Battlefield Vietnam Review

So you see, even though it might seem at first like not much has changed gameplay-wise in Vietnam, the franchise has in many regards taken a new turn. I can't tell you yet if it's for the better or worse. (Wait, why I am writing this then?) Personally, I like the tank-centered combat of the original better, but that's just my opinion. On the other hand, piloting my F4 Phantom and altering the landscape with napalm on the Flaming Dart map was probably the most fun I've had in a while in a multiplayer game. Although I played as NVA numerous times, I couldn't really get to grips with the new features and that's why it probably didn't appeal to me as much as DICE would've liked. Alas, it takes several months to truly master a good multiplayer game, but game reviewers simply don't have that time (One of the few drawbacks of the job - Six).

Swish! Looks like that Huey missed us.

Torching the area with napalm.

Visually, the game has definitely been tweaked, but you won't notice it right off the bat. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the game was, "damn, it looks just like 1942!" As the initial impression wore off, I realized that this mostly had to do with the fact that the urban map I loaded up had very similar background textures to what we were used to seeing in BF: 1942. However, when you take a good look at the new surroundings you'll see that the models look a lot more detailed, courtesy of normal mapping, gun models are incredibly detailed; with animated ammo belts that sway as you run through the jungle, the jungle thicket looks lush and authentic even though it doesn't bring down the frame rate, and it's obvious from looking at metal surfaces that bump mapping and highly effective dynamic lighting has been used to enhance their appearance. Finally, the way the dirt flies up in the air when a nearby explosion goes off, and how drops of water spray in the air as the bullets hit its surface is clear evidence that the particle effects have been greatly enhanced. The visual advancements in this game are subtle, but they're certainly there and you'll become more aware of them as you keep playing. On first glance, this game will still look very similar to BF 1942 and it's apparent that the 3D engine hasn't been built from scratch.

The sound engine, on the other hand, has been rebuilt from the ground up and boy does it show! The sound effects are a whole helluva lot better. I have a 7.1 surround system hooked up to my PC, with an Audigy 2 sound card, and on a couple of occasions, correctly identifying where the gunfire was coming from saved my hide. As I had mentioned earlier on in the review, the musical soundtrack that you can play while driving jeeps, jets or helicopters is superb and it really gives you that "I'm in a Stanley Kubrick movie" feeling while you're playing. What kind of made me chuckle about it though, is that even the VC troops get to listen to Jimi while driving MiG's and other VC land vehicles. That's rather silly, don't you think?

There are a couple of important points I neglected to mention so far. The net code is good (I haven't had any major issues with it), and so is the frame rate. I've played the game for days and it only crashed on me once. The single-player mode is in many ways similar to BF1942, as the bots aren't that much smarter. But single-player never was a major part of the game anyway. Player classes remained much the same, but as I'm sure you've learned from the previews by now, each of them comes equipped with a boatload of new weapons and gadgets. It seems to me like the engineer class has received the biggest overhaul. While it's fun to be able to choose between two different weapon layouts for each of the classes, choosing head/body for your player model seems pretty much redundant as you only have a couple of options none of which look particularly appealing. That is unless you're fanatical about this game enough to scan your own images and include them in the game. Two very useful interface additions that make your life so much easier during combat are the on-screen readouts of the spawn zones and their distance in meters (you get that by pressing the 'Q' key by default), and the graphical representation of the amount of time left before the spawn zone is captured. These are, of course, subtle touches that help a lot when you're in the thick of things.

In conclusion, at first glance, Battlefield: Vietnam will seem like a beefed up BF1942 with a number of minor or moderate gameplay changes. Once you start analyzing what you've experienced, however, and once the new features start to sink in, you'll change your mind to some degree and acknowledge what DICE has done here. OK, so you could argue that most of what we've seen in the game has been featured in mods or expansions, and to a degree you will be right, but that's now a matter of what you expect this sequel to bring. Battlefield: Vietnam will provide a nice change of pace for the BF1942 fanatics, and it's certainly hella fun in multiplayer (that goes without saying), but it will also receive flak from some for not pushing the envelope even further. What I personally would've liked to have seen from DICE is even more creativity in terms of map design, game modes and player classes. Many of the maps are too reminiscent of the old stuff we've seen in the original and the expansions, and not being able to come up with a single new concept for how the game should be played kind of makes Vietnam appear even more conservative than it is. The catch here is that EA has profitable concept set up, and while they still allowed DICE to tinker with certain aspects of the gameplay mechanics (warfare), they wanted to make damn sure they weren't reinventing the wheel. I can't say I'm very enthusiastic about their logic, but it's definitely a sound business move on their part.