Conflict: Vietnam
| Conflict: Vietnam | |
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| Developer(s) | Pivotal Games |
| Publisher(s) | SCi (EUR) Global Star Software (US) |
| Series | Conflict |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 Xbox Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | EU September 3, 2004 NA October 5, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Tactical shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer - Split-screen |
Conflict: Vietnam is the third installment in the Conflict series of video games for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows.
Gameplay
A third person shooter, Conflict: Vietnam has the player taking control of a squad of four 101st Airborne Division soldiers on the eve of the Tet Offensive in 1968.
Multiplayer allows four players to each control two of the squad's four men and take on Viet Cong members and North Vietnamese forces.
Plot
The game begins with a narrative by Harold Kahler, who speaks about how the war slowly creeped up on him leading to his eventual draft in 1964. Kahler is a playable character but is also the most inexperienced in the four man squad of Ragman, Hoss and Junior, and is called an F.N.G by Hoss. Kahler comes to be known as 'Cherry' because of his rookie status, but is soon referred to as the Doc. The first mission begins with the four man team touching down at Ghost Town, which is the staging point and main base for the 101st Airborne Division's operations during the Vietnam War.
Before going on his first patrol with his fellow squad members, Kahler goes about collecting his weaponry and medical supplies before undergoing a brief training sessions as well as fending off a limited skirmish with Vietcong troops at an unsecured bunker. The patrol begins badly for the team when a M113 armored vehicle is destroyed by a landmine. Despite this, Ragman and the four man team carry on with their assigned mission successfully, clearing out a civilian village of attacking VC troops and securing a VC position further in the jungle.
Back at Ghost Town, the Tet Offensive has begun and the base has came under siege by a concentrated amount of VC troops including a T-34 tank. Fending off the VC wherever they can, Ragman and his team proceed to reinforce Colonel at the center of the base, where the bulk of the VC are concentrating their attack and where eventually the tank makes its way towards. With support from a Cobra gunship, the tank is destroyed and all remaining VC troops are eliminated.
Days after the attack, Ragman's team is on assignment with Blue Team to neutralize VC positions somewhere in the Vietnamese jungle. However just as a Huey helicopter prepares to land Blue Team, the helicopter is shot down by an RPG. Ragman's team scramble from the crash site of their own helicopter to link up with the Lieutenant and any other surviving members of the platoon, although all remaining troops from Blue Team are killed. The team manage to locate the Lieutenant, who is fortunately still alive and has a radio in which the team can call for evac. However, as the team and the Lieutenant prepare to ex-filtrate from the heavily infested VC position, the Lieutenant is surrounded and executed by VC troops, his body falling into a deep canyon along with the radio.
Left with no choice but to continue without the radio, Ragman's team continues through the jungle and neutralizes heavily fortified VC positions which block the way to the extraction point where a med-evac helicopter awaits the team. Just as the team breaks through a VC base, the helicopter is shot down by AA fire, once again leaving the team stranded. To further complicate the situation for the team, a flight of F-4 Phantom's have been called in to drop napalm on the position where the helicopter crashed, right where Ragman's team is. Fighting their way back through the VC base and avoiding the napalm strike, the team establishes contact with a PBR Patrol Boat on a nearby river.
After more fighting against the VC, Ragman and his team board the PBR at a passing down river. The boat's pilot, known as 'The Chief' informs Ragman and his squad that he is moving up to Charlie's Point, a garrisoned canal used by the VC to funnel arms and troops down into South Vietnam. The team uses the mounted machine guns on board the boat with assistance by a Cobra gunship to clear the canal and manage to get out without sustaining too much damage.
Just as they clear the canal, The Chief is shot and killed, forcing the boat ashore where a group of Montganards are by chance. The Montganard's headman informs Ragman that if his team can retrieve a sacred statue valued by his people, then they will release to the team a US radio that is in direct contact with the 1st Air Cavalry. The statue is stashed in a temple infested by hordes of VC troops, which also has captured Montganard civilians and arms caches. The team succeed in retrieving the statue and return it to the headman. As promised the team is given the radio, and they are flown back to another US base.
The team arrive at a different base, which by coincidence is under siege by an NVA armored Battalion, and the base takes heavy casualties (including a sniper named Private Foley, a possible reference to the earlier Conflict: Desert Storm character) but manages to hold. As the Major Wallace praises Ragman's team, a dying NVA soldier throws a grenade into the bunker the team and the Major are in, rendering them unconscious by the blast. The team and Officer are taken prisoner and forced to play Russian Roulette. Ragman and Major Wallace are the first to play, the first round killing the Major. Ragman tricks the NVA soldiers into loading three bullets into the revolver, which just as the gun stops spinning, Ragman uses it to kill the surrounding soldiers, giving him time to escape and free his fellow soldiers and civilians at the base.
The team commandeers an NVA jeep, and escapes the base. By chance they happen upon a squad of Australian SAS troops tasked with disabling a huge tunnel network system used by the VC to funnel troops in secrecy across the border. Ragman's team lends assistance by attacking at the other side, trapping the VC inside as the charges detonate. Just as the SAS and the team part ways, a USMC jeep arrives and takes Ragman's team to the city of Huế, where the battle for the city is about to begin. Ragman's team commandeers an M48 Tank and destroys NVA armor suppressing the US advance on the city.
As the team finish clearing out the remaining VC and NVA troops, they link up and hitch a ride with a Huey helicopter, which flies them into a VC position that has been fortified with captured US Hawk anti-air missilie batteries. The team destroys the AA positions, but as the helicopter leaves the area it is brought down by an RPG. The team survives, but the pilots are killed by a tank. Stranded once again, this time near to The Citadel where a NVA General is based, the team against all odds mounts an attack on the heavily fortified area, which ultimately succeeds, and ends the campaign for the player.
Reception
The game was generally well received, gaining positive reviews in a number of gaming magazines including a score of 91% in 'Gamesmaster'.
GameSpot gave the PS2 version of Conflict: Vietnam a 6.1 stating it as "A solidly average game whose few original ideas are compromised by screwy controls, some pacing problems, and a punishing save-game system".
External links
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