Most of the civilised world would describe war as hell on earth. That is exactly what Shellshock: Nam `67 brings to the market. Terror, chaos and violence are the perfect words to describe one of this year`s best war games on the PlayStation 2.
Guerrilla Studios went all the way in developing this one. Everything from uniforms to weapons, and even the language has been detailed to perfection, to bring players a completely unique Vietnam experience.
You would probably think it is just another war story about a young soldier getting sent out on random missions, to kill a bunch of enemy forces and so on.
Well this one has a storyline, and a good one at that. The story focuses on General Ngo Dinh Diem of the Vietcong. One of the main tasks is hunting down the general and preventing his massacre of innocent villagers.
Lock 'n load
The game starts in the strangest way. Usually, these titles have some sort of a training level before things get really heated, but not this one.
You are given a choice between three new recruits and are basically thrown into the deep-end. There is a running tutorial on your first mission that sort of teaches you about different things, like booby traps, weapons and others.
Missions are based on a number of different objectives that vary from destroying enemy weapons and supplies, to rescuing fellow squad members.
Objectives are easily found with the help of a compass in the bottom corner of the screen, which not only tells you where to go, but also indicates enemy forces in different colour.
A handy save system has been put into play when a certain point in a mission has been reached, mainly to prevent you from having to start a mission all over again.
Navigating your character is difficult at first. Unlike most of the third-person games on the market, this one has a fair amount of functions you can perform, and requires some time spent on getting familiar with these.
If you have spent a lot of time on titles like the Grand Theft Auto series or Max Pain, you will be up and running like a pro by the time you`ve completed the first two missions.
Most of the functions in Shellshock are similar to those of other war games. You can walk slowly, run, crouch, roll and even lean around the corners. Other features - like switching to first-person view when shooting - come in handy, especially when you are trying to take out an adrenalin-driven soldier behind a big machine gun.
Bright lights
As far as the visual presentation goes, more attention should have been paid to general scenery and perhaps the short briefings between the missions, but I guess there is a lot of room for improvement with any game.
The developers went out of their way with the sound effects. Just about every little detail you could think of has been covered: everything from sounds of shrapnel hitting the walls after an explosion to different sounds in footsteps.
Capturing a certain time frame with a game is not an easy task; however, most of the tunes in this game easily paint a perfect picture of the sixties and make the experience much more enjoyable.
Summing up
Even though the game has only 13 missions, Shellshock Nam `67 is a must-have for all battle fanatics out there. It is heavy, frustrating and extremely realistic - a completely new style to the world of console gaming.
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