Battlefield Vietnam

"Battlefield:Vietnam is truly just a great game,and deserves much recognition."

I think just about everyone has heard of Battlefield 1942 now. It has become well known now as one of the leading online games. Set in a World War II era,you raged battle online against other players,using everything from tanks to jeeps, artillery to battleships. It was probably the first game to do the whole infantry/vehicle combo right,without imbalance and problems. The game started out pretty badly due to major lag problems,glitches,bugs and other things. In the first week Dice had a patch already to fix some of the problems and eventually many of the things were fixed and the game was playable. Dice changed that,because now the game has hardly any problems and it was just released.

The graphics in BF:V have taken a big step up. Everything seems much more realistic now,especially player models. I noticed the character models look absolutely stunning,along with the added shrubbery everything looks lush. The vehicles look a lot better now too. Gun models look nice too,no real problems with them. Another reason the graphics look amazing is because it is all set in Vietnam. The jungles,trees,shrubberies and other things in Vietnam are represented nicely in the game.

An innovative feature that I feel was just great was adding music into the vehicles. If you hop in a vehicle,you can blast Vietnam era music such as War,Wild Thing, and Ride of the Valkyries. I'll set up a scenario,which actually happened to me,to show you how this feature is awesome. I was in the jungle sneaking around,mainly because my helo was shot down and I had to parachute out behind enemy lines, and I knew I was going to die. I just sat there prone waiting for some Vietcong to come by and maybe I could get a few shots off. All of a sudden I hear ''What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!'' and a tank comes roaring in kicking the crap out of the Vietcong in the area. I stepped out and got closer to the tank and we took the spawn point together,all while listening to ''War.'' It definitely is a nice feature to have.

Off that subject,I should talk about the sound/music. Starting with the music-Wow. They really captured Vietnam in this game. The music is all Vietnam era,and it really puts you in the mood. There's different 60's-70's songs like War and Wild Thing that play on the loading screen,and in vehicles when you choose so. Sound effects are very nice, the guns sound nice when they shoot, and everything sounds just as good as BF1942 sounded and a little bit better.

Controls are simple FPS controls. I really can't talk about them much because you can customize your controls. The game does handle nicely though. Planes and helos are easy to fly with a good setup, and the other vehicles are just as easy.

The gameplay is the main part of this great game,though. As I said before,the game plays just like Battlefield 1942. You play online on the U.S. team,or NVA/Vietcong team. You can use helicopters,jets,tanks,jeeps,artillery, and even vespas. It makes for some great fun online when big battles are raging on between tanks,infantry and even planes soaring above. It's really what makes this game so great; the intenseness. The main mode of play is called ''Conquest'',where both teams have to capture points on the map. Both teams have ''tickets'',which are just lives. Both teams start out with a set amount,and once a player on that team dies one ticket is lost on their team. If one team captures all the spawn points on the map,too,then the other team gradually loses tickets until the remaining forces on their team capture a spawn point. If they all die the game ends and the other team wins. It's the same as it was in BF1942,and I'm grateful for that. Never have to fix something that's not broken.

With all the new games coming out now,and later on,such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry,and Soldner, BF:V isn't going to get as much recognition as BF1942 did. And,although this game is great, there still are some things that need fixing. There are some bugs that need fixed I hear,but I haven't actually seen a bug yet. People complain about lag,yet,again,I haven't gotten any. The final word is, Battlefield:Vietnam is a great,fresh new game,and one of my favorite online games yet.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/04