Vietcong: Purple Haze

Added December 15th, 2004 by Dakota Grabowski

Introduction:

I’d like to start off by mentioning that Vietnam War themed first person shooters have now worn out their welcome more than either World War I or II. There hasn’t really been a decent Vietnam based shooter, whether from the first or third perspective. With that said, it was beyond the Gathering and Coyote Development’s control on if they could strain any type of quality out of a Vietnam War based game as failure has been the destiny of many games already trying to accomplish the same feat.

Vietcong: Purple Haze is a sub-par attempt by Coyote Development for their first ever first person shooter. Coyote Development has worked on only a select few titles such as Zoocube and Die Hard: Vendetta, so it makes me wonder why they didn’t drive to implement anything in the game to have them stand out above the rest of the clichéd shooters that currently overrun the market like Conflict: Vietnam and Shellshock: Nam 67’. Coyote Development did receive a helping hand in this project but it proves to be of no help as the game still seems empty and without a soul.

Gameplay:

Vietcong: Purple Haze is your typical and standard shooter. Nothing you’ll find in the game will astound you and give you thrills. Plagued by some stubborn squad A.I. and even horrible enemy A.I., nothing in Vietcong gave off the impression that the developers were trying for anything more than an average shooter. What you will find in Vietcong is a FPS with some squad based elements, a stereotypical story of a solider being dropped into the pits of Vietnam jungles, and some terribly annoying missions like search and destroy. Besides that you’ll find some stealth that is implemented wrong, that the Single-Player Campaign can be completed in one sitting, and of course mediocre multiplayer action.

Like I have briefly mentioned, the Single-Player Campaign is short, ridiculously short. It’s almost like the developers intended on making this game purely a rental. The game suffers from clunky controls and mind numbing moments that never show off the real horror of the Vietnam War. The A.I. is what got under my skin the most. Enemy A.I. is probably the worst I have experienced this year. They are never aware of your tactics, even if you sneaking up on them in the wide open. Also attached to the enemy A.I. is the habits of most new players to a FPS, but the AI is actually worse in most cases. They will run at you slowly and try to find cover but then forget what they were trying to accomplish with their ‘evasive’ move. After that you will try to gun them down and usually I would expect them to fire back at me but this time they decide to try and shoot the ground right from under my feet. What a great idea! Bad move on the developer’s part for not including any type of intelligent A.I.

There is some points in the game you will enjoy but that usually reflects on what you do rather than what the game processes. You will have some teammates that actually have a position rather than being a standard soldier. These character types give off the impression of a deep war conflicted shooter but is still doesn’t justify what is missing to make this a quality shooter. Online or not, this still fails to have any successful saving grace to make this a purchasable title.

Graphics:

The graphics could be an area that appeals to most when purchasing a game but Vietcong doesn’t really press the point of trying to show off the Xbox’s power. It does have decent effects and environments that are sometimes nice to travel through but it’s nothing to rave over. Environments will sport some foliage that give you an authentic feel of a jungle, but in most cases you will be angry at the glitches and underutilized cover areas by the enemy A.I. The jungles try to give off the feel of safety to hide from gunfire while also making you feel that you are in danger with enemies all around you. But I am comfortable to say, I had more time complaining that the graphics didn’t make the game any more satisfying after experiencing the horrible A.I.

Audio:

The music resembles what EA accomplished with their Battlefield Vietnam on the PC. Delivered is some tunes that reflect the 1960’s era with music by the likes of Jimmy Hendrix and, well, wait a minute… that’s not Hendrix at all. Well the music resembles some of the old time favorites for those who have any knowledge of what music was around the same time frame. The sound tracking isn’t inspiring and doesn’t even get close to warranting you to want to buy the soundtrack from a game like Battlefield Vietnam may have done. Other than that, Vietcong is stuck with some grim and dark voice-overs but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before within an action or FPS.

Controls:

If everything else was nothing but the standard, you should be led to believe that the controls are of the same. They are easy to master but like I state before, Vietcong doesn’t try to hard at all in any one category to impress the players. The same could be said about the controls and some bad responses that I experienced. On one occasion I was trying to order my squad to help out but the games response to what I was inputting with my controller was disappointing as it took forever for the action to be carried out.

Left Thumbstick- Navigate Soldier
Right Thumbstick- Move View and Crosshairs; double click to snipe
Left Trigger- Crouch
Right Trigger- Fire
A Button- Reload and Action Button
B Button- Jump (this will be useful as it seems this is all the enemies try to do to ‘outwit’ you)
X Button- Inventory
Y Button- Changing stance
D-Pad- Access map; Lean against object; Use binoculars
White Button- Change fire rate
Black Button- Tactics menus

Replay:

Xbox Live is in essence the only replay factor to be included in Vietcong. You won’t be picking up the Single-Player Campaign after you have beaten it the first time around. Now with Xbox Live being enabled the Xbox version actually is the one that has the most beneficial attachments to it. The Playstation 2 version doesn’t include any type of online components so if you must buy this game, the Xbox will be the superior version. Found within the multiplayer is 10 player mayhem on 9 levels. Included are some game modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Cooperative Mode and Assault. If you must bring yourself to buy this game, I am hoping you are buying it because of the online instead of the poor single player campaign.

Summary:

What’s left to be said about Vietcong? It doesn’t stand a chance when something actually with some value is developed on the Vietnam War. Vietcong isn’t the game to prove that the Vietnam War was a critical and harsh war to experience and I am assuming that after recent failures like Vietcong, Shellshock and Conflict in terms of quality, there won’t be too many trying to conquer the Vietnam War themed games for too much longer. Stick with a rental and you’ll be happy with the game rather than being disappointed with purchasing the game.