Good mornin' Vietnammmm!

I’ve had my hands on Bad Company 2: Vietnam for a few hours now, as I got to play the game three days earlier than the retail release date on the 21^st December. So as soon as I got my activation code, I was right on it! Of course, for the Vietnam add-on, you must own BC2 for your PC or console before you can download and play it, as it is not a stand-alone expansion pack – it is downloadable content for the base game. 

Image Courtesy of IGN.com

If you’re familiar with BC2, then you will be used to the games menu, as it is exactly the same in Vietnam, apart from a nice and gritty, relevant change in background image. The single player button has also been removed, but this was expected, as there was no single player feature intended!

So with no hesitation at all what so ever, I pounced onto the Multiplayer. I found my-self a server to play on (PC) and then I found myself jumping up and down on my seat as the map was loading in. Whilst you’re waiting, you are accompanied by a military radio broadcast, which is basically just a guy churning out relevant news based on the map you’re about to play on, it’s pretty awesome and puts you into the time zone straight away, and then the map loads...

This is my rifle, there are many others like it, but this one is mine. Pick your weapon, choose your equipment and ‘haul ass’ toward your objective! When you’re on the move, you really get a sense of Vietnam; if you’ve ever seen the movies, documentaries or even read the books, you would agree. As you’re running at full pelt, through the grass, between the trees, occasionally taking cover behind whatever you can first before you’re hit – you just have to stop and take it all in. The ghostly mists hang and surround you, like the jungle is trying to take you down before the enemy does – thick, dense tree lines on the hills create a coliseum of war, concealing potential sniper threats, which keeps you on edge every time you move out of cover. The landscape looks haunted, scarred by napalm, whilst the ongoing shelling from both sides makes the location unrecognisable to what it started out as. The mortar rounds hit close by, causing trees to explode around you, sending earth and shrapnel flying through the smoke filled air, blurring your vision. You recover, and make your way toward the ridge in front of you, which is the obstacle stopping you from getting to your first objective so easily. With your squad around you, you make your way up the ridge, reloading your weapon as you go, and then you reach the top - all hell breaks loose. You’re thwarted by heavy cross fire from the enemy; their bullets whistling past your helmet. You manage to pop off a few shots before you have to duck down for cover behind the top of the ridge. Grenades loop over your head, landing next to those unfortunate, as the men next to you are pouring it on the enemy, causing an intense exchange of fire. You reload your weapon once more, and charge over the ridge with your squad, taking cover as you go. Your machine gunner lays down suppressing fire, which is deafening to your ears, to give hope to your side to achieve your objective. The ground then starts to rumble, like thunder. Particles of soil dance around your feet, you and your squad take cover, expecting the worst. The sounds of gears become clear, above the cracks of rifle fire and the muffled explosions - your heart stops. Looking on towards a house in front of you in anticipation of what you might be about to face, you grip your rifle tighter than you have ever done so before.  And with that, the house you were once looking at bursts like a balloon, and a tank, a brutal war machine, comes crashing through the debris, with it’s turret aiming straight at you...

So yeah, that’s what I’ve experienced so far in short; the game does not disappoint. There are no evident bugs or glitches what so ever, it’s a smooth game and it handles like a dream. As expected, no outstanding changes have been made to the games controls; the new weapons have obviously got their own amount of recoil, but apart from that, everything is the same; they didn’t need to change it either, because Bad Company 2 is pretty stable in that respect. One thing I was hoping for though, is that they might have put in the ability to make yourself go prone, but they haven’t and I doubt they will do that either, if at all, until the release of Battlefield 3.

Of course, the game uses the same graphics engine as Bad Company 2 with Vietnam only being a downloadable content add-on. This is by no means a bad thing though, as the BC2 graphics engine is impressive as it is; they have done a stellar job on player models, environments and textures. It enables the developers to really bring the Vietnam surroundings to life, swapping the dusty deserts in BC2, to the gritty, muddy Jungles of ‘nam. 

I have so far played only three out of the four maps available in the game at the moment. What is exciting though, is that when the world’s gamers hit a certain score online, a fifth map is unlocked and presented to you by the lovely EA – isn’t that nice? But the three maps I have played already are pretty damn awesome, and you’re never away from the action; the enemy literally could attack you from anywhere, which is I presume,  exactly what it was like in the jungles of Vietnam back in the 60s. 

BC2: Vietnam seems pretty balanced, much like BC2, which is no surprise to me. The Battlefield games never seem to fall on their backsides when it comes to creating a great game.

That’s as much as I’m going to say right now about Vietnam, as it wouldn’t be all that sensible to give a full review when I have only played the game for a few hours! So I will be back at a later date in the week with this particular story and a conclusion! But I think I already know what that conclusion will be... But we shall see, eh?

So on that note, I think I will go back on and play some more BC2: Vietnam! Hope you’re all having a great day today, and if you have had any snow where you are, then I hope you’ve had fun!

If you have any questions for me regarding this topic, then please leave a comment below the post, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. If not, then stay tuned for my next posts!

Thanks for reading folks, and if you can, click ‘follow’ on my page to see my latest blog updates!

TTFN and take care,

Jayhmmz    (‘’’)(O.o)(‘’’)