It has the same essential trappings of Bad Company 2, with four classes (medic, assault, engineer and recon) and the squad based system, where up to four people can join a squad together, whereupon they can spawn at each other’s positions and gain more experience points for helping them out. These experience points feed into the persistent level-up system which allows you to use better weapons and equipment. Although you won’t, because you’d be mad not to just be the assault class and take an M16. It also still touts the awesome destructibility on show from the Frostbite engine, allowing players to demolish walls and level buildings.
Now, what’s truly great about Vietnam is how fundamentally it manages to change the feel of the game from its parent. Bad Company 2 is set in the modern (ish) day, and as such is often about medium to long-range battles with super accurate rifles. Vietnam is much more about close quarters combat, and firing from the hip as you sprint through chokepoints and kill-zones in an attempt to find any cover in the madness of the battlefield.
Rush is still the best mode (you know I’m right) so I’ll mostly be covering that. It involves one attacking team assaulting a series of two-stage objectives, all of which involve planting and defending a bomb at two different sites. When the attackers succeed at this, the next part of the map opens up and they assault again. This allows the level designers to really change the feel of the battles as they progress. The best example of this is on a map called Hill 137. It opens with the Americans fighting across a river and up the side of a steep hill. After this, they have to push through a trench network before blasting through several chokepoints for the final two sets of objectives.
At this point, the map really changes. Gone are the tight corridors and dense jungle. Gone are the ambush point the NVA players are so keen on hiding behind. In their place is a huge, open, scorched field, dominated by a hill (the titular one to be exact) which has a fire-arc over the trench-littered landscape. The Americans are forced to change their play style from one of slowly gaining ground, to performing wide flank manoeuvres and desperate charges across the open ground, spraying bullets as they do. Supported by a few lone tanks, desperately vulnerable to NVA RPGs, they eventually work their way up to the Hill.
And so ensues a desperate struggle, as US squads slowly and cautiously head up the paths cut out of the very hill, subject to ambushes from all sides at all times. This is where Vietnam comes into its own for giving the player a memorable experience, either heroic or horrendous. Working your way into the final bomb site with your squad, who you become increasingly reliant on and close to as the mission progresses, only to be leapt upon by a flame-thrower wielding Vietnamese soldier. Everyone panics, backpedalling and spraying bullets. This fear of being suddenly surprised and the constant sense that you’re heavily outgunned at every stage creates a fantastic feeling of place and atmosphere.
So, to summarise, it’s brilliant. For £10 (on PC at least) it’s some of the best gaming I’ve ever had. There are a few frustrating experiences, especially if you’re stuck on a chokepoint and your team isn’t very good, but it’s mostly positive. Looking at it on a purely cost-based approach (based on Steam’s pricings), it’s incredible value. Call of Duty: Black Ops (which I shall be sure to review at some point) currently costs £39.99 and came out only 9 months later than Bad Company 2, which, with the Vietnam expansion pack will set you back only £29.99. And trust me, it’s much better.
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