Now a three game veteran, the Conflict series has built up a faithful following with its unique mix of squad-based tactical run, gun & drive gameplay. Previously set in a 90s desert obviously based on the first Iraq war, the latest Conflict goes back in time to 1968 and throws you right into the middle of a real conflict, the ‘Tet Offensive’ – a period in the Vietnam War where the NLF (the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam, or the Vietcong (VC) as Americans would dub them) would eschew their favoured guerrilla tactics and use more conventional forms of warfare, taking on the US forces in a straight fight and attacking many strategic and politically sensitive US targets…
So what does this mean for us lot? – Well you get delivered by chopper into a forward US base (encouragingly called ‘Ghost Town’) and literally get dropped in the deep end; you can initially explore the base and speak to a few other grunts and officers in the unit (they all have their own opinions of the war and how it’s going, and their language is realistically ‘colourful’), and after a brief training level the base is attacked, and life will never be the same…
From the start it’s clear that Vietnam is the prettiest Conflict yet, with tidier graphics than before and a nice blurring effect that gives a good impression of depth and distance. Huey choppers clatter overhead and the base really feels alive. Footsteps raise dust, water ripples, some of the undergrowth moves as you brush past it... flies and moths buzz around too – and when the (torrential) rains fall it really feels wet. There are detailed textures everywhere and much-improved lighting and shadows. Other new additions to the series include the ability to peer round corners (Rainbow Six 3–style) with the D-Pad and visible gun sights rather than just a cursor when you switch to first-person view. Previously in the Conflict games your squad’s abilities (accuracy mainly) improved with experience, and now you also get to choose how your squad members improve with points to allocate to various attributes (various weapons skills, booby-trap disarming, medic skills etc.) – so if you want an absolutely fantastic sniper who’s practically useless at everything else, then you can have one. The squad’s improving skills are a lot more noticeable than before – and this is just as well, because initially, and to use the vernacular, your guys can’t shoot for sh*t.
You are put in the place of Private Harold Kahler (nicknamed ‘Cherry’, as were all new recruits) but can control any of the squad as soon as they’re assigned to you. You select each soldier with the D-Pad and can order any of the others to any visible position, or to mount a weapon or vehicle, disarm a booby-trap or even to heal another downed soldier. This clever system also allows you to decide which way they’ll face, or make the whole team follow you, fire at will, or hit the ground when the shrapnel starts flying. Sometimes fiddly, the control interface works well with practice, and on-screen prompts let you know when the guys can carry out context-sensitive commands (like pick up weapons/ammo or open a door). One gripe I have is the display, which gets terribly cluttered at times (especially when there’s a HUGE gun sight slapped in the middle of the screen).
A 14 mission campaign makes Vietnam the biggest of the Conflict games so far, And the levels vary from twisting jungle mazes to bombed-out city areas, the weather varies realistically too - but one thought did keep coming to mind - where are the the rice paddies and rolling hills?. The VC seem to be a lot more aggressive and better trained than the rather clueless conscripts from the previous desert-based games. The enemy AI is sometimes rather suspect as they run straight by you (presumably to get to the point at which they were triggered), but the enemy is seldom less than challenging as their shooting is accurate and their ammo as plentiful as their numbers. They also have some nasty tricks up their sleeves too (I won’t spoil the surprises for you). Unfortunately your squad’s AI seems to be as vague as before; if ordered to ‘fire at will’ they seem to shoot everything in sight, and some you can't see (except the guy who’s stood right behind you all shooting you in the arse), but if ordered to follow you will still dopily bumble into the path of a tank as you sprint for cover – they have no sense of self-preservation and their survival is mostly up to you, making the game quite a juggling act if you play it alone. You end up peering cautiously round every tree on a jungle trail, bend in a road or corner of a building. Ironically, this constant feeling of being in peril is never more apparent than on the odd occasions in which the squad gets to ride rather than walk; you’ll get to drive a jeep, a tank and an APC, but you never feel safe for a second in the land vehicles, as RPG-toting VC lie in wait seemingly round every corner and the roads are often mined too. One RPG hit will take out the jeep or the APC (particularly annoying if you haven't saved recently), so the guy on the machine gun better be on his toes (or you can drive and shoot if you prefer), or it may be a better plan to scout ahead and clear the route so the vehicles have a safer passage until they can be of some real use. Either way, when combined with the cramped design of the levels it ain’t much fun – there may be no CDS-style fogging in Vietnam but there's also no zooming around like you occasionally got to do in the more expansive levels. You also get two on-rails sections in a river gunboat and a Huey gunship, which adds a nice bit of variety, but the feeling of being a sitting duck is never far away.
The co-op mode is as good if not better than before; 2, 3 or 4 players can play split screen and then CV really comes to life. Some levels are just so tricky that simply completing them is a trial that will test patience and friendships to the limit, and playing them on anything less than a 28” TV is virtually impossible as you just can’t see what’s going on. Although the frame rate remains steady throughout, for some reason aiming can be annoyingly twitchy in the split screen mode, though you do get used to it and there’s auto-aim help if you want it, but there’s no loss in graphical detail, which is impressive in itself. It’s a shame that Pivotal haven’t bothered to get system link or Xbox Live co-operative modes working either – I’m sure CV would have been a huge hit on XBL.
Conflict Vietnam is without doubt a more grown-up game than the previous games; harder (taxing, even) to play and with added bad language and gore (you now get blood splatters and heads get blown off, ragdoll physics add to the realism of grenade deaths too). Some battles feel more like the Alamo than anything else (or maybe Custer’s Last Stand), where survival is the only aim. Far detached from Desert Storm, where you felt like the good guys on a crusade/boys day out with guns, here CV gets close to reality as you often question what good you’re doing and why you’re there - your squad members often vocalize these doubts too, particularly the sniper ‘Junior’, who is “short” (not got long left of his tour of duty). Naturally enough CV borrows bits from several of the best Vietnam movies; you’ll certainly be reminded of Platoon at times (Kahler could be Charlie Sheen), a city-based section is pure Full Metal Jacket and a particularly disturbing segment comes straight out of The Deerhunter.
The game always sounds right – sharp weapon noises and frightening explosions. Some decent voice acting, an in-game orchestral score and a few songs from the period also add atmosphere (most notably The Stones’ Paint it Black) and Martha Reeves’ Nowhere To Run).
Tense, surprisingly immersive, tough to play - even nasty at times (to the extent that I needed regular breaks from it), Conflict Vietnam kept dragging me back – maybe that’s an indication of how good it is, maybe not - one thing’s for sure I won’t be playing it through several times like I did with the two Desert Storms – it was a real battle to complete (on the 'Medium' setting), and for me wasn’t as enjoyable a gaming experience as its predecessors – but maybe it deserves extra kudos for that.
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