Customer Reviews

Line of Sight: Vietnam

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like a cat-and-mouse game but a highly exciting one, this is a very good game of stealth and that is the reason why I give it 5 stars. The game plan is simple: you get your orders, you go to your target and eliminate them, and proceed to the extraction point. Pretty easy Huh? Well, that's where the excitement rides because that's about the only linear part of the game.

Instead, there are many ways to defeat your enemy. You can circle them and take them out the guards one at a time as you go to the "center." Or You can head straight to your target and engage in a close quarter combat.

You gotta know when to be a "ghost" so quiet you can by-pass the enemy unnoticed. You gotta know when to be noisy they all come running up to you so that you can ambush them from a well-concealed point. The night missions were especially cool! You use night vision scope and watch your enemies in graveyard green!

The music is one of the most fitting out there in this type of game: it lends a scary, hair-raising experience because as you go through the jungle you don't know where your enemies are. The music is really good. The graphics are good, too. I like the idea that I can control my spotter, say to position him in one place so that when I explore an area, he can cover me. There is one mission where he saved my life as the VCs where approaching from behind! The game has got some weird behavior like enemy corpses floating perfectly hoirizontal instead of lying at an angle along the slope. It's also noticeable that the landscape are quite alike in all missions: ridges and ravines and valleys. But they're detailed. Hey, even the grass sways by the wind! If you're wounded you can't run fast but have to stop to catch your breath. The extraction points are the places where heavy enemy attacks often take place and you need to know how to strategically place your squad to survive.

All in all, the game is very good for it's graphics, music, detail, and most of all- stealth. You're in a jungle with no way out but your extraction point, you often don't know where your enemies are until they start shooting, you gotta think twice before crossing an open field or ravine because of a super accurate sniper somewhere out there! Your only other health options are the medipaks from your enemies, you match your fire power with stealth so you can get back home alive. I like it and highly recommend it for those who want a very good, scary cat-and-mouse game!

You liked playing sniper in MOH right? Well have fun with this one gang! The missions are tough, but fun. the graphics are pretty good, not great, but good enough. You have to use your head sometimes to avoid being killed or detected, but it's a great game and I would say well worth the money. This one's a sleeper. Never heard any advertising or promo's for it, but I stumbled onto it and had a great time. I highly recommend it. I'm a hard-corps combat gamer and I love this one. You won't go wrong with it, believe me. You usually have a choice of a number of different weapons and you can pick up weapons from the VC you kill. It's exciting at times and a bit scary in spots. The VC hide pretty good, so be wary or you'll be the victim... AND, this game has saves and plenty of them so you don't have to worry about that... Buy it, you'll be glad you did.

UPDATED REVIEW

I finished the game and it was truly awesome! I've since downloaded some new maps that have been written by fans of the game out there. There are new Vietnam levels available as well as levels against Russians in the snow! Check 'em out and happy shooting. BTW, if you want another game with great sniping and stealth check out my review of "Far Cry".

ORIGINAL REVIEW

I got this because I wanted something out of the norm rather than the charge in guns blazing approach or most FPS's. This is a great combination of realism and tactical thinking. The graphics are nice and the sounds work well to create the feel of the jungle. The raindrops and fog also can create a great mood of being in deep jungle, all you need to do is crank the humidifier in your room and wear some good headphones. The rustling from your movement can be unnerving because a moment after you make a sound, you hear a voice in Vietnamese and then the shooting starts. The AI has taken me out more times than I care to admit, so it's handy to have the quicksave function. The AI reminds me of Secret Service "In Harm's Way" where if an enemy sees you from really far away, they'll come find you where you are.

You acquire enemies' weapons and items as you go as well and it limits you to a certain number so that you have to make an adequate choice. Hiding in the bushes is no guarantee that you won't be seen either, but if an enemy is close, the brush can cover you enough to make a silent kill with a knife. I've just recently learned the art of sneaking up for the silent kill and it helps keep you from getting taken out by enemies responding to a shot. The big problem is that you can't throw the knife like in SOF. This would be handy in some situations to throw and retrieve your knife. The spotter can be set up to cover you while you recon as well, but sometimes he makes noise and it's best to switch between the two to avoid detection.

