Vietcong 2 [PC]

After what appeared to be a glut of World War II shooters, several developers tried their hand at Vietnam, with mixed results. Pterodon, working with Illusion Softworks, took a more authentic approach to jungle warfare -- a place where ambushes were constant, the enemy difficult to pick out much of time, and death waiting around every corner. Unfortunately, the final product had some performance issues, despite not having cutting-edge visuals. A few ports and expansion packs later, and Pterodon is at it again with a more urban-focused sequel taking place during the Tet Offensive in 1968. It was the NVA's big push south, just when the American military was at its most confident, and the game portrays it with appropriate hairiness.

What you'll notice right off is that, visually, not much has changed in two and a half years since the original Vietcong came out, and the engine, already a few steps behind back then, looks decidedly dated now. Textures are poor, interactivity is low, and particle effects are relatively rudimentary. And it still doesn't run well, with particularly noticeable sluggishness at the beginning of medium-range firefights.

With the damage model being the most unforgiving I can remember, this is not a good thing. You can get killed by small-arms fire in less than a second, and you can't fully heal yourself. Every time you take damage, your maximum health is reduced a few notches, to the point where you might end a mission with half the health you started with -- assuming you can get past the almost as unforgiving save point system.

There's a lot of aggravating death in between you and the average checkpoint. VC2 takes a page from Counter-Strike and allows the enemy to shoot you through the fringe of a door or other obstacle, which is annoying when you don't know where the shots are coming from. They're quite good at it too, crouching behind doors and unloading on you when you get too close. The enemy is also not afraid to whittle away at your health with surprisingly accurate pot shots. Thankfully, they don't throw grenades, or else I would be in a world of hurt.

The other side of the coin is that it only takes a few rounds to take out the average VC or NVA trooper, as long as you aim high. And you'll be able to order your team to focus their fire and move to points you've flagged a la Brothers in Arms. Unfortunately, you can't order individual troops or tell them to stay back or follow you. They'll start out following you by default, and certain scripted encounters will force them to get in line behind you, but once you give one of your two squad commands, they'll stop following, forcing you to tediously flag point after point like a rock climber as you progress through the area. Fortunately, you'll commonly have one team member who can heal you (health packs are rare commodities) and another who can supply you ammo. He'll give you rounds for whatever weapon you have, even the VC and NVA weapons, which is a little odd, but I didn't let it bother me. The game has so many quirks that just one more, and a benign one at that, isn't really a bother.