 2. It’s there but the sequel is an altogether different beast. This time gamers are transported to the city of Hue during the Vietnamese New Year celebrations.

Swapping the trees and undergrowth for an urban environment (until later in the game), the majority of Vietcong 2 sees you in the shoes of Captain Daniel Boone. Opening with an awkward Apocalypse Now reference, we first see Boone lying half-dazed next to a hooker in a brothel.

Boone receives orders to get down to base HQ to escort a war correspondent called Jimmy Davies. Davies has flown in to keep tabs on the war in Hue, and you are acting as chauffer. It’s here the game takes an interesting – if entirely peculiar – turn.

War!

In what can only be described as a first for games of this ilk, for a good couple minutes Vietcong 2 becomes a first-person drinker. Standing in a room full of slightly sloshed superiors and fellow subordinates Boone traipses the room with a glass of wine in his hand, toasting the merry lot.

Faster than you can say “bottom’s up!” a rocket propelled grenade comes flying through a window and events kick off big time. And it’s here, no more than ten minutes into the game, where Vietcong 2’s problems ultimately surface.

But first, let us say this: Vietcong 2 is not a bad game. On the contrary, it’s actually rather good. But it suffers the same problems faced by its predecessor (and various add-ons) in that it just lacks the sort of polish required of such a game. Graphically it’s a decent looking title, but it isn’t as well optimised as it should be.

This means playing the game on a high-end rig will give as much stutter as a mid-range PC. The only other game with optimisation problems similar to Vietcong 2 is F.E.A.R. but that has the excuse of being ten times better looking than this. Another problem is a glitch where character’s mouths do not appear to animate unless you stand close to them.

What is it good for?

But putting its technical problems aside, let’s look at what makes Vietcong 2 good. First is the urban combat. Throughout the dozen or so missions as an American soldier (you also get to experience the war from the Vietcong side) Boone finds himself in some rather extraordinary scenarios.

Throughout these he leads a squad of three men: one subordinate, a medic and an ammunitions guy. You can order the three of them in a way similar to the squad control evident in Brothers in Arms. It’s much more rudimentary in Vietcong 2 (literally hold down C, point and left click) but it works.

Your squad does appear to hold its own quite well too. This does exploit one of the games other weaknesses in that most cases you can cheat your way through an environment by ordering your squad to go first. Then it’s a case of you coming along and picking off the loose ends.

Sometimes the game requires you to move alone, and it’s here you begin to appreciate how tough it can be. It’s also here where some of the wonderful level design rears its head. There is a sequence early where Boone is traipsing through back alleys leading into back gardens which I fondly remember. A shootout in a church environment is also one of the game's standout moments.

No, really, what is it good for?

Another area Vietcong 2 earns brownie points is in its VC campaign. So as to not only highlight the Americans the developer has seen fit to balance the events by letting you experience the war from two sides. Emotionally and engagingly the contrast between the two campaigns works extremely well.

It’s also during the VC campaign where those fans of the jungle environment will find Vietcong 2 at its best. Admittedly the levels are linear in that they are objective based (and like the US campaign you can order your squad ahead of you) and relatively short, but the diversity is welcome.

What isn’t welcome is the fact a lot of the dialogue becomes lost amidst the action. The VC campaign features foreign voice-actors with subtitles appearing whenever they speak. The problem is the subtitles sometimes appear and disappear too fast, or right when you are in the heat of battle.

Absolutely nothing!

Thankfully, having a foreign cast for this section means we don’t have to listen to the over the top and frankly rubbish voice acting that comes from Boone. Jimmy Davies is on the money however, as the war correspondent who covers some events you partake in at the end of each level in true grit style (shaky cam and all).

It adds a level of authenticity to Vietcong 2.

But don’t be looking for any semblance of a story here despite the developer’s claims and attempts to infuse one. And don’t be looking for something deep. It’s difficult to reconcile how a game based on such a grim event as Vietnam can become the context for a fun shooter.

But Vietcong 2 manages this, despite the presence of some rather irritating problems.