Conflict: Vietnam
November 14, 2004
There haven’t been many titles in recent memory that stand out using the Vietnam theme. Global Star’s latest is yet another to grace the Xbox as a squad title and fails to do much to stand out from the crowd. Lack of Xbox Live support doesn’t help matters much either… Of course, you can always team up with up to three other buddies offline. But after playing this game, do you really want to?
Conflict: Vietnam is a decent looking title that overuses many textures to help recreate a dense jungle environment. However, the graphics are just not good enough to distinguish itself from the multitude of other shooters found on the market. One nice feature that was included is a bunch of licensed songs from the Vietnam era from Canned Heat, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Martha and the Vandellas, and more. There are even some really good voice acting included in the title as well. Now with all the attention to the sound and music, why wasn’t the same level of detail given to the visuals?
But the problems don’t end there. The biggest issue with Conflict: Vietnam would have to be the save game system. At the beginning of each level, players are able to save. However, during the course of any level, you are only given two saves to use. After you use both saves, that is it until next level so you better be smart and careful when you use your saves.
Players go through 14 rather large missions that are all fairly straightforward. However, you are asked to control a squad of four members that have their own abilities. The AI is so bad for your computer controlled allies, that you will have to spend time micromanaging every member to ensure they are using their abilities correctly. While it is nice to be able to switch and control another team member, I would prefer that I could just give them orders and they would be smart enough to carry them out. Unfortunately for the player your team members will not do anything you ask them to do so it is better just to switch and do it for them.
When one of your team members is shot, they are able to be healed for up to two minutes. After that, if you fail to heal them, they will die and you will lose the mission and be forced to restart from your last save point.
Most of the missions are pretty straightforward and can offer up a rather large challenge mainly because your computer controlled AI team members are idiots and the AI for the enemies is very cheap. After completing a level, you are given points to boost any of your nine different skills for each character. Don’t expect much of a difference no matter how many points you award your characters though. The extra benefits don’t amount to much.
Overall, this is a pretty average shooter and unless you are looking for a game to tide you over, don’t give this one more than a weekend rental.
CVG Report CardConflict: Vietnam
Rating: C-
Platform: Xbox
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