Developer: Rebellion Developments

Publisher: Eidos

Release Date: Feb. 24, 2009

Systems: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, PC

ESRB Rating: M

0:00 This kind of Vietnam War shooter usually isn't my cup of tea, but I'm trying real hard to broaden my horizons here, so I figured I'd give it a rental.

0:01 The preview screen on the PlayStation 3 menu is full of ambient war sounds -- gunshots, vague screaming, bombs going off, etc. It's got me on edge already, but not really in a good way.

0:02 The music accompanying the Rebellion logo is so loud I swear it's going to break my speakers. Then a generic title screen with some red blood cells floating around in plasma in the background.

0:03 "Fall of '69, and I'm on a bird into 'Nam, drafted like the rest of these grunts. We've fucked up this war and lost so many kids and now it's my turn. Some dickwad sergeant tells me I'm important; he's given me a special assignment at the border. The border of Hell is still Hell. I ain't even been so scared." And the award for best use of the word "dickwad" in horrible game writing goes to...

0:04 Just like that, I'm thrown roughly into a first-person view of a ratty hospital. A voiceover version of my character reminisces about the war from his position in the future. "Man up, pussy, and listen to Griffin. Maybe today you'll become a man," says a guide in fatigues. Another soldier gives me 20cc of some mystery drug. My future narrator goes on about Whiteknight, which I didn't know a thing about at the time. In the background, explosions and screaming. To my left, someone writhing on a stretcher.

0:07 The one guy who survived seeing Whiteknight (who/whatever he/it is) is tied down to a bed. He's my brother, Cal, screaming, badly bloodied and wearing an eye-patch. "Don'tcha recognize him, f**ko?" says my companion. "Or don't you remember what kin smells like?" Cal breaks one of his bonds and reaches for me. "Get the tranq gun," says my companion as he runs off. Some hazy red visions, then everything goes black. Boy, they're really throwing a lot of stuff out there really quickly.

0:08 I wake up and I'm in control. My first mission is to escape the bar, which is now empty and under a grenade assault. I sprint up stairs just in time to see a soldier get knifed in the back by what I assume is a Cambodian. He leaps on me and I have to "press the buttons in the order they appear on the screen" to snap his neck. Really? Quick Time Events? This isn't 1999, y'know.

0:09 Outside, Griffin and I pursue Cal down a narrow alley. Griffin shoots at him as he climbs a fence. "You tried to kill him!" I say, shocked. "I tried to stop him ... you wanna have a f***ing cry, do it on your own agenda. Right now, time to f***ing book." Wow ... that's powerful writing. Powerfully BAD (BURN!).

0:11 Griffin drags me into a room as a voice on a bullhorn yells about a quarantine. He tells me not to move as a dying soldier in the corner cries out for his mother. The dying guy won't shut up, so Griffin walks over and SLITS HIS THROAT to keep him quiet. Holy mother of crap! It doesn't work ... a Cambodian hears, runs in the room, and gets a really fake-looking headshot at point-blank range. Everything kind of looks oddly artificial, from the waxen faces to the stilted character animation to the environment.

0:14 Through a fence, a dog chewing on a dead soldier. My shots go right through him. So killing Cambodians is OK, but not dogs?

0:15 An enemy soldier just rushed at me kamikaze-style, allowing me an easy point-blank headshot. This AI is leaving something to be desired, to say the least.

0:16 Another Cambodian sneaks up on me, setting up another button-repeating Quick Time Event. When it's done, I have the option to knock him out or shoot him. I've been shooting everyone else ... why would I want to spare this guy?

0:18 Despite having the high ground above a central hotel courtyard, I waste all my ammo trying to take out a lone guy hiding behind a pillar. My gun's kickback keeps altering my aim. When I switch back to the less-powerful pistol, things get much easier.

0:21 Out on the streets again now, with a trio of soldiers accompanying me down an alley. Somehow, my pistol is more accurate at long range than the rifle I was using before. I can barely see the enemies in the dark, so I'm relying solely on the big targeting reticle, which turns red when I should shoot.

0:23 Going through some slum-like houses now. In a cut scene, a fellow soldier pulls a pin on a grenade, then gets shot. I dive on the grenade and throw it at the attackers. This is supposed to feel gritty and real, I'm sure, but, like everything else in this game so far, it feels more contrived and melodramatic.

0:25 I stumble into a room full of dead American soldiers, including one that's been beheaded and had his arm ripped off and stuck to the wall with knives. Another dead soldier drops from the ceiling when I open a door. A sound of a woman crying in the distance. Man, they are laying this atmosphere on a little thick...

