Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh Trail

The Good
Lots of action, tolerable graphics, decent sounds

The Bad
Too much action at times, extremely unforgiving, as you must unleash the power of the artillery and napalm at the right ranges to prevent yourself from being overrun. Use them too early, and you can't target a thing. Use them too late, and the target's too spread out. With a "recharge" period between the salvoes, and you may be in BIG problem.

The Bottom Line
Basically, this is like beachhead... You can rotate 360 degrees and shoot enemies, who initially come with infantry and militia, along with occasional fighter-bombers. Later they get RPG launchers, light tanks, heavy tanks, and so on. You get a lot of weapons, from your trusty pistol to Vulcan cannon to ability to call in artillery and napalm strikes. You are usually up against hundreds of enemies at a time, as they charge down the hill in groups, spread out randomly to avoid your shots, while you struggle to engage them with all the firepower available to you.

There is definitely plenty of action as you definitely feel like you're in the Alamo. Of course, you have a ton of firepower at your disposal, and graphics are decent (for a budget title) though the Napalm and artillery is a bit underwhelming as it didn't tear up the landscape as you'd expect.

On the other hand, the gameplay relies too much on timing and is extremely unforgiving. In general, you need to engage the group of enemies as far from you as possible, before they spread out and become more difficult to engage by artillery and napalm. Yet both assets require a bit of time to "recharge" and thus may not be available if you use them, forcing you to rely on yourself to fend off the other groups. As the enmies can come from all sides, action is extremely frenetic, and mistakes are extremely unforgiving.

All in all, the game is worth about $5, and does deliver several hours of diversion, as well as some quick game breaks. If you pay more, then you may be wasting your money.