Vietcong 2

The Vietnam war has spawned its fair share of movie adaptations and video games, all of which depict the brutality of the battles and the gruesome loss of human lives that took place. Vietcong is a game series that did the same, using FPS mechanics to give you a first-hand look at the war from both perspectives.

Vietcong 2 depicts the gritty reality of the Vietnam war, by providing you with a unique multiplayer experience in which the two factions are fighting each other for control over the country. Using a multitude of weapons and vehicles, up to 64 players can participate in a match at the same time, which is more than plenty for some intense skirmishes across a variety of landscapes.

Naturally, the available weapons and vehicles are all modeled after the ones used in the actual war, as are the environments on which you compete against the other players. In order to use one weapon or the other, you must choose the desired character type at the start of the game, each one of which has specific functions on the battlefield, ranging from fast and agile scouts, to heavily-armed soldiers carrying massive weapons.

For the sake of realism, Vietcong 2 uses real environments to depict the multiplayer maps, which are taken from various cities and villages around Vietnam. The powerful graphic engine is able to handle very high-resolution textures and more than convincing special effects when it comes to explosions and the weapon animations.

As far as the actual gameplay mechanics are concerned, the game plays out as any other FPS, with no actual new ideas added to the old formula. Thus, even the multiplayer modes are the classic ones, including capture the flag and deathmatch. The vehicles, on the other hand, can be quite fun, although they could have been more refined and polished, since the physics engine leaves much to be desired, as does the handling.

In the end, beside the fact that it takes place in the Vietnam war, Vietcong 2 does not make any effort to improve the genre or bring something new to it. Instead, it encompasses all the old tricks and gimmicks into its gameplay, which, although functional, feel very overused and boring.