ShellShock: Nam '67

Written by Chris Reiter  on October 18, 2004

Full Review: Now we know why developers don't work on more Vietnam games.

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Hippies using flower power; soldiers who were strong, and then some who cowered; an enemy whose overwhelming numbers, invisibility, and experience turned the war for us from sweet to sour. You remember it...Nam. You either knew about, were in it, have heard about it, learned about it, or died by it (ghosts know how to read). Vietnam was one of the most messy struggles split up by controversy and mayhem. Protesters fought it, soldiers fought in it, and the enemy didn't even want the Americans in their country to help out their people in whom they were trying to overpower. Vietnam is the war we thought we could win, but we didn't. Both sides took heavy causalities, and ultimately whether some wanted the war to happen or not, Vietnam is remembered today as one of the most decorated onsets of all time. So why hasn't there been many video games based on it? Eidos and Guerilla Games have the answer to that very question, in creating a war-based game that for once isn't about World War II.

Journal log -- January 1967. It's hot outside, real sweaty-like. My dogs are killing me, and I haven't had any food for a week. Surviving on the land isn't exactly the best way to go. Urine started tasting like lemonade. Is it supposed to do that? I must be going mad. The company got a new recruit today. Don't know his name, though. He looks ready, but is he really? Let me tell you: I have seen some shit. This Vietnam war does things to you, man. Surprise always has the upper hand, which the enemy has the advantage of in droves. If this rookie can actually stand to face the hidden dangers within, be it through ambush or booby traps, I think he'll survive another day. Any day you're still alive with all your organs and body parts intact is a better day without them. Well, I better go help the rookie flush out the Charlie that have found us. Because as you know rookie...you've got a long way to go.

Come to think of it, all war-related titles for the most part fall either into a squad-based category, or under the usual First Person Shooter header. That's where ShellShock: Nam '67 is a bit different. It's not one of either, yet it does share elements of both themes in its action genre. ShellShock's initial goal is, or was to put its players in the role of a rookie participating in the fight to win the war in Vietnam. As the rookie, you would feel like you were transported to the past, naturally growing into the chiseled elite soldier you were meant to become. This unfortunately doesn't even come close to happening in ShellShock. How do you expect to feel like you're in the war when you're hardly gunning down enemies from up in a chopper, or even step into the shoes of one man in a legion of hundreds? I've seen Vietnam movies before, and ShellShock just isn't one of them.

Getting back to the whole genre issue -- ShellShock's main focus is generally to pair you up as this soldier guy with a small convoy of other militia men. From mission to mission, a lot of the game is spent battling numerous enemies (think dozens) with about three or four soldiers at most. This isn't bad of course, but you'd kind of think that in a war you'd have more firepower on your side than just a handful of soldiers. At different junctures, ShellShock drags you in alone, like in one such mission where it's your duty to infiltrate an enemy base alone and stealthily chop up enemies with your blade weapon whilst also freeing prisoners and blowing up sampans. One of the things that's wrong with a mission like this is...stealth isn't really an option in this game. Where some games give you the ability to sneak with some sort of button, your soldier can only opt to move slowly and blend into tall grass. The problem is, even when you're barely making a peep the enemy will hear you. But issues like this are no biggie, as enemies are dumb as a post at times. And other times they're not.

The Vietnamese are always large in number. Very aggressively, there are moments when ShellShock is a bit too much as enemies will storm a battlefield since the game programs it this way. Complete the mission objective in that given area, though, and they'll stop remerging from out of nowhere strangely enough. Thus lies one of ShellShock's biggest pains in the butt -- the vague mission objectives. Finishing tasks in ShellShock are like puzzles. You have about five or more goals to accomplish in any given mission. You go in, you do one thing, and then you do another. The mission assembly repeats this way until you head back to the base camp to relax and then head out again on your next set of to do's. These missions involve something like reaching either an area in a level to find something or someone, to destroy one thing or another, or to serve and protect places or people. What happens then when your objective is listed, the details provided are often too vague. One example happens to be when you arrive in a neutral area, and are told to find the weapon caches that the villagers are hiding. Your hint: they could be buried under haystacks. Okay, so you find the haystacks, but pulling the weapons out doesn't do a thing. Little would you realize that what the soldier really meant to say was that you had to destroy each of the haystacks. So how do you know exactly what to do at all times? You don't, because it's impossible to interact with other characters in the game and receive further tips...unless you're shooting at them of course.

