Battlefield Vietnam

Review - Sam begins humming Brown Eyed Girl as the tanks roar into battle.

Everyone but our politicians and manufacturing industries know that war is something abhorrent that should be avoided at all costs. The pain and suffering war causes to societies is beyond description, as are the emotions of the individuals caught up in the fighting. No sane person would ever want to be a soldier engaged in a fight to the death in a war. Yet sane people the world over hunger for the thrills and glory of armed conflict. So let's thank the maker for computer games.

Battlefield Vietnam is the sequel to developer DICE's WWII themed Battlefield 1942. By adding a few tweaks and enhancements and yanking the Battlefield idea forward in history by a quarter century publishers EA hope to recreate the success they had with the first game. While you can play BFV at home on your own against the revamped bots the only real way to play the game is to get yourself online. You see, BFV is a team based shooter which gives the player one of two sides to choose from and then, having made their choice, it deposits them into the middle of a raging battle on some very large maps indeed. The idea behind the game is to take over control points. When one team controls more of these points than the other then the number of tickets that side has will slowly dribble down to zero. Drop to zero and it's the end of the round. If the losing side can rally and take over a few control points while holding on to the ones they already possess, then the tables are turned and the other side sees their ticket reserve dwindling in number. Every time a soldier dies his side has to pay a ticket as well. Some games are on a timer and others will only end when the number of tickets hits zero. Players can choose from one of four different kits, ranging from heavy weapons to snipers through to grunts and engineers. Any player can hop behind the wheel of the games many tanks, jeeps, boats and filled artillery as well as grab onto the control stick of a nearby helicopter or jet plane. The all inclusive nature of the combat, with individuals forming squads backed up by air and land power, is the big draw of BFV. The choppers can pick up manned vehicles and drop them behind the lines. Riding shotgun in a jeep, chopper or boat troops can be ferried around the battlefield, and there are a number of gun emplacements and traps on certain maps with which to turn the tide of battle.

The presentation of BFV is up to EA's high standards even though it eschews the flashy menus of their other titles. Most notable of all is the authentic 60s soundtrack. With over 20 original tracks the sounds of the war which numerous films and TV shows have associated with the times come blaring out of the speakers. Whenever you take the controls of a vehicle you can open up the playlist and ride into battle to your selection from the game's fantastic licensed audio. Featuring a number of songs that you will instantly associate with a particular 'Nam film, the power of EA's bottomless wallet has rarely been exploited to better effect than in this game's music. While some of you may groan at some of the tracks, EA has gone and gotten rare and dirty sounding versions of these classic songs. Which is a relief, as riding into battle listening to 'Time-Life' versions of these originally subversive songs would have been just plain wrong. The sounds of battle are also impressive, especially when enjoyed in 5.1. Unfortunately I encountered a good few problems with the sounds in the game. From stuttering songs and gunfire cutting out to some problems with getting the volume of distant battle right, the sound coding is one of BFV's weakest points. There's a lot of incidental propagandists chatter on both sides which add immensely to the atmosphere, and the radio chatter from your team mates is both informative and immersive. Unfortunately, these radio calls cannot be turned down independently of the main volume and they become a tiresome noise all too quickly. The fact that both the NVA and South Vietnamese chatter is all in the correct language may be realistic but it's a shame that you have to flick your visual attention down to the chat channel to know what is being said.

BFV walks a thin line between realism and the arcade. So while it may have been necessary to outfit the NVA with a lot more hardware than was common for the sake of balancing, it does dilute the game's otherwise strong adhesion to history to come under attack from waves of NVA helicopters. The weapon load outs for some of the soldiers stretch things too far as well. Anyone other than Arnie would have struggled to carry and fire an M60 from the hip while weighed down with an additional 100 rounds of ammo and a LAW launcher with five rockets. On the other hand, some of the realism has been used to good effect in enhancing the firefights. Each weapon is reloaded and cocked in the correct manner which can lead to some incredibly tense moments huddled behind a wicker wall or crouched in a muddy puddle.