Battlefield Vietnam review

Battlefield Vietnam is the successor to Battlefield 1942 and, as the name implies, this time you’re going to ‘Nam, either as an American soldier or as a Vietcong. In many ways the two games are much alike and that of course raises the question as to whether or not you should invest in this game if you already own Battlefield 1942. We’ll try to give you an answer.

This is not a simulation

You might mistake Battlefield Vietnam for a simulation of war, but this is not the case. DICE has chosen to leave realism with games such as Operation Flashpoint and instead concentrate on giving you a fun experience. Every class in the game can operate various vehicles without any means of formal training or restrictions. This also applies to weapons that you can pick up from fallen enemies.

You might not need a license to go aboard one of the helicopters in the game, but a few hours of practice might be required if you don’t constantly want to be an unwilling suicide bomber.

Team play in multiplayer is the core of Battlefield Vietnam, just as in Battlefield 1942. Nothing beats the feeling of great teamwork and cooperation between real-life players and when the opposing team delivers an equally organised resistance it just makes the experience even better.

Napalm sticks to kids…

Battlefield Vietnam isn’t just a new skin for the original Battlefield. Players are still divided into classes, but each class now has two kits to choose from and these vary according to the maps. You have the classic grunt – equipped with grenades and machineguns - and the engineer who can make the roads unsafe with explosives and mines. You also have the heavy soldier with armour piercing and heat seeking missiles and then there is the scout armed with a rifle and the ability to easily spot a target.

The two warring sides are very different with regards to equipment. The Americans have the technological edge with their napalm bombs equipped jets, fast boats and precise machineguns, but the Vietcong have an abundance of deadly traps at their disposal, for instance the Bouncing Bettys: trip mines that jump up and explode when stepped on. They also have the lethal Punji Sticks that can impale the unwary soldier in an instant. Basically there is a lot of new equipment in Battlefield Vietnam.

Despite their differences the two sides seem very balanced. Both sides have mobile spawn points that can give an advantage if you place them right. This can be the decisive tactical edge for skilled players and it all serves to heighten the excitement in the game.

Artificial stupidity

The AI of the game unfortunately hasn’t improved much since the previous game. In-game bots still have the intellectual capacity of monkeys, which basically amounts to them running from spawn point to spawn point and shooting mindlessly. This certainly isn’t the strongest aspect of Battlefield Vietnam.

Multiplayer is where the game shines and nobody should really expect too much of the single player campaign, which hardly comes as a surprise.

60% more lethal

Battlefield Vietnam is only partially based on the same code as the original Battlefield 1942. DICE Canada have kept about 40% of the original code and rewritten and modified the rest. The game looks a lot like Battlefield 1942, but upon a closer look you’ll notice that more work has gone into the graphics department. If you have some decent hardware, you’ll certainly benefit from these improvements. Water effects are much prettier and the added bump-mapping makes the massive tanks very impressive. It’s not much, but it’s nice to see that the graphics have evolved.

The maps are all very dense and a lot of the areas have heavy vegetation where guerrilla warfare can really unfold. If you end up in the jungle you’ll often find yourself resorting to the mini-map to get out again which brings some authenticity to the game.

To create some variation in appearance the two sides now have some options in character creation. You can choose from two different uniforms and two different heads. It’s not much but it counts.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

In the sound department Battlefield Vietnam fares very well. You can listen to American radio stations and Vietcong propaganda in the game. DICE have invested in some classical songs of the era, and you can listen to these while the game loads. Furthermore you can play the songs in the different vehicles. The effect of swooping down in a helicopter with Ride of the Valkyries blasting out of your speakers, while the allied bombers drop napalm all over the place, is not to be underestimated.

If you want to expand the repertoire of the game, you can add your own MP3s to the playlist. You don’t get to be a self-made radio station for other players though, since you can only play custom songs on your own machine.

I was in ‘Nam

Battlefield Vietnam is not radically different from Battlefield as we know it, if you take away all the new shiny features. Is it worth buying then? The answer is yes. Battlefield Vietnam is in essence a lot more polished than Battlefield 1942 was when we reviewed it way back then. Obviously DICE have learned from the first game, even though it’s an entirely new development team that has created Battlefield Vietnam. Like Battlefield 1942 this game needs to have its code optimized, so you can expect some lag early on. This will hopefully be corrected soon.

No doubt some will like the previous game better, but it is all a matter of preference. There’s no harm in a little renewal, though the game at times seems to be a little over-influenced by some of the most popular mods like Desert Combat. It may seem like a cheap solution but it works and we can’t complain about that. Two thumbs up from here.



Source: Boomtown DK
English version by: Julian Henlov (Progrock)