It's the story sequences that roll sometimes before certain tasks and using your compass that you must rely on at all times. With the compass on the bottom right hand of the screen, allies are highlighted in green, neutrals in blue, and the enemy hot spots in red. Following the compass to wherever each red designation will lead you to the place you'll want to go, whether it is to get inside a tunnel and demolish it at its sweet spots, or to eradicate an entire base filled with Charlie. To do this, though, you'll need to utilize any weapon you have on hand. Be it with Assault rifle's, M-14's, RPG's, handguns, grenades, a machete or a knife, and other varieties of "big guns," there are quite a few modes of murder in the game. It's just too bad that firefighting with the enemy isn't very fun. With them located in a dense jungle, usually disguised by fog, thicket, or ducking in and out from behind logs, rocks, or other objects, it's hard to see what you're aiming at and even trickier to aim at them. If you stay out in the open for too long, magically the enemy can peg you quickly. You the player, on the other hand, will have to take your time pointing your gun's reticule in the right position. Not only do enemies move around a lot, the cursor's slow to move and small at times. Targeting precisely on translucent foes is how you must learn to shoot (the right analog stick moves the reticule, while the R1 button pulls the trigger). Facing enemies also means you'll inevitably be running out of ammo in the midst of battle. Nabbing items like medals (some dead bodies carry these, which in turn can get you chits later at the game's base camp hub for purchasing special rarities, such as R&R time with so sexy Vietnamese hooker) and switching weapons from fallen foes is easy to do, although when you have to go out in the line of fire to do this, the situation can become your death sentence.

Even the toughest of soldiers are able to perish. Dying in ShellShock can be quick or slow, depending on how long you remain out in open space. The way the game works with health is, on the upper left hand side of the screen a meter determines three sets of spaces with a health symbol at the bottom. At first the icon is lit green. When you're repeatedly fired upon, the meter will increase with red patterns. Get beaten too much too fast, and that green symbol at the bottom will turn from green, to yellow, to a brownish color. Soon enough, you'll have to continue from the last checkpoint. Life refills on its own of course, but not all the way. As long as you're not being shot at, your health won't dissipate any further. Finding health packets strewn from place to place will aid you. Though it's not just the Viet Cong that'll be forcing you and your boys to go down -- it's also their booby traps. Trip wires and automated rotating spikes will lie in wait for you at times. For the most part, all booby traps consist of disarming the trip wires that spring an explosion if you were to run through them. Dismantling these objects opens up a mini-game window where you'll have to tap your way through a timed direction-oriented screen. Do this quickly enough, and you're home free. Lose, and...you know the rest.

Gamers eagerly anticipating ShellShock's claim for the most authentic depiction of the Vietnam war will be sadly disappointed on that end. ShellShock doesn't do the war, or more importantly itself much justice if it's trying to appall onlookers in the "I'm a mediocre game" sense. For one thing, the exteriors and interiors of ShellShock are all but bland. No depth. No reality. Just a lot of subdued models and all-too-obvious pop-ups. Seriously you'll see, that if you're to graze along any path, you'll take note to the way things like trees and bushes are drawn as you approach their forthcoming locations. Pitiful. Environmental objects such as rocks, shrubs, shanties, platforms, bunkers, and army vehicles all populate the land from place to place. There's not much to see in these objects either, as the outdated quality of these and other properties (such as bloody animal and human bodies hanging from trees, walls, or have their heads stuck on pikes) is of a bland brand.

Men who have fought this war, who have died in this war, and continue to live the war on your very own television screen do add a little hint of excitement to the otherwise subpar nature of the game. Your man, whoever he is, shines with an average crispness. In his tan and brown army fatigue, he'll cover posing techniques standing up, squatting down, or hitting his stomach to dirt on the ground. Pointing his weapon and capable of poking his body out from behind walls to spy on the hidden dangers, your man, the army man, looks about built for the job. However, this value is really not enough -- at least not for all characters in the game. Familiar faces (allies) similarly form a semi-strong articulation on the outside, but your nemesis' don't. Out of two distinct models -- one in those cone-shaped straw hats, and the other in a tannish marine outfit -- enemies in ShellShock all resemble one another. Drab details and quirky death animations are part of the reason why enemies fail to fulfill expectations. Because there are so many enemies you must face at any given time, you figure they'd dress up all the same one way or another. However, knowing that you're confronting the same plain and uninspiring people, you're going to have no choice but to concentrate on the thought that weaker elements like such could've been built better.

Stories of the war are brutal. Seeing the blood splatter as your buddies croaked right by your side was intense...as was listening to their cries for help. ShellShock, again, tones down this kind of additive greatly. Sure you'll hear your buddies yelling and moaning, but for what? Because they got shot with a couple bullets and still manage to stand up? That's not real. Charlie's always yelping about, "You go home in body bags, G.I.!" Or, "We gonna get you, G.I.!" Who the hell wrote this hogwash? I feel bad for Eidos, who probably had to pay one or two different actors for these horrendous smalltime performances. Oddly, character voice-boxes in the game are off-pitched. Turn around and take a few steps behind you while another soldier is blabbing on about something, and the height of his volume will faintly drown. I can understand how someone's voice would lower the further you move from that person, but for the depth in this game it's unnaturally uneven. Where there's no music in ShellShock outside the rock music you'll hear on the radio with the limited time you'll spend over at the game's base camp, the audio makes up for what's missing to good effect. Rapid, slow, and powerful bursts, explosions, knife slicing, and footsteps (usually crunchy along dirt and pavement surfaces) consume your eardrums as they'll be attentive to a nice difference in each rustle, each step, and each kill.