Vietcong 2 takes place during the 1968 Tet Offensive placed in and around the city of Hue. There is a pretty good storyline derived from first-hand accounts and memories from Special Forces and infantry servicemen. Players will battle across 14 distinct locations as they progress through the game. For the first time in the Vietcong series, players can play two story-based single-player campaigns, allowing players to experience both sides of the conflict. Players will wield more than 50 weapons from the era and can command some military and civilian vehicles to gain the upper hand.

Players will have to complete the US campaign to unlock the North Vietnamese campaign. Both campaigns play a bit quickly on the normal setting, but like most FPS games, longevity will come from Multiplayer, which thankfully this game supports. The US campaign centers more around an Urban setting while the Vietcong campaign puts you back in some real lush forests. Both offer a variety of objectives and are quite enjoyable to play.

Visually the game lacks real immersive graphics that as gamers we have come to expect from recent releases. Unfortunately Vietcong 2 doesn’t even compare. The graphics look a bit behind the times, say 2-3 years. With new releases constantly raising the bar for eye-candy, the game just looks too blah. Still it is fun to play but lacks luster I have come to expect from this genre. Audibly the game does support 5.1 surround and does sound pretty good. No real music from the time, in other words artists like Hendrix or CCR, but the music definitely reflects the era. Whoever wrote or performed it did a great job. The sound effects reflected most everything we have come to expect in wartime FPS. Gunfire and explosions ringing in your ears from a nearby KA_BOOM, it's all here. The voice acting was pretty decent, but very repetitive. And the language could rival any Vietnam War movie, The F-Bomb is dropped quite a bit, but hey that’s war.

Vietcong 2 does support Multiplayer and has some great games like Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, Co-op, and CTF. At the time of the review there were some problems with the CD key for games played on the Internet via Gamespy. These seem to have been worked out for the last few games I have played. Though the company says it tested the online play for three months, they are pointing the finger at Gamespy. In either case I feel this is a perfect example of why game makers should support their own multi-player hosting and stay away from other vendors.

Some pointers I would have would be to check out the alternative key mapping options. The default keys you learn from the in-game tutorial are a pain if you are a WASD player for movement. The alternative keys such as F (USE) and C (command) are much better than having to reach around the board. It's great if you’re a lefty though and use your left hand for the mouse and your right for moving with the arrow keys. In either case I guess you could say the controls cater to both types of players.

The early part of the campaign has you talking to players that you really do not need to and at first gets old really quick. Thankfully you do not do this through the whole campaign. I understand the developers' intentions in trying to deepen the storyline but if I need to know something let me run up on the guy/gal and let them speak to me. Please don’t make me click on needless characters repeatedly and keep asking the same question just to find out I could have bypassed them entirely with no effect on the game. Again thankfully after the first couple of objectives this goes by the wayside.

The combat focus on the game is pretty good on the normal setting and can be a bit challenging. I had to question some of the team AI but the enemy was pretty good. Your medic and engineer seem to have suits of armor and when they do buy it, miraculously they come back to life. In short you can do quite well by sending them in front of you and taking the brunt of the battle, or keep your medic close, and constantly get healed darn near infinitely. Same holds true for your engineer - a constantly re-supply of ammo. Not all missions will have them near you, but when they are the realism goes right out the window.

In short is the game fun? Well, it is for now. It just can’t compete with games that also have in-game command capabilities like Brothers in Arms or great combat like Call of Duty. The game plays fine, but visually it falls a bit short of those titles and upcoming releases. My favorite part of this game will be the capture the flag in multiplayer. Many wargames have forgotten this tried-and-true favorite, and I am pleased to say that it is offered here. Hopefully when more players get online, I will get to play it. For now deathmatch games have kept me quite busy.

Gameplay: 7.0
The action is not too bad but the whole talking to people, and having to hit a key to do it gets annoying as all heck. Fortunately that didn’t last long. The AI of the friendlies had me screaming get out of the friggin' way more than once, and it seemed that most doors opened inward which more often than not I was too close to open and fire into the room effectively. Sure some doors I can see that happening, but like I said more often than not. They had some good ideas, but just fell a bit short.

Graphics: 7.0
Visually this game looks a bit dated. It lacks the stunning detail that we have seen in most recent FPS games.

Sound: 7.0
The sound effects are pretty standard for the genre of the game. Though the voice acting was not too terrible, it was just to repetitive at times. It supports 5.1 surround and has pretty decent music. Some later missions in the US camping had some sound clips breaking up like hearing two radio broadcasts at the same time but only every fifth or so syllable. It was in Vietnamese so who knows what the heck was being said. I think it was like "can you hear me now?" My point is that there are some sound issues that need to be worked out.

Concept: 8.0
I like what the developers have intended for making a bit more of a storyline with interactive characters that you talk with. Unfortunately, there are ton of characters early on that you end up talking to that you could have passed by and wouldn’t change the game at all. This takes away from the fighting and gets old real quick. Two story lines are a great idea.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Yes, it's available with up to 64 players at a time. Unfortunately there were some problems when the game was released and hopefully everything is on the straight and narrow by the time you read this. Again I played in a couple of games that seemed to be fixed after a few days of disappointment. Thanks guys for bringing back CTF

Overall: 7.2
Not totally bad. The game had some great ideas though it fell short in many ways. The missions themselves are quite interesting and fun and admittedly I did enjoy them despite some of the shortcomings. I guess for a MSRP of about 30 bucks that’s a fair price if you are fan of the genre.