Vietcong

PUBLISHER: GATHERING OF DEVELOPERS

DEVELOPER: PTERODON

ESRB RATING: TEEN; BLOOD, MILD LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE

GENRE: ACTION

PRICE: $49.99

REQUIREMENTS: PENTIUM III 700, 256MB RAM, 1.8GB HARD DRIVE SPACE

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS: PENTIUM 4 1GHZ, 512MB RAM, 64MB 3D CARD

MULTIPLAYER SUPPORT: LAN, INTERNET (2-6 PLAYERS)

Vietnam never quite caught on as a subject for gaming. Perhaps it��s freighted with too much emotional baggage, and certainly the graphics technology chokes on the dense jungle environments needed to convey the tight, sharp combat of Vietnam. Because of its unique place in American history, Vietnam requires a careful touch. Medal of Honor could work from the Saving Private Ryan template to convey the hard-bitten action of war, but there is no Saving Private Ryan for Vietnam.

So it was a surprise to find that Pterodon��a developer from the Czech Republic��has done a pretty admirable job of keeping a steady, inoffensive tone throughout most of Vietcong. In place of rabid gung-ho Robert Duvall�Cstyle napalm-sniffers, we get mostly professional military focused on their missions. The elements likely to get knees a-jerkin����such as the pidgin English of Vietnamese characters��may grate on PC sensibilities, but frankly, they��re not far off the mark. The enemy is treated as, well, the enemy. Vietcong are there to be killed. South Vietnamese are there to be protected or act as point men.

While Pterodon got the design elements right, it fumbled the graphical side. Instead of taking the simple and reasonable road of licensing an engine, it used its own scratch-built technology. The engine seems to have been designed to push a lot of polys around in order to make up the ambitious leafy environment of the jungle without a lot of advanced shading features, but there are problems. First, it doesn��t push those polys particularly well. Perhaps sensing the engine was not making the grade, the designers have an autodetect that downscales the graphics settings even for a top-of-the-line system. Even with this, the framerate takes the express elevator to the basement, which is generally unhelpful during the quick bursts of action that define this game; however, this is mostly due to the copy-protection, and an illicit no-CD hack does wonders for said framerate.

Second, the engine doesn��t really look good up close, and up close is how you see it when taking cover behind leaves seemingly made of Mega-Blocks. Clipping is elevated to high art here, with enemies��and your character��getting lodged in the landscape. That said, it handles the long view quite well, and the lighting is decent. Models are adequate to good, and some of the in-game scripting��such as gunships swooping in to support a firefight��are striking.

Since the campaign game is dedicated to U.S. Special Forces rather than standard infantry, the missions become more complex, resulting in a largely satisfying sequence of multitiered missions. While you enter the action with a squad (composed of a point man to act as guide, a medic, and a radioman), control over them is fairly limited. They act on their own initiative with consistently good A.I., using blocking terrain and covering fire. The game strikes an effective balance between pure action and a tac sim: You can take two, maybe three bullets, but not many more.

All this ties together to create a consistently enjoyable and challenging action-game experience compromised only by technical limitations. Vietnam may be far enough in the past to become acceptable fodder for gaming, and games like Line of Sight and the forthcoming Men of Valor certainly point to a mini-trend. These are difficult games to do well, making it a small miracle that Vietcong is as enjoyable as it is.

VERDICT (3.5): While it delivers a much better Vietnam combat experience than you might expect, the graphics can be problematic.

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.