Battlefield Vietnam

Dan Davis, documentation writer for Battlefield Vietnam, has a talent for terse writing. Not terse in a stirring, atmospheric way. Terse in a dry “How to use Microsoft Word” training guide way.

He isn’t prone to flights of fancy. When describing the point of the game, the very reason for your purchase, he doesn’t write gaudy lines like “heroically wrest control of key checkpoints against overwhelming odds” or “relive the battles that helped change a generation”. None of that… that… fluff. Ever factual, the manual states “Your main goal in Battlefield Vietnam is to capture control points.” If you’re expecting a vivid explanation, or an enthralling read, forget it.

Vietnam is a tricky subject for an American software publisher to approach. You can’t make it too light, or you’ll be accused of trivialising a conflict that cost many US lives. Make it too serious and you risk limiting its appeal to the most hardcore of players.

So just perhaps Dan Davis didn’t suck all the life out of his manual on purpose, maybe he was just following suit from developer Dice and EA. Battlefield Vietnam is technically accomplished, deep multiplayer experience that is bound to be popular throughout 2004. But by sticking to the middle of the Ho Chi Minh trail and sacrificing character for safety, EA have also made the game as generic as home brand, and inconsistent in its message to gamers.

In the absence of bona-fide bad guys (see also: Nazis, Columbian drug lords, Iraqi republican guard), EA and developers Dice do a politically correct two-step around cultural sensitivities in BF V. Yes, you can play as the Viet Cong. No, you cannot attempt to destabilise US troops by trafficking narcotics to them. Yes, you can conceal punji spikes in the ground, instantly killing troops who walk over them. No, you cannot wipe out villages full of civilians.

It’s a no-brainer why such exclusions are made – but it’s also the type of activity that defined the war and made it such a pivotal one. The overall sanitisation gives the game a removed quality. You could be playing Battlefield Anywhere Where People Wear Pointy Hats, really. The opening sequence doesn’t even show anyone getting shot; I mean, this is a game about a war, isn’t it?



And think twice before dismissing setting and plot as secondary. By making BF 1942 mod-friendly, EA themselves have set the bar high. Mods like Desert Combat display as much, if not more finesse as BF V’s on the vehicle/weapon front, putting the onus squarely on the retail product to prove why its worth your hard earned.

While on the whole ‘losing the plot’ theme, single player mode in BF V illustrates how things have changed in the PC game scene. Once it was multiplayer that was tacked on as an afterthought to EA games, nowadays playing solo seems to have gone the way of fluoro wetsuits and Velcro shoes – it’s available, but it’s hardly worth using. A series of instant battles – not even able to compare with BF 1942’s more extensive single player challenge - awaits, but these skirmishes have little linked context, and serve only to remind you that broadband is a necessity nowadays.

The limited attraction of the story-less single player mode is further undermined by expensive AI bot team-mates and opponents. ‘Expensive’ in that broken keyboard fashion. Hop into a jeep driven by your friendly computer controlled pal and watch as he negotiates a path to the enemy objective. However sometimes (read: a lot of times) your lil buddy strays from the script and drives into a stationary object. And gets stuck. If you’re really lucky, perhaps he can destroy the vehicle. In a memorable moment, my driver (we’ll call him George) managed to drive the vehicle we were in off a bridge and into the water. Maybe he saw a tasty lobster in there, all I know is that one second we were cautiously crossing a river, the next I was respawning, after George gradually edged the vehicle off the bridge.

And because you initially spawn after your CPU friends, getting to a vehicle not driven by a L-plater bot is a hard ask at the crucial start of the game. The temptation to go “Sergeant Barnes” and start blowing away your own team in these situations is nigh irresistible. Don’t fight it; just blame it on the Agent Orange.

It’s even more amusing watching how the AI uses helicopters. Getting a bird’s eye view as a healthy chopper is piloted at a 45 degree angle of descent into the ground is always a heartening sight, unless it’s your team doing the crashing.

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