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72%
PROS
Realism is good to an extent, using your teammates is fun, missions can be challenging.
LOWS
Graphics issue, sound can get repetitive, realism CAN get too annoying.
OVERALL
If you want to enjoy this game, you need to face the realism and avoid getting annoyed enough to quit out of the game. Good luck!
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As I started out playing the new Vietcong expansion, I began to notice the extreme realism that was put into this game. But there is a limit to realism… and this sucks.
As I am walking through the jungle in my second mission, small things like stumps and branches get in my way, which in other games you can just walk over, but in this game, they prevent you from moving forward. Also, I found that walking close to things made you put up your gun, but one realistic part I liked was the crawling animation while in the prone position. The booby traps are a pain. Some are wired grenades; others are trip wires with giant spikes. The worst ones are underground pits with sharpened stakes on the bottom. It's nearly impossible to distinguish these from the surrounding ground, and many times I get so frustrated with these POS traps, I alt-F4 out of the game and play CS.
The expansion was sort of hard to follow. I installed it, but then it said invalid CD, so I went through each of the four CDs, and found out that you use the original CD 1, which was not what I was expecting, but who cares? So I start out. The menu was exactly the same. Jungle sounds all good. On to my first mission… I have to find this guy that got his plane shot down. One hint, you need to use your point man. He is very valuable because he knows all the paths and objectives; always get him to lead and you will do OK. Second tip: do not waste ammo, because they are stingy. You can use all your ammo quickly, and have to resort to the pistol, which is a good weapon, but it's not in the same league as the others. Thank god this mission didn't contain any traps; it was a pretty standard follow objectives, kill guys mission.
But the graphics were lacking. It might be the video card I used, but I've got a 64 meg, and it usually stands up well. But here the textures looked really flat, and the frame rate was horrible, like sometimes it would just stop and go at 1-2 FPS. Sometimes I liked the reality, especially the inaccuracy of the guns because nobody is a perfect marksman. Don't take the automatics; they have too much recoil.
I liked the seamless integration of the radioman.
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He would receive calls that you would have to answer. My 4th teammate was the medic. He was probably the most unreal because I took 5 hits point-blank from Charlie, and the medic healed me to full health in just a few seconds. Keep him nearby; he comes in handy. So your party of four (five once you find the downed pilot) has to make it to an open space for the landing. That mission was easy. The enemies had some strange actions, but realistic. They ducked behind trees to reload, and sometimes shot in bursts, and even used a grenade once. They hide if you shoot them, and it takes two bullets to kill them, which is probably about right.
During the missions, there are a variety of sounds, normal jungle sound, water dripping, and birds, but it does get repetitive after a few missions. I did like the actions of the people in the towns, because they actually do stuff they would normally be doing. I saw a tree being cut down, for lumber I suppose, and I was impressed.
Overall, Vietcong: Purple Haze is a realistic game, yet not necessarily great. There is a limit on realism, and this is really toeing the line of garbage. But all in all, they keep it on the real side, and it wasn't too bad to play.
