Now that we’ve suckered in all the kiddies looking for a cheap thrill – there’s nothing glorified about the violence in this game. Right from the introductory scene, during which you’re treated to repeated use of the F-bomb, it’s obvious that Conflict Vietnam is geared toward adults and that the mature rating on the box should be taken seriously by parents. On top of the language, the violence in the game is direct, with no attempts at making acts of war romantic in any sense. This is stuff right out of Platoon, but without all the sappy dialogue. The gritty style of all the visuals is a good fit for how the Vietnam war is perceived – dark and dirty, the polar opposite of glamorous, heroic theater.

But that’s the best that can be said for Conflict Vietnam. The missions themselves are challenging, but usually consist of little more than going to a location and shooting everything you can find. There are some that put you in a gun turret or let you drive a jeep or tank, and they serve their purpose as breaks from the regular action.

Most missions, the biggest parts of the game, are hampered by bad controls. The worst part has to be aiming, which is a rather important aspect to a game that involves so much shooting. It is so sensitive it’s almost unbelievable at first. Even the firing range is difficult, and those targets just stand there. It’s almost comical to try to line up a target and watch your sights fly right by the bad guy with only the smallest, gentlest tap on the stick. You’re better off leaving yourself pointed in one direction and hoping the enemy runs by and into your line of fire. After a few frustrating moments of trying to hit moving targets out in the jungle, you’ll begin to wonder if the whole thing is a practical joke. You can use a first person view, but the sights of the weapons are just too big and take up too much screen space to be practical. In third person mode, with auto-aiming on, your crosshairs will often find an enemy even before you see them. Again, not an ideal situation.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to use the same aiming to issue some commands to specific members of your squad. You’ll be in a team of four soldiers, including a medic, sniper and machine gunner. You can issue some general commands without having to point anywhere, but for more complex instructions you’ll have to select a soldier, then point at the objective to get him to move. Available commands boil down to telling them to go somewhere, get something, heal someone or attack a target. Most of the time it’s much easier to simply switch control to that soldier and do it yourself.

The missions, 14 of them, are pretty long. An injured character is considered incapacitated, and you have a few minutes to get him healed. If he dies you fail the mission, so every step across the map needs to be taken carefully. You’ll quickly get the hang of your priorities – move a little, go prone, shoot what you can, heal whoever’s dying.

Despite Conflict Vietnam’s faithful, regurgitated depiction of the reality of war in Vietnam, the mechanics of the game are far too poor to make it recommendable to any but the most hardcore fans of gritty war games. Even including three friends in the action in the form of split screen cooperative play doesn’t help, it just spreads the misery around the room (two players on PS2, no multiplayer on PC). If you have three friends with whom to play games, hopefully at least one of them will know enough to advise you to avoid Conflict Vietnam.