War games are really making a big hit in the retail market, with players getting to pick from everything from the Revolutionary War to the conflict in the gulf. Vietnam was one of those things that got some attention, and as of late we have been seeing more and more titles hit the shelves based around the events that took place during that time period. The newest addition to the Vietnam games list to hit store shelves is Shellshock, Nam ’67 by Eidos Interactive. While there are other titles out there to choose from, Shellshock does a good job in portraying all of the action and even atrocities that were found in the war back in the 60’s … but the game overall does come off as shallow, and you probably won’t take too long to go through it either. 

Shellshock opens with players taking the role of a new enlistee out in the battlegrounds of the war. The game is a third person action title, and has players doing a series of missions during the battle like clearing out villages or running missions to destroy AA guns and such. Now, as if getting attacked by hordes of VC’s that are looking to make your ears into trophies isn’t enough, you will also have to contend with trip lines and other booby traps along the way as well, so while there is a heavy emphasis on fighting … you will also need to use your head and watch where you are going in many areas to avoid getting your legs blown off while heading to a mission objective point.

Now, the main issue with Shellshock is the fact that the realism of the game really comes only in the cutscenes and some of the disturbing things that you will see or have to do, like killing an entire group of villagers to get information about a missing person. While you are moving through the jungles or underbrush, you usually are moving from mission objective to mission objective while the computer throws a ton of VC enemies at you. You have squad mates that accompany you into battle, and they cannot die during the actual game which of course removes a lot of the challenge, so if you get hit you can just get behind something and heal up while they fire away at bad guys (and girls).

Another problem that I had with Shellshock is in the area in between missions. You will go to a base camp, but the whole point to this is completely meaningless. You can get chits after missions (combat pay) and use them to buy drugs, postcards, or even hook up with a prostitute for a little RnR … but none of this really makes any difference in the game nor does it do anything for your character. While I guess it was supposed to be part of the “realism” thing in the game, I just tried to go from mission to mission since anything outside of that was pointless.

Lastly, the game isn’t going to give you much reason to go back and play it through a second time after you have beaten it (As I stated in the opening paragraph). The game won’t take many people more than a weekend or less to go through all of the missions, and since there is no multiplayer and due to your indestructible teammates which help make the game a little too easy regardless of difficulty level, this probably will wind up getting taken out on a Saturday and then forgotten and left to collect dust.

Graphically, Shellshock does a pretty decent job in giving players a realistic environment, complete with jungles, rice patty fields, and villages to go through. The cutscenes were done well, and were intended to add to the game, but again some of them seemed kind of pointless overall and really didn’t do much except to emphasize giving you a lot of violence (like a VC general putting a pistol to his chin and blowing the top of his head off). In addition, there were some weird physics when characters would die, like flopping limbs or even one situation where I guess the computer couldn’t figure out where the dead body was supposed to go so it sat in one place on a hill and just rolled around and around.

The sound to Shellshock was pretty good for the most part, with rock style 60’s music making up the tunes you will hear in base camp and all of the gunfire and explosions that you will experience out in the jungle. The enemies usually only had a couple of things that they would shout while attacking like “You going home in body bag, GI”, which got redundant, and you can bet that there are plenty of four letter words added in which is excusable, since I would be doing the same thing in real life if I were getting shot at or a mortar went off near me.

Overall, Guerrilla and Eidos did a decent job in trying to give players realism in the Vietnam era, but somewhere along the way they seemed to forget that gameplay was a little more of a factor in addition to keeping realism accurate while actually playing the game … not just in some movies that were tossed in. Even if you love war games and are looking for a new Vietnam title to play with, I would suggest renting this title prior to buying since it will probably be one of those “beat it and trade it in” titles for a lot of you action gamers out there.  

Gameplay: 6.5
The developers were going for realism, but seemed to capture the majority of that in the cutscenes. The game overall isn’t difficult, even on a hard setting thanks to the fact that you can magically heal by just sitting there, and you will be accompanied by troops that cannot be killed. The game is also way too short, and since there is no multiplayer there’s not much of a need to go through it a second time.  

Graphics: 7.1 
The graphics overall were decent, and they did a good job in capturing the environment of Vietnam with lush jungles and dismembered or dead bodies. The animations were OK, but sometimes dead enemies would be a little too limp when killed, and there were a couple of times where they did weird things like keep rolling in place or would have a leg vanish into the ground.

Sound: 7.0
The music to Shellshock was a good mix of 60’s style rock and the sounds of gunfire and explosions throughout the battles were done well. The voiceovers did tend to get a little repetitive though, since saying would be repeated over and over again mostly by enemies but sometimes by your own squad as well.

Difficulty: Easy
Again, thanks to the undying commandos and the ability to heal by just getting out of the way of battle, the game is not hard to go through regardless of difficulty setting. If you beat it on easy, doing it again on hard isn’t going to be very rewarding.

Concept: 6.8 
I think that the developer’s hearts were in the right place, kinda, but somewhere along the way they focused too much on trying to be violent and showing stuff to make you go “Oh my gosh” versus focusing on what makes the game really enjoyable. This is definitely one of those games that had a ton of potential but fell short before the finish.  

Overall: 6.8
The game does provide some fun, and the first time you play through the opening mission you’ll probably be really excited. The enjoyment dies out after about two or three more missions though, and the game becomes repetitive all the way up until the end. If you are thinking of buying Shellshock, definitely give it a rent first, since a lot of you will be able to take it out that weekend anyways.