Conflict Vietnam (PC, Atari)

Reviewed by PETER ELEY

(Herald rating * * * *)

The Conflict series began with Desert Storm, the whirlwind invasion of Iraq that followed Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Released two years ago, you had to relive the campaign and help the US and its allies regain control of Kuwait and blunt the military might of Iraq.

The game was more of a challenge than the real thing. According to Desert-Storm.com, the US lost just four tanks compared with Iraq's 4000, and CIA agents had earlier disabled
Saddam's air defence system with a computer virus. No contest, really.

A highly successful sequel followed the first game, and now the developers are going back in time for the third instalment.

This time it's Vietnam, and the setting is the Tet Offensive of 1967, when Viet Cong armies launched a surprise attack on the US-defended south of the country and succeeded in reaching Saigon.

Though the VC's suffered huge casualties, it was a public relations triumph and probably marked the beginning of the end for the US campaign.

Conflict Vietnam is a squad-based third-person action game. You have to take charge of a four-man group which has been cut off behind enemy lines.

The game convincingly recreates the claustrophobic nature of this war, where an enemy could be hiding just a metre away in a jungle thicket.

And if that's not enough, there are the infamous VietCong boobytraps, such as bouncing betty land mines, punji stake pits and trip-wire activated grenades.

There are 14 missions, ranging from navigating down muddy rivers with banks enclosed by jungle, to creeping through ruined temples or fighting from the relative safety of a Huey helicopter.

While Conflict Desert Storm closely tracked the progress and key locations of the Gulf War, Conflict Vietnam is more about surviving in a totally hostile and intimidating environment and is perhaps the more realistic for it.

* No rating available

peter.eley@nzherald.co.nz