0:27 I come upon a few more American soldiers in a warehouse, fiddling with a radio. They call in a gunship attack just as we start taking fire from afar. I watch as the chopper sends missiles to take them out. Wow, that didn't feel scripted at all! Oh, wait, it actually felt very scripted. My mistake.

0:30 Any claim to realism this game may have been trying for just flew out the window when I took out an enemy with a freaking exploding barrel!

0:31 A guy with a flare leads me down a manhole and into the sewers. I cross through some muddy water (I hope it's mud) and we head into a dilapidated tenement. "They got gas!" cries a soldier as white pockets of fog pop up everywhere. My character starts coughing as I try to sprint ahead of the gas, but everything is so dark I get lost and can't find the door into the next room. Soon enough I fall over, anti-climactically dead. "You Died!" says a helpful death screen in HUGE letters.

0:33 This time I found the door by following my fellow soldier. In a big upstairs room, an enemy soldier just broke through a set of wooden planks across a window to grab a soldier and drag him down. Are these guys the Vietcong or freaking zombies?

0:37 We're taking fire from a courtyard below now. My allies all die incredibly quickly but I take bullet after bullet and seem no worse for wear after taking dozens of hits.

0:38 Down in the courtyard, the enemies are using explosive barrels for cover. EXPLOSIVE BARRELS! FOR COVER! Man are they dumb. I don't mind, though, because once the barrels are gone I have real trouble aiming for their tiny, dark figures with my stupid kickback-prone gun.

0:40 After I take out the last guy in the courtyard, an enemy opens a previously unopenable door to my left. I pivot over and kill him easily. Now I can go through and down to the courtyard. How conveeeenient.

0:41 Three enemies approach in a cut scene, guns drawn. "I am Trang. You are Walker? We will help you. ... Talk to us about where we find Whiteknight." So ... they're nice bad guys? They're about to take me away at gunpoint when Griffin drives up in an army truck and fires to scare them away. I jump on the back and we roll off. "Level Complete."

0:42 The loading screen is full of some bad pulpy writing, with my character going on and on about how hellish everything is. "And I'm stuck in the middle. Always have been, always will be. I gotta find my brother. Gotta get him outta here." Gag.

0:43 Cue the red-tinged flashback where I walk into an allied camp. "Hold fire, he's one of us. What's wrong with his eyes?" Of course I go all monster and kill them with my bare hands. Man, this game is such a mess of gaming clich?s. It can't seem to decide if it wants to be a realistic war sim, survival horror, generic first-person shooter, squad-based combat, or what...

0:45 Cut to an enemy firing a rocket launcher as we roll through the jungle. Griffin leaps from the truck but I take the full impact. When I come to, the truck is demolished. Griffin runs off to "find some more transport." The game tells me I have to fight through the Dac Cong to find him. Here we go again!

0:47 The aim is so bad on these guns that I'm finding my best strategy is to just sprint up right next to these dumbass enemies and shoot them point-blank. I take a lot of shots in the process, but it doesn't really seem to matter. I can take 20 or 30 hits before I even start to see the telltale red edges that indicate I'm about to die. Then I just hide for a bit and all is well.

0:51 I find a nice building up the stairs with some natural cover, where I can slowly pick off the enemies as I spy them in my red targeting reticle. Just when I think I'm going to have to leave to find more ammo, an enemy runs in with just the weapon I need. Wow, it's like an ammo delivery service!

0:54 Tired of picking off enemies from afar (especially since they just seem to keep coming perpetually), I run down the stairs and try to go back to my "sprint and shoot" strategy. This turns out to be a mistake, as I get pinned down by fire from all sides with little to no cover. I try to fire back, but I can barely see my attackers in the muddy environs anyway. My first death from gunshots.

0:55 When I come back, I immediately start taking fire from all sides. The game actually freezes for seconds at a time as I take out the nearby enemies. Consider me unimpressed.

0:57 These guys have preternaturally good aim. I'm crouched behind a hilly embankment and they are at least 50 meters away, and they're still hitting me. I can't even see them! What's going on here?

0:59 This is just unfair ... as soon as I step out into the lane, I immediately take fire from fire different directions from enemies I can't even see. Forget this!

Would I play this game for more than an hour? No.


Why? You can't play what you can't see.

This column is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.



Want to know more about Games for Lunch? Check out the FAQ here.



For more Games for Lunch, visit the official GfL blog.