Battlefield Vietnam

"A good sequel to a great game."

Warning, my review is based on the on-line portion of this game only.

I was getting pretty worried about this game as it's release got closer because of all the people saying bad things about it before it came out. Now that I have played it, I can put my worries to rest.

I will start out by giving my computers specification and what I am running the game at.

P4 2.4 ghz processor
256MB RDRAM
120 gig hard drive
Radeon 9700TX

I am running the game at 1024x768x32 resolution and everything else is medium, including sound quality. I haven't tried anything higher, though, so I might be able to get better because I am running at a pretty constant 30-40 FPS.

Graphics
The graphics have improved over the ones used in Battlefield 1942. For starters, there is much more vegetation all over the place. So much, that there have been several times where I have been walking and I stopped for a second, and when I looked to my left, there was an enemy sitting a yard or two away from me that I didn't even notice until then. Also, the maps that take place in cities are far more detailed compared to the Stalingrad and Berlin maps in Battlefield 1942. The buildings are bigger and have much more stuff in them, such as overturned tables or debris and rubble. The weapons look beautiful, as do the animations of reloading them. There is nothing better than seeing the chain on you M60 sway back and forth as you move to your next spawn point. The explosions also look better, especially the ones of vehicles being destroyed. No longer do strange, blackened shapes just fly through the air after your grenade blows up an enemy jeep that is passing by. Now wheels and other specific parts come flying off and move around after the jeep explodes. The napalm also looks pretty impressive as it covers the an enemy spawn point on a grassy hillside.

Sound
I do have a few problems with the sound, even though for the most part it adds quite a bit to the game. I love that they got licensed songs from the 60's to have play while you are in a vehicle, even though I find it pretty annoying when you have 2 jeeps and two tanks all playing different songs while they are five feet from each other. The weapon sounds are good for the most part even though I think that they could add more report from guns firing at you. There are times when I am walking and a person opens up on me with an M60 from nearby and it sounds like they are firing a silenced weapon. Other than that, the sound creates a really good ambiance.

Gameplay
There is really not too much I can say about this. If you liked the gameplay of Battlefield 1942, then you are probably going to like this game's. There are a few additions that I really like, the first being the addition of a meter telling how long until you cap a spawn point. Also, the addition of how having more people at a spawn helps you capture it quicker. This has added a lot more teamwork on certain levels and that is when this game really shines. Any First Person Shooter allows you to run around by yourself shooting as many bad guys as you can without getting killed yourself, but in Battlefield, you have other people playing on your side that you want to help to keep alive and hope at the same time they are trying to keep you alive. Some other notable additions are things like the ability to shoot your weapon out of vehicles like jeeps while you are a passenger and also the highly touted ability to carry land and sea vehicles by helicopter.

The bottom line is that BF:V has pretty much taken all that was good from the original and added better graphics and some cool new sounds and transplanted them into a new war. You can get the game for 35-40 dollars and you will be hard pressed to find a game that will give you this much enjoyment for that price.

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