I'm getting flashbacks to Nam, memories of a sudden and inexplicable interest in the conflict from numerous games developers who sought to exploit the war for their latest tactical based shooters. My flashbacks remind me how rubbish most of those games turned out to be, tiptoeing around the sensitive issues of the war while at the same time failing to actually utilise the unique jungle setting to its fullest. Though many developers have since given up the fight and returned to the world of Nazis and terrorists, Pterodon are sticking to their guns in producing a sequel to Vietcong, possibly the only half decent Vietnam based shooter to date.

Vietcong 2, like its predecessor, does not concern itself with the politics of the Vietnam war. You can hardly blame Pterodon for choosing to do so, as the conflict itself was widely unpopular at the time and it led to an awful amount of civilian casualties and atrocities, eventually culminating in the withdrawal of the American forces sent there to assist; hardly the heroic and romanticised war that WWII has long been viewed as. Vietcong 2 bypasses most of the nastiness of Vietnam and instead focuses its attention on the story of two men from different sides of the war, whose paths are linked during one bloody and brutal battle.

The setting is different to that used the by the original game, in that there's hardly any jungle. It's an odd decision to go the urban route, as it was the jungle setting that truly made the original Vietcong stand out amongst the other tactical shooters of the time. The openness of the environments, combined with the adaptive AI that used its surroundings as well you did, made for some exciting action, though that same freedom in the level design has been vastly restricted for this sequel.

On the plus side, this does mean no more dull patrol missions with no Pointman, making overly long treks through the jungle as slow as humanly possible. There are no booby traps hidden in the undergrowth, which means more time getting stuck into the action and less time searching tirelessly in the foliage for trip wires. Best of all, there are absolutely no more of those utterly awful mazelike tunnel sections, which bogged the original game down into mind numbing tedium. The downside, however, is a less open environment that lacks the variety both in level design and mission structure that the original had in spades.

To be fair to the guys at Pterodon though, they have done a good job with the new, more limited setting. In fact, they've also done a far better job with respect to character development as well, more so than any other recent historical shooter. The opening level does not simply dump you straight into the thick of the action; taking a cue from Half-Life, it slowly builds up, introducing you to the characters and the city of Hue where you spend most of the subsequent levels. Unlike other historic games, Vietcong 2 doesn't feebly try to make you feel like you're part of the war by putting you in the shoes of a faceless, voiceless soldier.

You take on the role of US soldier Captain Boone, who spends his days living it up in the city of Hue during the country's Tet celebrations, the equivalent of our New Year's Eve. However, this laidback lifestyle is shattered when the Vietcong launch a massive surprise attack against numerous cities around the country, marking the start of the Tet offensive and the beginning of the end for the American presence. What this game gets right and that many others got wrong is a great deal more in the way of character development. You may not care for Boone or his men, but you'll certainly get to know them, from the Aussie medic to the young and headstrong radioman; even Boone's conflict with a fellow officer makes what limited interaction there is between characters that much more interesting, more so than even the hyper-realistic Brothers in Arms that trumpeted the fact it was based on the lives of real men.

As the game progresses, you'll come to rely on your small band of brothers, if not because of the added character development than certainly because of the roles they play on the battlefield. As with the original, you form a small, crack squad of soldiers sent out into all kinds of dangerous situations, but each man you fight alongside plays a pivotal role in the success of each mission. The medic keeps people healed, rushing through firefights to help injured comrades, while the ammo man provides an invaluable service giving everyone (including yourself) enough ammunition to carry on. The radioman relays important mission specific information to superiors elsewhere, while the machine-gunner uses his immense firepower to pin down enemy troops. Only the pointman is absent, though with environments considerably smaller than they were in the original game, he really isn't needed anyway.

One thing that's particularly annoying about this system is the seemingly indestructible nature of your teammates. Once depleted of health they simply collapse to the ground and wait for the medic to revive them, something that you yourself cannot rely on, as a depletion of the health of your character means death. Plus, in the rare event that a squad man does actually get killed, the game is lost forcing, you to reload from the last save.