I was amazed by the response of the weapons' recoil as well, because you would definitely have those issues with the larger more powerful guns. The V.C. sniper rifle actually has a good viewfinder at night and is bright during the day, so I sometimes use it rather than the M21. It does suffer from a slight accuracy difference too. I'm not sure if it was available in Vietnam, but I wish there was a silencer available and maybe a flash suppressor. It would make it easier to play and learn on the easy level for beginners so that you would be harder to locate when making a kill. Maybe someone will design a mod for it in the future.

The complaints I do have are the graphics can be strange sometimes and it's easy to climb up and down cliff sides without the use of ropes. Maybe the snipers are supposed to be great rock climbers. Also there are some levels where you are exposed up on the rocks and noone takes a shot at you. Maybe it's cause I'm on the easy setting. It's not as detailed as Soldier of Fortune but the movement and sound of the vegetation is amazing. Also, on the multiplayer modes, a lot of guys are running through guns blazing like they're playing Quake, Doom or Duke Nukem so unless you have good players who really understand stealth tactics, you may not enjoy that aspect of the game as much. Also, I got the latest patches for the game and many of the people playing don't host with the latest version so I'm unable to join those games.

I haven't yet tried it at a harder level other than easy so far, because I want to get through the game, but it affords many hours of enjoyment for a serious stealth gamer. I may have to reload though, because I'm unable to get on the multiplayer games because many people hosting don't have the latest patches.

Enjoy.

Just imagine, you're character being a special forces sniper. The atmosphere in this game is great. The map design, the music, and the ambient sounds really add something to the game. Creeping along some bushes bordering a path leading downhill, then suddenly you hear gunfire, not knowing where it comes from you immediately go prone. Finally, you see the tracers coming the bush next to you, you fire in that area, enemy down. Within a few minutes you come upon a outpost, what do you do? Go in guns blazing, or the smart thing, snipe the sentry gaurd from a long distance and then sneak in? I love this game, it's great. An excellent blend of graphics and gameplay, I must also mention the musical score really adds to the excitement and suspense of the game.

This is an excellent game for one who wants to win and have fun. There are 12 missions and 2 you are by yourself while the rest you have a trench buddy. You control both you and buddy by hitting the F1 OR F2 buttons. Plenty of weapons to pick up and use. There is fog, rain, thunder, mountains, water falls, rivers and some villages to clean up. There is arcade and real life versions to play. The music is a great compliment to the game. This is one hair below Call of Duty.

This game proves that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a great game. First of all, there was not a lot of money spent on the advertisement for this game (I happen to stumble upon it) and the cover art is kind of cheezy. But the game play was great. The AI was way better than "MOHAA" and "Black Hawk Down" combined. The Viet Cong will invistigate every shot heard and you'll find yourself crawling alot on the ground to avoid detection. And you can't crawl too fast or else they will hear you. The vegetations provide great hiding place and numerous possibilities to ambush the enemy or just sneak by undetected. That's just to give you an idea how good the AI in this game is. As far as the game engine goes, it's OK. The engine is not as good as "Viet Cong" but the game itself provide may possibilities and routes to achieve the same goals, not to mention many hours of gameplay. That's what I think makes a good game, but that's just my opinion. Also, being Vietnamese, I could understand what the Viet Cong are saying, pretty authentic sound recordings by the way.

This is the most difficult game ever! I know the developers were most likely trying to reflect the difficulty for the American soldiers during this war, but still! You'll think you are perfectly safe when all of a sudden they will appear from nowhere behind you, and usually you are dead or close with one hit. They are also waaaay too smart. I'll be creeping along a ridge fifty feet above someone, poke my rifle over the edge,and before i can even aim at someone, they suddenly see me, as though i was running around yelling with Christmas lights strapped to my body. The weapons are really cool though, and the gameplay is fun regardless of how hard it is.

All I have to say is jungle, jungle, jungle. Creeping around in the jungle was never so realistic or creepy. In the first mission it's just a struggle to survive, but later on when you get your sniper rifle... there's nothing quite so nerve wracking as scanning the underbrush with your scope trying to figure out where that guy is that shot you right before you last saved. The game is very realistic -- which means that you're dead if someone gets a good shot on you -- but if you use the quicksave and quickload keys you can creep along through the mission. Playing co-op multiplayer for the missions is REALLY cool. There's also deathmatch, but I'd rather play co-op myself. This is a sweet pickup.

