Conflict: Vietnam

Conflict Vietnam is both the best among the conflict games and one of the best among the Vietnam shooters today. That isn’t to say it’s a superb game, but it has its moments and can make for a pretty intense ride at times.

If there is one thing I did notice is that many of the game’s textures are a bit blurry and bland which contrasts the excellent jungle architecture.

It’s the coolest Nam game of 2004.

The games controls are horrible, but other than that and the low replay value its a pretty fun game.

The Viet Cong are everywhere in this game, and they just keep popping up out of the bushes, just like the war movies and stories I know we’ve all read about the Vietnam War.

Conflict manages to go the extra mile by bringing us a realistic and enjoyable action game. It has its share of problems that occasionally get in the way but it never gets too bad that you won’t have fun.

It is sort of sad when a game bests its nearest competition simply by virtue of the fact that the average player can stand to play it the whole way through without smashing it with a hammer, but that’s really the best way to sell Conflict: Vietnam. Sure it has awkward controls, occasionally unclear mission objectives, and obtuse friendly AI, but it all boils down to player satisfaction.

This game is long...and the ability to save is minimal.

Replay value in Conflict: Vietnam is pretty much non existent, largely due to the game not been Live enabled.

The controls are cramped, the AI questionable, and the pacing and gameplay seems more geared toward an action-shooter than a stealthy military sim.

The tight and sometimes confused battles may be bad for the gameplay but great for the overall 'Nam experience.

The action does get intense, and if anything else, having to keep your eye on your comrades in a way highlights the grim fight for survival and tight-knit nature that all soldiers need in battle. [Oct 2004, p.129]

Fighting tanks, getting ambushed, and creeping through jungles provide enough variety to keep armchair generals satisfied. [Nov 2004, p.85]

There are some great elements and firefight sequences in Conflict: Vietnam but you just don’t see them enough. And when you do, it’s sometimes offset by other factors that ultimately mire Conflict: Vietnam’s better traits into gameplay quagmire. Instead of an exciting battle, you find yourself slogging through the game.

The lack of online support, weak multiplayer options, horrendous teammate A.I., and some buggy gameplay mechanics keep this title at strictly an above average level.

Amazingly, all of this still qualifies the game as the best Vietnam game this year (so far) and if you have a hankering for some Nam action, then this is the best way to go, but make sure you go for the rental first.

Just another squad-based shooter that will really only serve to pad the lower-middle ranks of the Xbox game library.

It's a solidly average game whose few original ideas are compromised by screwy controls, some pacing problems, and a punishing save-game system.

With only split screen to service your multiplayer needs, all you're left with is a solid, unspectacular single-player campaign that frustrates more than it entertains.

The graphics are average at best, and at worst are no better than some of the later PS1 titles with some very rudimentary texture’s. The levels themselves, right from the off seem to be needing another few months work to give them a much more paced feeling.

The ideas behind Conflict: Vietnam are there, the execution of the game just is not.

A very average shooter – as was its predecessor, "Conflict: Desert Storm" – that will receive attention only because of its setting.

The fluidity of character movement is absolutely horrid as the character you control moves in a sluggish and exaggerated manner.

Given your dim-witted team mates and the haphazard aiming, you're going to die quite often (mostly because of incoming grenades), and replaying such huge chunks of the levels is really frustrating.

Unfortunately, figuring out how to work the controller is absolutely infuriating, meaning you go into firefights against stealthy Charlie with no knowledge of your environment, opponent, or weapon.

It may control like a three-wheeled dump truck on ice, but that’s only scratching the surface of the problems in Conflict: Vietnam.

Fight the war with friends instead: Co-op mode minimizes casualties and lets the otherwise captivating "oh sh***!" moments shine. [Dec 2004, p.156]

If only the targetting system weren't so imprecise and the enemies weren't so overly hidden and prone to outmoded respawn, the fine level design and entertaining scenarios could have commanded much stronger impact. [Nov 2004, p.76]

Once again, it's the series' fun two-to-four-player splitscreen mode that sets it apart from other fog-of-war games. [Nov 2004, p.92]

The pacing, thanks to a combination of necessary haste and the weakness of your divided squad members, feels more akin to a corridor shooter; there’s a constant sensation of feeling harried and hemmed in. [Oct 2004, p.107]

Conflict: Vietnam earns another medal for a split-screen co-operative mode for up to four players. When your friends are controlling each person in your squad the game becomes much, much more enjoyable.

Another problem comes in how Conflict: Vietnam handles aiming. Whenever I drew my weapon in first-person view, a bulky rifle sight popped up and took over a good chunk of my screen. Making matters worse, the sight proved to be completely ineffective.

The mediocre graphics do an adequate job of rendering believable jungle environments, but the unattractive artistic style tends to jar with the hardboiled atmosphere. [Dec 2004, p.114]

Though there are some neat ideas like a very slick presentation and skill points that allow you to customize your characters, the gameplay is bogged down by sloppy controls, and the game has a horrible save system and poor AI.

Squeezing the Desert Storm games into the currently fashionable Vietnam setting was a mistake. Open landscapes are replaced by claustrophobic jungle, eliminating tactical freedom. Players edge along narrow paths, progressing from one firefight to the next.

Despite Conflict Vietnam’s faithful, regurgitated depiction of the reality of war in Vietnam, the mechanics of the game are far too poor to make it recommendable to any but the most hardcore fans of gritty war games.

Switching from an open threat such as the desert to the enclosed dangers of the Vietnamese jungle has caused Conflict: Vietnam to effectively cut out much of the need for having a squad in the first place; instead of having more freedom and creativity in taking down your enemies, your team become more like fish trapped in a jungle-shaped barrel. [Oct 2004, p.108]

Replay is a non-factor with no Xbox Live support, and the only way to enjoy it is to get your mates to enlist with you. But in the end, this one’s as much of a mess as the real Vietnam. Aim to avoid it.