There is no doubt that Battlefield: 1942 (review) is not only a great multiplayer shooter, it is also one of the most popular and influential PC game to be released in recent. Battlefield 1942 was a success for the fact that it had a large number of players in the one server at once (up to 64) and that players could easily switch from being an on foot soldier, to flying a plane, driving a tank or commandeering numerous other vehicles. Now the third game in the series (if we count Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of WWII expansions), Battlefield: Vietnam, take place during the Vietnam War, and it will let you play as US or US-allied troops (including the US Army, US Marines, US Special Forces, or the Army of the Republic of Vietnam) or the opposing Vietnamese forces (the North Vietnamese Army or the Viet Cong.

For the most part, the gameplay for Battlefield Vietnam remains pretty much the same as Battlefield 1942, except that the sequel has a completely different setting than the original and the main focus in terms of vehicles shifts from tanks to helicopters. There are 14 different scenarios (12 maps). Scenarios are inspired by some of the most famous battles of the war, including the Ia Drang Valley, Hue during the Tet Offensive, Quang Tri Base, and the Siege of Khe Sanh. Each side has a variety of unique weapons. You'll control a huge array of vehicles including tanks, jeeps, APCs, gunboats, and aircraft. Some of the combat vehicles straight from the conflict including the UH-1 Huey helicopter, M551 Sheridan tank, Phantom F-4 jet fighter and CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter and for the NVA the Russian-made T-54 tank, MIG-21 jet fighter, and Mi-8 multipurpose helicopters which were used to deploy troops deep in the jungles. So, you'll not only coordinate ground assaults with armored personnel carriers, tanks, and jeeps, but you'll also be able to creep up river deltas in patrol boats, and you can descend on enemy positions in attack helicopters. We could see some choppers already in BF1942 Desert Combat modification, however in Battlefield Vietnam the helicopters are better integrated into the game and much more intuitive to fly. Certain helicopters can also pick up various ground vehicles and boats. For example, when you are in a helicopter with this feature, you hold the right mouse button to lower the cable, then simple hover over the item you want to lift and it will attach to it automatically. Then you can release the button and fly away. When you're ready to drop, click the right mouse button again and your payload is released.

Single player (where you play amongst NPC bots) in the original Battlefield 1942 was mainly for training purposes (before you go to war on servers). In Battlefield: Vietnam, single player basically serves the same purpose. Unfortunately, the computer-controlled bots are still very lame. They even don't know how to fly helicopters properly :) Don't buy this game for single-player! Battlefield Vietnam features three multiplayer modes - Conquest mode, Evolution mode and Custom Combat mode. Conquest Mode is the same as what's in Battlefield 1942. The Evolution mode expands the conquest idea. This is where a map begins as it would normally, but at the end of the battle the map's alternate loads up. The scores, the team, and the player from the previous map are added to the new map and play resumes. In Custom Combat mode, the server can set what armies will fight in the selected map, what vehicles will appear and what weapons will be included or excluded from battle. There's also Punkbuster technology implemented.

There's no doubt that Battlefield Vietnam is more like an expansion pack than a sequel. It's not significantly different than the original, nor is it markedly better than Desert Combat mod. Fortunately, there are more vehicles and on a lot of maps the points are close together, making the combat a lot more frantic. There are only a few minor problems - the requirements are very steep and will not run well on a slow computer, and there are some graphical glitches that will hopefully be fixed with the next patch. Those who don't have a powerful enough machine or a fast enough connection to be competitive will hate this game, but if you can get it running, Battlefield Vietnam is still one of the best multiplayer experiences around.

System Requirements
Minimum: 933 MHz CPU, Directx 9.0b, 3D accelerated GeForce3 64 MB or equivalent DirectX9 compatible videocard, 256MB RAM, 2GB free hard drive space (additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 9.0b installation),16x CD-ROM drive, Directx 9.0b Compatible Sound Card, MS compatible mouse, Keyboard

Recommended: 1.2 GHz CPU, Directx 9.0b, 3D accelerated GeForce3 64 MB or equivalent DirectX9 compatible videocard, 512MB RAM, 2 GB free hard drive space (additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 9.0b installation), 16x CD-ROM drive, Directx 9.0b Compatible Sound Card, MS compatible mouse, Keyboard

Recommended for optimum performance: 2.0 GHz CPU, Directx 9.0b, Geforce 4 128 MB (Not MX) or equivalent DirectX9 compatible videocard, 512MB RAM, 2 GB free hard drive space (additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 9.0b installation), 16x CD-ROM drive, Directx 9.0b Compatible Sound Card, MS compatible mouse, Keyboard