This is not your typical "guns blazing" or "shoot everything that moves" type of game. I call this a thinking man's game. Some reviews call this game monotonous, and while I can see how that could be the case, that was not the case for me. Yes, stealth is about 75% of the game, but let's be honest, much of Vietnam was either napalm airstrikes or stealth patrols, and you don't fly a plane in this game, so stealth is it. Side note: I enjoy the geographical and historical background. It really makes you understand Vietnam better (both the country and the war). As for gameplay: tough. Very tough. Press "quick save" often because each step might be your last...literally. But fortunately you can always quick load your last quick save and show those commies who's boss. Weaponry: it's a candy store for 1960's historical firearm enthusiasts. You'll get the opportunity to shoot the service rifle and pistol of the time, along with everything the enemy shoots at you. Another side note: I really like the fact that you can pick up or drop any weapon you find on the field (to include everything from AK-47's to rocket launchers and everything in between). Ballistics are also more realistic than many games I've played. For example: the 7.62 round from the AK-47 has more stopping power than a 5.56, and a .45 from your service pistol is great up close, but you can tell it slows with range and isn't as effective the farther out. Kudos to the ballistics researchers on this game. Lastly, the value for the price of this game is incredible. In closing, if you like a really hard strategic first person shooter with lots of weaponry, tactics, and simple keyboard/mouse commands, this is the one. Get it today.

I bought this game because of the reviews, as I had not heard of it before, and I have NOT been disappointed! This game is FUN! Fun, that is, if you like military "simulators", not just military shoot-em-ups. It has a few glitches, but overall, it's a great test of patience, nerve, and shooting skill/speed.

I have always enjoyed the stealth aspect in games such as Splinter Cell--it's good to change from straight-up shoot-outs every now and then. Line of Sight feeds that urge in spades. The combat is all about stealth, and in a tough jungle environment where the enemy has just as much stealth going for him. The graphics are decent by today's standards, good enough to make you forget about it being only a game, which is the whole point of military simulators. The atmosphere is top-notch, with the jungle noises, the crunching grass, and the unknown of the enemy, somewhere out there, hidden in the foliage, with a bullet with your name on it. The action is unforgiving, which turns some people off, but hey, that's the way combat IS. If you're sloppy, and show yourself to an enemy, you'll likely never know until you feel yourself floating away from your body. If you're lucky, they may only graze you, giving you the opportunity to go prone and let them come in close to try to finish you off, in which case you return the "favor", but make yours the lethal variety. The night missions are particularly satisfying, because you only have night vision through your scope, just as it was back then. You move quietly, looking for shapes, or the white of a face, and go to the scope for a better look. Turn the sound up, too, because the ambience is great, with all the night sounds filling your ears.

There are a few oddities that take away from it a bit. The nastiest one is an annoying tendency for the game to suddenly stand you up out of the prone position every now and then. In most cases, this is merely annoying, but occasionally it necessitates a restart, because you just jumped up right in front of the enemy! The enemy AI can be "interesting", with their ability to know your exact location from one shot, and to be able to cross "hill-n-dale" in mere seconds, regardless of the ruggedness of the terrain. Your partner will occasionally get stuck or lost, which means you must go back for him, because you cannot complete the missions without him next to you. In general, while these can be annoying, the gameplay makes up for them, and with a running quick-save ability, you should never have to go back too far if you're taken out prematurely.

Overall, I am very impressed with this game. It's a sleeper hit, having flown under too many radars, and yet be this good. Any time a game can glue you to the screen, keeping you on the edge of your seat, peering into the monitor like it's a window looking out over the woods and you know someone is out there, someone with evil intentions for you, and you must find them first--that game developer did their job VERY well indeed! The complaints about its difficulty are justified, but not without being able to overcome them. I am NOT a hardcore gamer, but I like reality in my games, and combat SHOULD be unforgiving of mistakes. You adjust your tactics, you take it slowly, stop and listen, go prone the second you hear noises or voices, and you be ready to shoot quickly and accurately. If you liked Ghost Recon (especially the Advanced Warfighter series) and/or Splinter Cell, you owe it to yourself to try this one out--I bet you'll have a blast with this!

Oh, for the record, I have Vista 64-bit, and this plays fine--don't miss it because you have upgraded your system.