Up until a couple of years ago, the humid jungles of Vietnam were all but uncharted territory for gaming. But all of a sudden Vietnam games are all the rage. Developed by Czech Republic-based Pterodon Team, Vietcong is neither the first such game to be released, nor will it be the last, considering that at least one other Vietnam shooter is currently in development. It's an odd trend on the one hand, but on the other, the appeal of this subject matter makes a lot of sense. The small-arms guerilla warfare that characterized the conflict, which began in earnest in 1965 and ended in 1973, can make for just the sort of tension-filled, tactical, relatively close-range combat that fans of first-person shooters love. And Vietcong, at its best, does deliver this. It also often does an excellent job of establishing its setting, helping make the experience more dramatic and more cinematic. Vietcong has a lot of great qualities both as a single-player game and as a multiplayer game, so it's unfortunate that some technical issues detract both from its performance and its presentation.
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