The Wargamer

An Old Friend

My gaming friends have frequently heard me talk of my love/hate relationship with the Czech developer Illusion Softworks. Their games strike me as near strokes of brilliance, marred only by a few frustrating design decisions and some final rough edges that make titles such as Mafia, Hidden & Dangerous 2, and Vietcong both easy and difficult to recommend. Mafia was a superb, classier rendition of the Grand Theft Auto phenomenon held back by its rat race driving requirements, Hidden & Dangerous 2 was squad-based tactics at its very best until the AI was needed, and Vietcong was a challenging, tactically unique FPS which, though too often overlooked, suffered from pathfinding and occasionally overly strict scripting issues.

Although Illusion Softworks was not the lead developer behind Vietcong and its new Fist Alpha expansion pack, its hand in the development work as a producer can't be missed. The formula is there: brilliance, but not quite gaming nirvana. Vietcong's lead developer Pterodon Studios (also of the Czech Republic) has returned in early 2004 with a well-produced and thorough expansion pack for the ruggedly handsome Vietcong, Vietcong: Fist Alpha.

Yep, That Vietnam

Fist Alpha returns players to the jungles of Vietnam during the earlier, less politically murky days of the conflict. The early 1967 setting is also a year prior to the events of the original game, and the setting allows for some excellent single player mission scenarios with plenty of good firefights. History buffs may recall that these early days of the Vietnam Conflict were mostly defined by smaller engagements of United States Marine and U.S. Army Special Forces mixed in with South Vietnamese regulars, rather than the larger regular U.S. Army encounters of later years. As in Vietcong, Vietcong: Fist Alpha places its players in control of a small squad of soldiers led by a Vietnamese local: the game benefits by taking the historical setting seriously.

Treating the Vietnam Conflict with a degree of seriousness is perhaps still the best approach to this sensitive subject matter. As the computer game industry dries up the World War II landscape and seeks out new historical periods for its games, Vietnam is quickly becoming a popular setting for games. But because the United States' national recollection of our time in Southeast Asia seems to be permanently negative, it's worth treating this subject matter with kid gloves and a degree of authenticity which the average gamer (if not layperson) might not expect from a computer game covering the era. On a personal note, I am too young to remember the events of the Vietnam Conflict, but when I listen to the political discussions of our time (Is Iraq another Vietnam? Is Vietnam service relevant to our political candidates?) and I consider the tremendous impact it had on our leaders of that time (see Robert McNamara's recent biography/documentary, Fog of War), it seems plainly obvious that it will remain a politically charged setting for games. Nonetheless, I hope that we can one day look back upon the conflict in Vietnam with a more objective understanding.

Packaging

The Fist Alpha expansion pack requires an original version of Vietcong to play. For those looking for a good deal, the new expansion pack also comes packaged with the original game in a bundle called Vietcong: Purple Haze. Both the expansion pack and its bundle are very reasonably priced at $20 and $30 (at the time of this writing), respectively.

In addition to the original manual and disks, Fist Alpha throws in a very brief new manual and two more CDs for installation and play. Although the expansion pack's manual may lead some to expect a Medal of Honor-esque shortened expansion pack, the final gameplay tally doesn't end up correlating to the ultra thin manual. Players can expect to read through it all by the time Fist Alpha is done installing: it's simply a series of descriptions on the new weapons and characters.

The new disk space used is marginal and the system requirements have not changed since Vietcong's release last spring. The expansion pack does carry the most recent patch version of the parent game, and I was pleased to find that no bugs marred my gaming experience. The only technical frustrations left were game design issues and game engine limitations.