Review: ShellShock: Nam '67 (PS2)

The answer is questionable, although given the debut of two Vietnam themed titles at the top of charts it’s certainly a seller with the public. Perhaps more will follow; but for now the war has just begun.

You take the role of a rookie conscript thrust into the hell of Vietnam. Any misconceptions about what a tour of duty there might be like are immediately dispatched during the first dreadful mission, which sees colleagues gunned down and enemies charge without any reasoning. However, the laws of nature don’t apply to your teammates who are immune to bullets and shelling; that is until the story requires them to die.

Scripted events can be a beautiful weapon when instigated and scripted correctly. Unfortunately they also can backfire with equally negative results as gamers deviate from what the developers conceived and fail to trigger those scenes as intended. Electronic Art’s Medal of Honour series was full of such landmines, and rather than enhance, they blighted the experience. Shellshock: Nam ’67 falls into the same trap, albeit in a more basic and obvious way. The mission structure is extremely basic and normally split into three separate sections; each with a specific aim. Rather than facing a limited army, the Vietnamese are unlimited in number and constantly stream out of tunnels or from pathways with production line efficiency. Only when you complete the aim for that area (destroying a gun placement for instance) does the constant stream halt. It’s a pretty cheap tactic, and even on the easiest difficulty setting it makes for repetitive playing – even with the limited AI of your opponents, who can take a few hits before going down.

Shellshock isn’t pleasant and from the word go. Guerrilla promised a true depiction of the Vietnam experience. What they have created is a bloodthirsty and violent videogame, with plenty of limbs or heads being scattered throughout. Despite the limited nature of combat, the atmosphere at times can be quite captivating and harrowing. The gritty cut sequences help greatly, despite not being detailed or wonderfully directed. Yet the thoughts of the group and commanders are well represented. Collect enough tokens from the bodies of Viet Cong, and further on local prostitutes will be happy to ease your worries.

Take in the scenery during a napalm bombing; it’s quite surreal, especially when the effects are onscreen. Yet when you arrive at the scene of destruction, everything remains intact and oddly without the expected blistering of the landscape. Even the audio is well presented (disappointingly only available in stereo) with the choice of music being spot on, and the sound effects packing a convincing punch. See a comrade take out a prisoner and initially you’ll be horrified; but later on as your hatred grows you’ll follow suit without any provocation. At least we have a 60 Hz option and '60s style music, but the lack of modes and soundfields gives Shellshock a budget quality it probably doesn’t merit.

Visually Shellshock is sketchy at best, and while the artistic styling may exclaim this to maintain the “gritty realism”, Gamestyle disagrees. Textures are basic, with the large areas highlighting some questionable pop up. Where has all the publicised “groundbreaking” technology gone – into the hills for safety? For all the size there is really only one route through each mission, as each goal offers the only save checkpoint; and these (as you soon learn) are too far apart. Yet with the linearity and scripted nature of events, you can learn and adapt, while safely leaving your colleagues behind who don’t provide much assistance anyway.

One detrimental feature Gamestyle hasn’t discussed is the issue of control, or rather the lack there of. The control system is frustratingly complex and does not allow for pinpoint accuracy or climbing inclines; yes, amazingly this highly trained soldier suffers from the same limitation that blighted the Daleks. The third person viewpoint was probably the correct decision, as it allows the player to judge the enemy's position, and observe the battle more so than a first person adventure. Thankfully your health regains if you retreat and take cover. This is a bizarre choice for a release that wanted to capture the essence of Vietnam. Just run, and hide for a few moments, and those bullet wounds will heal.

The Vietnam War was extremely ugly, and best consigned to the annals of time. Whether we needed reminding is open to debate, but for those who want to engage the Viet Cong and overcome the limitations of this release; go ahead soldier.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Jason Julier