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Vietcong: Purple Haze is a narrative-based First Person Shooter set during the Vietnam conflict. Experience the war from the perspective of a soldier assigned to a squad of U.S. Special Forces running reconnaissance missions deep into the jungles of Northern Vietnam.
Utilizing any means necessary, players of Vietcong patrol various tactical regions – setting traps, gathering intelligence, calling in air strikes or ambushing enemy patrols. Over 18 dramatic missions featured in a cinematic single player campaign. Choose Quick Fight mode to fight as either a US or Vietcong soldier! Play online via Xbox Live against up to 8 players online in 9 multiplayer levels.
2004 appears to be the year the America and the world came to terms with Nam, suddenly the collective guilt of a nation freed up the media (film and computer games) to address the once taboo topic. So here we have ANOTHER first person shooter based on the Vietnamese war. You only have to take a quick scan down the Xbox release schedule and game reviews too see the numerous titles based around the war, Conflict Vietnam, Shellshock: Nam '67 and Battlefield Vietnam to name but a few. With all these releases there is going to be stiff competition for the top spot and body bags, but the question remains, was the collective guilt worth it? So come on baby light my fire.
Gameplay:
As we know this is a first person team based shooter, with a squad of special forced troops out on patrol in the Central Highlands jungle. The developers of the game have gone for a realistic approach to squad movements; this however does lead to a rather leisurely pace to the game, Halo frenetic it certainly is not. Moving from cover point to cover point comprises a majority of the gameplay. Purple Haze is relatively easy to master so long as movement can be done in a relatively silent manner (walking instead of fast movements) and open areas can be avoided.
One of the major shortcomings of the game is the AI, this is a BIG let down, gone are the chameleonic skills of Charlie, their elusive qualities that made them so hard to find let alone kill, but also for your own team mates. The enemies tend to stand still and allow you to attack them instead of running for the nearest fox hole, in fact the only time they pose any threat is when they are hiding in the bushes. Even at close range your squad of Special Forces are unable to shoot in a straight line, one modern trait of the US military that has been carried through into the game.
The game features a “Martini” game save system, meaning you can save at any point at anytime in a mission, now this does sound good at the time, but after 4 seconds of thinking, the toughest part of a mission can be saved just before that vital point, leading to missions being completed in about 25 mins, with only 19 missions to play though means you aren’t going to be in the jungle for a long time. Despite only 19 missions being available, they are all varied with a nice selection of objectives for each.
To combat the lack of single players missions, the developers have thrown in the now ubiquitous Xbox Live support, this has lead to the inclusion of such interesting new multiplayer games like capture the flag and team death match to name a few. There is also the option of playing through all 19 single player missions over Xbox Live with a team made up of your friends which is a genuinely good addition too the game.
Graphics & Control:
When Vietcong was released on the Pc in 2003 the graphics then were hardly classed as cutting edge, but the porting onto the Xbox has added some life to the canvas. Character models are pretty strong, but they don’t have the level of detail or modelling of other FPS like Halo or Halo 2. The dev team did a nice job on the vegetation, and it’s obvious that various botanical resources were utilized in order to get an accurate look (although the use of certain “vegetation” by the US military was a problem at the time). The dense jungle looks pretty from a distance and not terrible close up. There are hints when you get right up on things that the look is a crafty usage of single textures, but the overall presentation works, the graphics are pretty good overall for an adapted PC game.
Vietcong has somewhat standard fare for a FPS in the way of controls, but some of the access to advanced commands is unique. For one, players must hold the X button in to access their inventory, cycling through items with the right trigger. A similar system is employed for tactical commands, with the black button being held, and the right trigger selecting the various orders. This is quite tricky to get your fingers around, but once mastered works well and does not detract from the game.
Sound:
FPS shooters need good sound as par for the course, there are times when the guns need to go boom. Purple Haze plays like most FPS’ in this manner, but seems to really have nailed down the authentic-era weaponry. With some detailed help from a weapon enthusiast, Purple Haze contains about every Vietnam War firearm that you could think of, each with accurate look and feel. The standard M-16/M1911 U.S. combo and SKS/Tokarev NVA combo are represented, and represented VERY authentically.
The voice acting in the game is superb, managing to portray the sombre attitude and strife of a lifer in the military with the correct monotone and general disregard of happiness. He really does convey the attitude of a lifer who is reconsidering his career path and questioning the respect that his nation has for his tour of duty. The rest of the squad and HQ personnel sound equally good, each having a bit of a different accent and all well performed. Even the native pointmen have been made realistic, as in not knowing much English. A direct order to Sergeant Nhut usually garners the response: “I lead”. Overall, there is very convincing voice work on both the U.S. and NVA sides.
Longevity:
Due to the “Martini” save feature of Purple Haze, the single player mode can be completed in about 12 hours, this is not going to keep you coming back to it too try different approaches to the missions. What really helps the longevity of this release is the on line play again, the added unknown of playing a human especially with the AI means that this will at least last longer than just a couple of plays, although it has a severe lack of replay ability.
Round up:
Overall Purple Haze is not a bad conversion pf a PC game, but that is part of the problem, players who have played the PC version will not find a lot wrong with this release, but the console owner will bemoan the slow gameplay and lack of decent AI, the game really does not have that special “X” factor to make it stand out from the suddenly crowded Vietnam FPS arena, if it was released at the launch of the Xbox this would have been hailed as a great title both graphically and audio wise, but now gamers expect a lot for their 40 squid and rightly so. If you are undecided about the game I really would recommend renting it to see if you can get on with it, if that fails then you will be able to find some cheap pre owned ones in the next couple of months.
Pros:
- Great Voice Acting
- Good Xbox Live integration
- Excellent in game sound
Cons:
- Appalling AI
- Sluggish gameplay
- Very limited replay value
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