Battlefield Vietnam Game Review

Admin - 2007-10-03 17:00:44 in Gaming, Software
Category: Gaming, Software
Reviewed by: Admin   
Reviewed on: March 25, 2004
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Provided by: Electronic Arts
Price: $39.99 USD

Introduction
Battlefield 1942 took the FPS genre to a whole new level. With the game’s detail, historical accuracy, vehicles, and focus on team play, it couldn’t get much better. Soon the great game would be followed up with two expansion packs and a modding community that rivals that of the ancient Half-Life. Mods like Desert Combat, Eve of Destruction, and Galactic Conquest took BF1942 to Operation Desert Storm, Vietnam, and even to a galaxy far, far away.

Now EA and Digital Illusions take us to another battlefield, Vietnam. It’s not another expansion for BF1942, it’s a whole new game with several updates based on their experience with the ever-so-popular Battlefield 1942.


Features

A Closer Look
Keeping with the original Battlefield, BFV is still a team based FPS with lots of cool stuff. The biggest change in BFV is the new graphic engine. The engine in BF1942 was good, but even then some of the jungle or tropical maps were left with the ground almost wide open, and really didn’t feel like a jungle. The new engine in BFV includes a ton of ground cover and foliage, and really puts you into the jungle. Snipers (and even non-snipers) can duck in the underbrush to avoid being seen by the enemy. This makes defense a lot easier, and offense a lot harder.

The next thing that changed, which IMO is absolutely awesome is the sound. I’m not talking about the machine gun fire, the explosion of a grenade, or the rumble of a tank. Those all sound nice, but the really nice thing is the music. While the music in BF1942 was good, it wasn’t anything to write home about. BFV includes it’s own licensed soundtrack, that is aimed at capturing the feel of a decade of war. It’s nice to see a game with some real toons, and hopefully this will set a standard for games to come. – EA Actually started using real music in Madden, and I’m glad to see they decided to do it in BFV. :)

The music can be played from the radios in jeeps, from propaganda towers around certain points, and even from loud speakers on helicopters. For those of you who remember the movie Apocalypse Now, you might like to know that you can blast "Ride of the Valkyries" from your helicopter.

To keep the sounds of battlefield from getting old, you can also add your own (mp3) music to be played. Very, very cool!

BF1942 had a lot of cool vehicles, and BFV is no exception. Helicopters, which were very popular in the DC BF1942 mod, are included in BFV. Being that helicopters played a crucial part of the actual war, not having them in BFV would have been a mistake. IMO the choppers are a bit easier to fly in BFV than those from any of the BF1942 mods, but I still prefer to keep my feet (even my virtual feet) on the ground.

In addition to flying around the map, choppers can be used to air lift equipment, which makes moving to a new “strike position” a nice tactic. Now, if you can just find someone skilled (or lucky) enough to accomplish it.

Fighter Jets have been given a radar which will show to you all vehicles on the map. Hopefully now, some people can avoid friendly fire. ;)

One thing that peeved me about BF1942 was that if you were ridding shotgun in a jeep, you were wide open to attacks, and couldn't do anything about it. In BFV that issues has been resolved, and you can now have drive by shootings at an enemy stronghold. (Some reason I see a gang related mod coming).

“Troop Kits” have been introduced to play. This basically replaces the old “class select” screen from BF1942. Now you select your class, one of two weapon options, customize your characters face and body. You also have the ability to pick up another kit by standing over it and pressing the drop/pickup key.

Some of the troop kits are better than others, but you are sure to find one that you like. A nice thing thats changes as far as the kits are concerned, many now include the binoculars and can radio “enemy spotted” and request for artillery, which previously only snipers could do. Also, several of the US kits come with med packs.

As far as multilayer game modes, you have conquest, and you have conquest. Actually, you have the ability to play a co-op version of conquest, as well as a new mode “evolution”. All evolution is, is an expanded conquest mode. How expanded? In evolution, a map begins as usual, then at the end of the battle the map’s alternate loads up. The scores, the team, and the player from the previous map are added to the new map and you continue on. so far the only thing I've found people playing online... Conquest.

I guess EA figured since 99% of the people played Conquest, there was no need to include CTF, or any thing else. Which I more than expect to upset a couple of people.

The single player mode of BFV sucks. The campaign mode is gone, however you still have the instant action mode. So if you were planning on playing this game off line, you are almost SOL. The AI ignores all camouflage, so hiding in a shrub is pointless, if your playing the AI, you might as well charge them. The best way to sum up BFV's single player aspect is, this isn't a single player game.

One of the biggest problems I had with BFV was getting stuck. I managed not only to get vehicles stuck, but also myself in various dugouts and areas with low ceiling. Also it seams that the fall damage needs a bit of tweaking as well, as I've managed to die several times running down stairs. The game also suffers from some balance issues, as far as fire power is concerned, but then so did the war, right? Hopefully these things will be taken care of rather quickly.


Bugs? BFV defiantly has it's share of them. While most are minor, some are very annoying (like getting stuck). I could go on for days listing the various bugs and glitches that BFV has, but since most of the Battlefield fan sites already have list of bugs, it's really not needed here. If you are interested in what bugs there are, check out the EA Forums, PlanetBattlefield, or many of the battlefield fan sites (Google it).


Music
As mentioned before, Battlefield Vietnam has it's own soundtrack. I ripped about 30 secs of music from many of the songs to give you a taste of what Battlefield Vietnam offers. Click on the track number, artist, or title to hear about 30 seconds worth of (mp3) music.




# Artist / Group Track
01 Edwin Starr War
02 The Trashmen Surfin Bird
03 The Triggs Wild Thing
04 Deep Purple Hush
05 Jefferson Airplane Somebody To Love
06 Canned Heat On The Road Again
07 Bobby Fuller Four I Fought The Law
08 The Guess Who Shakin' All Over
09 Rare Earth Get Ready
10 The Box Tops The Letter
11 Martha Reeves And The Vandellas Nowhere To Run

Conclusion
Whether you've played the old Battlefield 1942 or not, you'll probably enjoy Battlefield Vietnam. It's not the big shock and awe campaign of the original, but it does have its perks. The in game music is cool, but most people wont live long enough to listen to a whole song all the way through.

IMO the best part of this game is still to come. The mods. We've seen several incredible mods for BF1942, and with the updated engine from BFV I can only imagine what people like those behind DC, EoD, and GQ could do.

Gamers Review
You’ve seen what I’ve thought about the game. But what do others have to say about it? To get some other feedback on the game, we asked our forum members what they thought about BFV before posting our review. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

•
 clay31 "..I do however have one gripe, the single player game. I do know that the game was and probably always will be intended mostly for online play with other gamers like my self but a little more work could have been put into the single player game, mainly the AI..."
•
 r_target "...I like all the new weapons, however everyone is aware of the balance issue with the U.S. heavy assault class ("Animal Mother")-M60 machine gun is as accurate as a sniper rifle while prone or kneeling, and as accurate as an assault rifle while standing/running.In addition this class gets a LAW missle launcher..."
•
 AYoKoNA "Well my first impressions of this game were amazing. It is way more graphic intense and action packed than its predecessor. The weapons are far more superior, and sounds of gunshots whizzing by are intimidating..."
•
 Dignan "...After all this I still think of it as a fun game, but not revolutionary, nor something the was worth my pre-ordering"
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 xtry51 "The game is fun and I love the foliage especially with jungle maps. It got a little old in the past when you were playing in a jungle and had to run around ducking behind the sparse bushes and tree trunks."