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Battlefield Vietnam Review March 19, 2004 Jakub Wojnarowicz |
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Summary: Battlefield 1942 blew us away. Desert Combat kept the love going. Battlefield Vietnam is a sequel which has a strong heritage to live up to. But does it? Will Vietnam improve upon the pedigree, or be the game that everyone wants to forget, like the war that is its namesake. Come, join us on this wonderful philosophical journey as we explore the mysteries of the universe.
 Overview | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
The graphics of Battlefield Vietnam are like a miniature version of the game itself, when compared to Battlefield 1942. There are some major improvements, as is the case with the addition of pixel shaders, but these changes have limited scope. Most of the improvements are really small changes that seem more like minor updates than anything else.
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The pixel shaders are used to great effect on the water and metallic textures, and improve the appearance of skin on characters, but these aren't drastic changes. Gamers are more likely to be struck by the incredible amount of textures and filler items placed on levels. Trees and bushes litter most maps, and the ground is completely covered in grass and shrub textures. Although it's not the three-level-canopy jungle of the real Vietnam, the terrain in Battlefield Vietnam is remarkably lush and rich when compared to Battlefield 1942 or almost any other game, for that matter.
When you think about it, the biggest change isn't so much the game engine as what the designers have done with it. All the foliage and junk spread around the simulated wilds of Vietnam is really more of a change in level design. Doubtless the engine has been upgraded to handle the extra textures, but there's no question that this is the Battlefield 1942 engine with nothing but a new coat of paint.
Whereas the graphics were an incremental upgrade, the sound effects are exponentially better. Every sound is crisp, clear, loud and without any sign of distortion. You'll hear a chopper's blades in the distance as its speakers scream out Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, and all this is almost drowned-out by the sound of tank duels, while your fire your M60 machinegun and hear the sound of shell casings hitting the ground. Bountiful is the word I'd use to describe the sound in Battlefield Vietnam, if I felt like short-changing the game.
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Yet most of the game is really unchanged. The physics, motion and general style of the game engine are identical to Battlefield 1942. Vietnam also takes a cue from Desert Combat in helicopter controls, though BF:V is arguably more forgiving.
| Gameplay | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
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For those unfamiliar with the Battlefield system of play, let me describe it first. Each team starts off with a certain number of tickets. Every time you respawn, you use up a ticket. However, tickets will also count down for the team that doesn't happen to own enough flags. Now what "enough" means varies by map, but generally a count-down won't start until about two-thirds of the flags are in one team's hands. The more flags a team has, the faster his enemy's tickets go down. The ticket counter isn't rapid, but it's quick and steady enough to give a decisive score advantage to the winning team. The flag capture timer is dependent on the number of friendly and enemy soldiers within capture range - so three friendlies capturing a flag will do it three times as fast as one, but only twice as fast if an enemy is around. This has the welcome benefit of being able to capture a flag despite a well-hidden enemy.
Unlike vanilla Battlefield 1942, both teams have spawn points that are permanent and cannot be captured. On most maps, there are also mobile spawn points available. For the American and South Vietnamese faction, this normally takes the shape of a crate that can be transported by helicopter, but on some maps it's a large river boat. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces make do with tunnels which are picked up and moved by engineers with shovels - don't ask.
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As you can tell, realism isn't really a focus of Battlefield Vietnam. It wasn't so in Battlefield 1942 and we're not complaining. Some of the most interesting and useful features of the game wouldn't be possible if it was realistic. Helicopters can pick up tanks and armored personnel carriers to move them around. Although a difficult and risky task, it's extremely rewarding when pulled off right. Nothing wreaks havoc with an enemy's plans than dropping a tank on top of a hill that overlooks their forward base.
| Flaws | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
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Still, there is something clearly lacking in Battlefield Vietnam. It's not the production values, which are stellar - in fact EA licensed many songs identified with the war, and these can be played in helicopters. It's not even the graphics; I'm perfectly happy with lower detail in exchange for better performance and huge maps. It's just that there's a general feeling that this game could be better, somehow. There are a few easily-patchable specific problems we can name, but Battlefield Vietnam clearly lacks the wow factor of its predecessor. This game just isn't as great an improvement on the original as Baldur's Gate II or FreeSpace 2 were.
There are more acute and inexcusable problems, however. First and foremost among the list have to be the bugs and performance issues the game has. It's remarkable, but EA and DICE really haven't learned their lesson after the Battlefield 1942 launch. Although the problems aren't as severe, they're obvious enough that we have little doubt that EA actively chose to release the game in this state.
The most obvious issue is the lag. In the days I've been playing online, I have yet to encounter a server that won't stutter and warp my character around consistently. While it may not happen all the time, it will occur at least once every few minutes, particularly at a busy spawn point or in a fight. Most servers, even some of the official EA ones, have constant lag problems. This is despite trying all four connection settings (56K, ISDN, ADSL and LAN speeds) and the comments on servers and message boards clearly show I am not the only one with lag issues.
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Then we're bewildered by some of the bugs and "features" of the interface. The icon to enable Punkbuster is all but invisible, at least on this reviewer's screen. It took random clicking around the "Enable" text to find said button. Even worse - and this has been independently verified - the server browser can't sort servers. Want to re-arrange the list by ping? Good luck, you can click the sort button all day without any effect. Not that we'd trust the pings reported by the browser in the first place. What seems like a steady 120ms ping can be 250 once you get in game, or stay as 120ms but be quite choppy due to erratic packet delivery. And don't even get me started on the load times.
Finally, there are some game design problems that should be addressed. The default control setup remains quite odd - just who uses K and L to for chat? The voice commands are unclear and constantly spammed; we wish for more effective flood controls. Even with team damage off, griefers have far too easy a time disrupting the team and while players have numbers assigned, it seems like no one seems to know how to vote. Class balance is yet another problem, neatly summed up by Tycho from Penny Arcade, "Between your disposable rocket launcher and your heavy machinegun, you represent a buffet of death that is open twenty-four hours a day", who is talking about the US GI who wields both the M60 machine gun and LAW rocket launcher.
| Ballistics Report | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
Pros
Gameplay
The same good-old Battlefield gameplay, pitting up to 64 players against each other on two teams, but now more refined and polished.
Sound
Battlefield Vietnam's sound effects and musical score are spectacular, as good as Call of Duty.
Improved singleplayer
Note that "improved" doesn't mean good. However, the singleplayer works better than it used to, thanks to slightly more competent bots.
Price
Battlefield Vietnam's saving grace. Apparently the developer and publisher realized full price would be a scam for this very professional mod.
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Cons
Quality Control
The lag, interface bugs and design flaws are apparent to anyone who would look. We give EA no quarter for releasing the game in this condition.
Same-old
Battlefield Vietnam isn't such a big change from Battlefield 1942. In fact, Desert Combat has done most of what Vietnam does now, and it's free.
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| Final Verdict | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |