Hands-On With ShellShock: Nam '67

We take a trip back to Vietnam - is Eidos' game experience as horrific as the real thing?

At first glance, it seems like creating a game based on the Vietnam War - especially for a largely American audience - is akin to making a job safety manual for the recently unemployed. Is this really territory we want to retread?

Then again, some of the finest, most engaging films of the last three decades were unflinching portrayals of the Vietnam War or surrounding events.

It stands to reason, then, that a video game could offer the same gripping appeal. That is, provided the developers emphasize realism and eschew the market-friendly temptation to puke up the digital equivalent of Chuck Norris whacking half the Vietnamese population to rescue a POW.

ShellShock: Nam '67 promises to do just that. Rather than give us an idealized look at the most devastating conflict in American history, Eidos and developer Guerilla Games are pulling no punches with a gritty, unforgiving depiction of life and death in Vietnam (circa 1967).

If the name of the developer sounds familiar, it's probably because Guerilla has been working on Killzone, the mammoth PS2 shooter that - for better or worse - has fostered comparisons to Halo.

Unlike Killzone, ShellShock is set squarely in the past, and it strives to faithfully recreate many aspects of the Vietnam War, including some atrocities, were it not for our collective conscience, we might sooner forget.

As such, ShellShock will unleash far more than the typical combat scenarios, including the torture of prisoners, the inadvertent napalming of civilians, and the execution of traitors and spies.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the game is how it evolves over time. You begin the experience as a fresh recruit, fighting alongside fellow grunts who have survived little more than a merciless hazing in boot camp ("Your ass looks like 150 pounds of chewed bubble gum, Pyle!").

These early scenarios are expected to involve large-scale conflicts, including immense firefights and those horrific ambushes brutally captured on film. One moment your platoon is trudging through the sweltering bush, and the next you're scrambling for dear life, the screams of your bloodied comrades mixing with the torrent of gunfire and mortar rounds.

To make matters worse, the enemy often wears sheep's clothing. The peasant farmers who were tilling their land the day before are now fighting tooth and nail to defend their soil.

Thus, even in peaceful settings you must remain aware of the thin line between life and death. To quote the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket, "If your killer instincts are not clean and strong . . . You will become dead marines. And then you will be in a world of shit, because marines are not allowed to die without permission."

Thanks to the miracle of the "replay" function, you will invariably survive the slings and arrows of war. Your continued success in combat will be rewarded by advancement through the military ranks and the conferral of specialized missions.

Ultimately, gamers will become Special Forces soldiers assigned crucial tasks such as the assassination of key Vietcong military leaders. In contrast to the earlier missions, these assignments often emphasize stealth over sheer firepower.

The mission we played at E3 was one that placed a premium on stealth. We started on a beach, armed only with our meager wits and a survival knife.

Lo and behold, there was an enemy soldier standing stone-still with his back to us. Naturally, we had no choice but to silently creep up behind and straighten his Columbian necktie. After slitting his throat, we grabbed his assault rifle and began edging through the dense jungle.

Soon enough we encountered a trip wire. When disabling the mechanism, a subwindow appears on the screen, requiring you to navigate a "maze" of sorts before a counter times down. Fail, and the mine detonates, prematurely ending your Special Forces career. It's unrealistic, but still cleverly captures the tension of dismantling a live explosive.

After careful nullifying two or three trip wires on our trek through the dense jungle underbrush, we came across a patrolling guard. We quietly moved in for the kill, but abruptly the guard turned, and soon shouts could be heard above the shrill call of an alarm whistle.

Our effort at stealth foiled, we hoisted the assault rifle and nervously tried to separate the approaching enemy from the camouflaging foliage. Rifles cracked and bullets whizzed past our head, but somehow we managed to neutralize the handful of enemy soldiers who scrambled to investigate the commotion.

Crowded by reeds and 10-foot ferns, we followed a dirt path to a clearing. Several Vietcong soldiers lounged by a campfire with rifles slung over their shoulders. A slaughtered pig dangled from a tree limb.

We were so mesmerized by the delicacy that we failed to notice the machine gun nest overlooking our dirt path. Unfortunately, the soldier manning the weapon did not fail to notice us. Soon enough, we were ready to take a very long nap in a pine box.

Though our mission came to an untimely end, we did manage to notice a few things about the ShellShock experience.

For one, the sounds are superb. Shoddy sound effects will pull you out of the game and back into your living room, but in ShellShock the cadence of gunfire and rattle of explosions are so pitch perfect you'll be alternately ducking for cover and reaching for the bug repellent.

Alas, the same cannot be said of the visuals. The game certainly doesn't look bad, but the muddy textures and relatively bland geometry make it a less immersive experience. Frankly, this is one Xbox game that wears its PS2 origins on its sleeve.

Of course, innovation, gameplay and novelty are the selling points here, and in that respect ShellShock appears to be a winner. Who can find fault with a game that lets you call in airstrikes, fire anti-tank rockets, and bed a prostitute all in the same day?

That's right, even the most virtuous soldier needs to relieve some stress, and there's no better place to do it than at base camp.

Base camp is the hub of ShellShock. Here you can hone your sniping skills, chew the fat with other GIs, and, if the moment is right, find someone to love you long time.

Soldiers also can wheel and deal in black-market goods, and even might acquire tips on where contraband might be located during their forthcoming mission.

Base camp also is where you will receive your orders, and it is where you will return after achieving objectives and eluding death in combat.

ShellShock will feature 10 levels, each of which will take up to 90 minutes to complete. In simultaneously development for the PS2, Xbox and PC, the game is slated to ship for each platform later this month, so stay glued here for our full review.

Tony Scinta
Survived three hours in the bush - although not in a jungle...