'Nam under fire! Hands-on with Men of Valor

Atmosphere. It's all about the atmosphere [Didn't Russ Abbot say that? - Ed]. Bullets whizzing past your earlobe; frightened screams so real you can almost smell the terror; the deafening eruption of a nearby grenade; and the funky grooves of James Brown filtering from your radio in the background. Hell, it was almost like we were actually there. Kinda.

Developed by 2015, the guys behind PC's MoH: Allied Assault, Men of Valor: The Vietnam War is a solid FPS that does a fine job of recreating the chaotic horrors of its eponymous war. And it's not without its competitors in the market either. Conflict Vietnam, Vietcong: Purple Haze and ShellShock: Nam '67 are just three others jostling for the mantle of war supremacist on good old Xbox.

Who will win, eh? Wouldn't we like to know...

Casualties of War

Men of Valor: The Vietnam War is very much a story-based game, with diary excerpts narrating the story. At one juncture you might be placed in the middle of a Christmas camp party, only to have it rudely gate-crashed by a Vietcong invasion. Later on, you might be led through hostile rivers in a night-time boat patrol, or even set upon during a routine jungle march.

As a consequence, your character (a young recruit) should get to know his comrades as the story unfolds - watching them fight, talk and fall, as you become battle-hardened to the horrors of 'Nam. It will certainly be interesting to see how well this part of the game develops - after all, emotional attachment to any videogame character is a tricky stunt to pull - but judging by the cut-scenes, it looks like we should have an entertaining story lying in our wake.

Hamburger Hill

Although features-wise The Vietnam War is hardly revolutionary, its strengths lie in its ability to deliver a chaotic and engrossing vision of that wretched war. A standard controls interface lets you do the usual duck, crawl, hide, shoot, throw grenade stuff, but it's in the atmosphere where The Vietnam War prevails.

Point in example: the early level we just finished involved an ambush on our armoured trucks. Having first taken out hordes of oncoming Vietcong soldiers across a grassy jungle border, we found ourselves with an uphill struggle (literally) as we advanced through the perilous jungle ahead, and to safety beyond.

A nice idea is the way your aiming crosshair shrinks whilst running. While this may inevitably make shooting-on-the-run that little more cumbersome, it does encourage a more tactical use of the environment, crouching beyond hanging trees and standing back-to-back with a comrade.

The dense foliage of the hazy jungle offers the best example of this. Lying low in the long grass and hiding from passing Vietcong is highly recommended and if you're especially still, they can walk literally inches from you, and not even smell the whisky on your breath. It's up to you whether you want to take them down or not, but expect a violent bloodbath as way of an aftermath if you do.

Apocalypse Wow

Visually, The Vietnam War stands out too. While the textures on the jungle grass appear reasonably authentic, it's the little details like the rays of light bursting in through the trees overhead, or the shadowy figure of a Vietcong sniper running across the distant horizon, that impress. A later boat level looks exactly like something out of Apocalypse Now too, with sweeping patrol lights and glowing bridges dazzling against the starry sky.

Okay, so that's the good stuff, now here's our small concern: we can't ignore the fact that, at least from our impressions of the earlier stages of the game, The Vietnam War appears a somewhat linear experience - highly cinematic as a result (which makes the atmosphere shine), but linear.

There wasn't quite as much freedom to be enjoyed as perhaps there should be during the jungle skirmish (it definitely felt like we were being guided along a direct path). Plus, some of the action felt a little contrived and predictable. But then, that never got in the way of games like Call of Duty.

All in all, Men of Valor: The Vietnam War is shaping up to be a very decent Xbox war shooter, and certainly better than the disappointing Medal of Honor: Rising Sun.

Men of Valor: The Vietnam War is due out on Xbox as well as PC during late-October, published by Vivendi.

Men of Valor: The Vietnam War movie (Xbox)
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Stephen Daultrey