''Battlefield Vietnam'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

. It is the second instalment in the ''Battlefield'' franchise after ''

Battlefield 1942 ''Battlefield 1942'' is a 2002 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game can be played in single-player mode against the video game AI or in multiplayer mode a ...

''. The game was developed by a Canadian company DICE Canada and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

. ''Battlefield Vietnam'' takes place during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

and features a large variety of

maps A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

based on historical settings, such as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Battle of Huế,

Ia Drang Valley The Battle of Ia Drang (, ; in English ) was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), as part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War, at the eastern foot of the Chu Pong Ma ...

, Operation Flaming Dart, the

Battle of Khe Sanh The Battle of Khe Sanh (21 January – 9 July 1968) was conducted in the Khe Sanh area of northwestern Quảng Trị Province, Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), during the Vietnam War. The main US forces defending Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSC ...

and

Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, t ...

. On 15 March 2005, EA re-released the game as
Battlefield Vietnam: Redux
', which includes new vehicles, maps and an EA-produced World War II mod, based on the previous ''

''.

Gameplay

''Battlefield Vietnam'' has the same point-by-point objectives of ''Battlefield 1942.'' In most playable maps, the objective is to occupy Control Points around the map to enable allies and controllable vehicles to spawn. Similar to other ''Battlefield'' games, spawn tickets play a vital role in defeating the opposing team. ''Battlefield Vietnam'' features a form of asymmetrical warfare gameplay. The two teams (U.S. and North Vietnam) are given different equipment and vehicles, making the U.S. rely more on heavy vehicles and the Vietnamese rely more on infantry tactics. The U.S., for instance, can employ

heavy tanks Heavy tank is a term used to define a class of tanks produced from World War I through the end of the Cold War. These tanks generally sacrificed mobility and maneuverability for better armour protection and equal or greater firepower than tanks ...

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, and

bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircra ...

, whereas the Vietnamese are forced to rely on anti-tank/ anti-aircraft weapons in order to stop the U.S. side. The gameplay was intended to reflect the actual conditions of the war. A "Sipi Hole" feature for the Vietnamese, effectively a mobile spawn point, representative of the vast tunnel networks the Vietnamese used in the actual war, was implemented in order to balance the gameplay. ''Battlefield Vietnam'' features the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

with

Marines Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

; South Vietnam with Army of the Republic of Vietnam; and

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

with People's Army of Vietnam and the

Viet Cong , , war = the Vietnam War , image = FNL Flag.svg , caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green. , active ...

. Built on a modified version of the ''Battlefield 1942'' engine, ''Battlefield Vietnam'' has new and improved features compared to its predecessor. The game gives the player a variety of weapons based on the war. Various contemporary weapons and concepts are featured such as the AK47 assault rifle and punji stick traps. It also introduced several vehicle improvements over the prequel, such as air-lifting vehicles and playing vehicles' radios, which feature 1960s music as well as custom tracks the player can add by importing audio files into a designated directory. Players are also able to fire their weapons from vehicles if they are in a passenger seat, as opposed to being completely defenseless like in the prequel. The game is the first in the ''Battlefield'' series to utilize a 3D map, allowing players to see icons that represent the position of control points or friendly units, giving the player an increased situational awareness.

Reception

In June 2004, ''Battlefield Vietnam'' received a "Gold" certification from th
Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware
Deutschland, indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Overall sales of ''Battlefield Vietnam'' reached 990,000 copies by that November, by which time the ''Battlefield'' series had sold 4.4 million copies. The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. ''Battlefield Vietnam'' was a runner-up for '' Computer Games Magazine''s list of the 10 best computer games of 2004. It won the magazine's special award for "Best Soundtrack". It also won

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

's 2004 "Best Licensed Music" award.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2004 video games Asymmetrical multiplayer video games * 02 Cold War video games Electronic Arts games First-person shooter multiplayer online games Inactive multiplayer online games Multiplayer and single-player video games Multiplayer online games Video games about the United States Marine Corps Video games developed in Sweden Video games set in the 1960s Video games set in the 1970s Video games set in Cambodia Video games set in Vietnam Vietnam War video games Windows games Windows-only games