The skilful AI does go some way in preventing such instances. Once again, both allies and enemies alike have a great awareness of their surroundings, using cover and laying down suppressing fire from a distance, while the cooperation, particularly amongst your own squad, is impressive, as they cover each other, yell out orders and use their abilities to aid one another. The Vietcong are just as resourceful, if not quite as much as they were when in the jungle. Unfortunately, the game's own levels works against the AI at times, and there have been occasions where people have become stuck in scenery or, in one instance, when my squad was using a tank for cover, accidentally getting themselves run over and killed, forcing another mission failure.

This game is no looker. The original was hardly at top end of the spectrum looks wise and this sequel seems to use exactly the same graphics, with few, if any, enhancements. It's an ugly game, with dark muddy textures and outdated animations and effects, but I can live with these. What I can't live with is the bugs and glitches. Clipping issues, the aforementioned getting stuck in the scenery and some inexplicable slowdown, which seems odd considering that a game looking like this should have no problems on today's PCs. Then there's the hit detection, which is a bit off. Bullet trajectory seems sporadic, making it difficult to kill the enemy, especially as they don't seem to have the same problem. The biggest letdown as far the graphics go however, is how they have limited the scale of the game. While the original used huge open areas for many of its levels, Vietcong 2 does the opposite and this restrictive, linear approach will be disheartening to returning Vietcong veterans.

But let's be fair to Pterodon; they have managed to at least make most of the levels as intense and as exciting as the jungle-based antics of the original. The first level alone sees you wining and dining with local politicians and military types in the city's town hall one minute, to feverishly trying to escort a civilian reporter to an American base the next, as the Vietcong launch their surprise attack. The following missions rarely let up - a hectic base defence against the relentless charge of countless enemy soldiers, a river boat patrol through enemy held canals, an assault on a huge church; certainly while the scale of the levels has been reduced, the amount of action served up has been generously added upon.

But here we hit another iceberg; just as you're starting to enjoy yourself, the crushing feeling of disappointment suddenly sinks in. This game is short - very short - with perhaps one of the worst endings in recent gaming history. The climatic level did nothing but make me shrug my shoulders and make me blurt out a "was that it?" It leaves a lot open, while failing to provide the feeling of a satisfactory conclusion. While the original was similarly criticised for its abrupt ending, it at least made the effort to make the levels leading up to the finale as exciting and as thrilling as any levels you'd played up to that point. Here there is no such luck and the finale plays and ends just like any other level in the game.

I'm about to take another u-turn from ranting about the negatives, as it's at this point in time that you'll stumble on Vietcong 2's most unique and brilliant features. Obviously paying attention to games like Call of Duty, Pterodon have not just offered one campaign to play through, but two. However, unlike CoD, Vietcong 2 doesn't let you play a second Allied nation, but rather as the enemy themselves, the Vietcong. Pterodon haven't demonised the Vietcong either; their story is told with credibility and actually begins painting the supposed 'good guys' in a none to favourable light, as your character's village is massacred and burned to the ground by the South Vietnamese Army (or AVRN forces).

Their levels are also of a higher quality and though set in the jungle, they still suffer the same limitation of the American campaign. They do however get a better and more varied mix of levels, from a merciless ambush of a convoy of troops to a nighttime assault on AVRN frontlines, blasting through bunkers with RPGs and grenades, to eventually leading an assault on an American outpost. Although this is the definite highlight of the game, the VC levels also suffer from the same problems as the American; the campaign feels far too short, while you'll have trouble believing that the last level really was the end of the game, due to its rather anti-climactic feel.

The multiplayer has been greatly enhanced, obviously not just noticing recent single player FPS games, Pterodon have also kept an eye on recent games such as Battlefield 2. All the game modes from the original's multiplayer return, as do the 64 player servers, but new to this aspect is the inclusion of vehicles. While only a limited selection is available, they are well implemented, making online matches a lot more interesting than the deathmatch heavy original. It's a nice feature that almost makes up for some of the disappointing aspects of the single player. But not quite.

Although Vietcong 2 has a lot going for it - good level design, good pace, humanising the very enemy you spend half the game killing - it just doesn't quite feel as though it lives up to the expectations raised by the original. With a shorter campaign, poor and buggy graphics and the feeling of not really improving on anything the original provided (sometimes feeling as though it's taken a step back as opposed to a leap forward), Vietcong 2 also has a few things going against it. It's not a disaster by any means - the game is still playable and still very enjoyable. For FPS fans especially it is a fun but flawed shooter, and perhaps the last half decent Vietnam game you're ever likely to see.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).