Conflict: Vietnam Demo

The Conflict series hit the industry with a bang, thanks to its ingenious mechanics and exceptional gameplay that made it a pleasure to plan your way through the missions, knowing that you are in full control of your team and their behavior. Now, the developers take the same recipe and try it out in a different setting, exchanging desert dunes for the thick jungles of Vietnam.

Conflict: Vietnam uses the same mechanics as Desert Storm did, although it tries to improve on them by adding a few new gimmicks into the mix. Other than that, the game relies heavily on its legacy to lure the players in, coupled with the new campaign and a radical scenery change. Thus, the action takes place in Vietnam and it follows the story of a GI team that got trapped behind enemy lines and must make their way back to safety.

Along the way, you get acquainted with the new team and its members, who are just as charismatic and skilled as you would expect them to be. As before, they each specialize in different weapons, ranging from heavy gunner, to silent sniper. By combining their strengths and switching from one character to the other as the situation requires it, you must defeat the vietcong forces that you stumble upon along the way.

One thing that you quickly notice once you start playing the game is that the enemies are rather hard to spot, especially when they ambush you in dense vegetation throughout the jungle. While this is highly atmospheric and realistic, it is also kind of frustrating, because these look more like scripted events and you cannot anticipate them, regardless of how careful and silent you are.

On the other hand, the actual shooting mechanics have been refined quite a bit and you can now zoom in to use the sights on the weapons in order to aim. While this certainly increases your accuracy, it also leaves you unable to distinguish your surroundings, thus leaving you open to flank attacks. Moreover, the graphics are a bit too dark, which makes it extra difficult to tell objects apart in some situations.

In the end, Conflict: Vietnam manages to maintain the same amount of quality as the previous titles, although it could have used a bit more attention to detail and less linear levels. Moreover, the narrow paths make it very difficult for you to be able to organize your team, since there is nothing to shield you from bullets and you are bound to die quite often.