Reviewed by: Ebow
Developer: DICE
Publisher: EA Games

I was apprehensive about this game. Having played and thoroughly enjoyed the multitude of free mods for the original Battlefield: 1942 (Desert Combat, the 'Nam flavoured Eve of Destruction, Forgotten Hope), the cynic in me saw Battlefield: Vietnam as a chance for the developers to cash in on the fan-made mods.

Developers - I apologise for my thinking.

BFV is to BF:1942 what Quake 2 was to Quake. Yes, the gameplay is very similiar, the graphics look similiar, but it is all taken to the next level and for me this justifies the investment in the new game.

The clue to the theatre of operations is in the title: Vietnam. As with BF:1942 you play as either side in this conflict, with associated weaponry and vehicles appropriate to that side. All seems like a BF:1942 mod so far, but then you get in-game and it's different enough to be very appealing.

Initial difference for me was in the graphics. I'm not an eye-candy whore, and am happy to turn everything down low and play the game with a decent frame rate but with blocky people/vehicles/textures. Not had to turn anything down at all with BFV, so I'm running with high textures, shadows, full effects etc and my frame rate is very playable indeed. BF:1942 won't run like this for me. Congrats to the developers for tweaking the engine enough for this to happen.

Gameplay-wise things are not so different. As with BF:1942 I've only spent time in the single player game to look at the maps before heading into the fray online - reports from other reviewers state that the SP in BFV is much improved. I can't confirm this and won't be spending time attempting to confirm it: I've bought the game to play online and that's where this review is coming from.

Conquest is the name of the game that I've mostly been playing. A series of capture points around the map need to be taken by each side, with the more held points resulting in a faster drop of "tickets" for the other side: when the tickets reach zero, the other wise has won (although a time limit may be reached before then). This is a great form of gameplay (as Bobi has pointed out with the very similiar gameplay mode in UT2004) and means you're constantly exploring the entire map to get to the next objective - as the enemy take backa capture point the dynamics of the game change and you must make the choice to hold what you have or all rush to the enemy held point, possibly leaving all your points open to capture. It's a nice catch-22.

The maps and associated hardware are the biggest draw for me. A huge fan of Vietnam war flicks, and the politics behind the conflict, the game delivers on both counts.

The jungle maps are extremely well done. The foliage is dense, the hills are steep and there is a wide variety of extras thrown in to make these maps different from the rest. A nice touch are the log stacks that can be released down hills (very reminiscent of Ewok powered anti-AT-ST tactics in Return of the Jedi) - while I've yet to see anyone fall prey to such a release, I am aware that once people learn where the stacks are they tend to avoid running underneath where they may fall. Static artillery pieces give both sides extra firepower to repel assaults, and with VC having punji sticks to lay among the jungle, these maps are an anxious joy to play.

The urban maps are a revelation. BF:1942 urban maps felt like the engine wasn't quite being stretched by having a map full of buildings. BFV urban maps feel like if you looked close enough you'd see Oliver Stone yelling "Action!" - massive building structures, muddy water filled holes, craters, bridges, and debris mounds. Put these with the amazingly disturbing psy-ops stuff playing in the background (VC chick stating quite calmly that "GI give up now, your planes do not care about you" etc) and the maps aren't just something to tolerate until the jungle maps appear again.

The vehicles push the game further forward as well. Helicopters in BF:1942 mods required either a steep learning curve (Desert Combat) or felt like they were on rails (Eve of Destruction) - in BFV the level of instant control is very good. Up and down, banking, and you'll hover if you're not going up or down. While this is very alike to the EoD chopper approach, it is just different enough to feel that you are actually in control of the chopper instead of just pointing it in the right direction and pressing "go". Extra graphical flourishes such as grass and stuff being kicked up as you land, and water being disturbed behind you as you fly over it add to the fun to be had in helicopters.

Fixed wing aircraft are included, with the lovely smelling (especially in the morning) napalm bombs being a laugh to release and a terrifying thing to be on the receiving end of. Plenty of the maps allow for an even match of aerial combat and ground troop work, and combinations of the two. Once such combination is the facility some choppers have to pick up other vehicles (tanks, boats) and transport them to anywhere on the map. This isn't easy to begin with (though perhaps I should have RTFM...) but once you've got the hang of it is most entertaining. Tanks can fire their weapons while you're carrying them, and you can drop boats in the middle of the jungle. And damn, it just looks so good ;)

Every vehicle has access to a music player that with two key presses will have the radio blasting out "War, huh! What is it good for!" and other period music classics. As genre-flavouring, this is incredible - the game just needs Paint it Black on startup and shutdown and you could be playing the TV show Tour of Duty. However, it can also be annoying - I'd like to have seen all the instances of a song playing at the same place - can be disconcerting having 4 choppers all playing Ride of the Valkyries slightly out of sync - sort it out in a patch please! Surely the system should work like a radio station - if you tune into Radio Valkyrie, its at the same place across the battlefield. A personal niggle :) Other players have found the noise this music generates an easy indicator to the enemy of your position (which fair enough it is), but it just adds a new dimension to the immersion so it's difficult not to turn it on the second you get in a vehicle.

From a history point of view the game delivers. The loading screens for each map give a little bit of overview for weaponry, vehicles and the conflict itself, taking neither side and openly admitting that the US goverment may have been wrong in what they were doing (I'm paraphrasing). Good to see a game take this stance, and that's me showing my age ;)

In summary, if you love the smell of napalm in the morning, want to run through dense foliage with an M60 screaming "Adriaaaaaaaaan" or are a big fan of the era, give the game a look, even if you have BF:1942 with Eve of Destruction installed. As with BF:1942 the gameplay is immersive with very short learning curves, with the bonus of looking better and with enough extra bits to not feel like you're being ripped off.

All it needs now is for each server to have team-autobalance on and I'll be happy ;)

Presentation	9
Beautiful game settings, nice interface too
Gameplay	9
Not losing CTF from the gameplay may have given this a 10...
Value	6
EoD and BF:1942 may be enough for you
Benchmark	8
Taking the Battlefield series up a step, prepping us for the modern-era Battlefield sequel recently announced
Score	8
An excellent addition for the gamer who's a fan of Vietnam stuff, and a right good jolly for everyone else

Battlefield Vietnam - get it now from Amazon!

Minimum Spec	Reviewed on
933Mhz processor 256MB RAM 64MB Direct 3d gfx card	1.4Ghz Athlon 1GB RAM GeForce 4 4400 Ti