Vietcong (Gathering PC MA15)

Why, when there are so many games about World War Two have there been so few about Vietnam? The answer is probably the deep scars it left on the world's number one consumer of computer games, the US.

Now, almost 30 years after the US finally left Saigon, we have the Vietcong, a first-person action game set in Vietnam's steamy jungles. Many war games are neutral in that you can play either side, be it British, German, Amercian or Japanese. Vietcong isn't quite so even-handed.

In campaign mode you take the part of Special Forces Sergeant Steve Hawkins, a typical all-American hero. He fights through a series of missions aided and abetted by his Vietnamese pointman Le Du Nhut and gum-chewing good ol' boy machinegunner CJ.

Moving as a unit through the dense vegetation so typical of this tropical country and knowing the enemy could be just metres away makes for a suspense-filled game. You get the chance to turn the tables on Uncle Sam in quick mission mode, which lets you play as an American or a Vietcong.

While the environment and the weaponry are realistic, Vietcong is not so much a simulation but a first-person shotter set around the Vietname War.

You unlock secret weaopons and hidden levels and much of the game involves last-man-standing firefights.

The Vietnam war inspired much of America's finest rock music and Vietcong's soundtrack has a good selection. The sound is one of the game's strong points with the jungle humming, bullets whizzing as they go past and explosions making an ear-splitting blast.

The graphics are generally good, despite a jumpy frame rate at times and some clipping where characters seem to walk through solid objects.

* Email Peter Eley