PlayStation 2

Shellshock: Nam '67

ShellShock: Nam '67 isn’t a bad game by any means. The actual gameplay is quite solid, if a bit easy. Nonetheless, it’s hard to recommend the game for a $49.99 purchase when there is so little replay value. Fans of the genre should at least rent it to give it whirl and experience the most genuinely shocking war game that has been released.

War games are really making a big hit in the retail market, with players getting to pick from everything from the Revolutionary War to the conflict in the gulf. Vietnam was one of those things that got some attention, and as of late we have been seeing more and more titles hit the shelves based around the events that took place during that time period. The newest addition to the Vietnam games list to hit store shelves is Shellshock, Nam ’67 by Eidos Interactive. While there are other titles out there to choose from, Shellshock does a good job in portraying all of the action and even atrocities that were found in the war back in the 60’s … but the game overall does come off as shallow, and you probably won’t take too long to go through it either.

Hippies using flower power; soldiers who were strong, and then some who cowered; an enemy whose overwhelming numbers, invisibility, and experience turned the war for us from sweet to sour. You remember it...Nam. You either knew about, were in it, have heard about it, learned about it, or died by it (ghosts know how to read). Vietnam was one of the most messy struggles split up by controversy and mayhem. Protesters fought it, soldiers fought in it, and the enemy didn't even want the Americans in their country to help out their people in whom they were trying to overpower.

Overall, ShellShock: Nam '67 is a very mixed bag. Is it worth your precious $50' Yes and no. If you're looking for a quick fix game that packs a lot of action, gore, and challenge, by all means, buy this game. If you're searching for the perfect war game that encompasses all of Vietnam's tragic history and all of the pain and tears associated with it, this game could be worth a rental, but definitely not a purchase. For everything ShellShock does right, namely engineering a pure action game with some cool features like the base camp, it manages to do two things wrong, such as instituting a controller-hurling range of difficulty, and essentially, lacking overall innovation. ShellShock is very much like the Vietnam War itself; painful, harsh, difficult to overcome, and leaving a bad taste in your mouth.

Overall, I feel that ShellShock: Nam '67 had some great concepts and did a great job of realistically recreating a very controversial war. As the game starts, it states that this is purely fictional, but you still wonder if there were similar missions that the recruits had to go through. However, with sluggish movement and imprecise aiming, the game does not meet shooter standards, and to make things worse, the terrain is limited and may give you a tough time in finding the way around blocked objects. With only 11 missions, this game is more of a rental than a purchase candidate. You may not find another game that represents war like this one, but with its downfalls, it's not a must-have.

If telling the shocking truth of Vietnam is this title's trump card, then it doesn't have a whole lot to cling to. There are gruesome scenes, but that's nothing new to gamers. The shocking truth of Vietnam is more subtly embedded in the American mind than someone getting his head blown off.

One of the first action sequences in Platoon chronicles Private Chris Taylor's first night in the bush. Oliver Stone shows his squad locking and loading and slides them into a mosquito hole with bulbous eyes and dripping skin. Taylor blames stinking heat and insects for his inability to sleep while the others watch. Claymores hang in the trees and the dark. And they all drift away in the end, soaked and exhausted. When Taylor wakes the rain is ceased and yellow mist drapes languidly over crystal moonlight, leaves and twigs and solid silence rolled with water drops. Then he sees the straw hats, the VC in the milky atmosphere, ghosts in the trees.

Shellshock: Nam '67 is a third-person shooter with some serious problems. First, it's set in Vietnam but often feels more like Vermont, North Carolina, or possibly some sort of sparsely vegetated western set that came with a long forgotten Hollywood back lot.

Well, I’m shocked. Not in a good way mind you. I’m shocked Guerilla Games, the developer of Shellshock: Nam 67, resorted to a gimmick to get their game over. The gimmick in question: the atrocities of the Vietnam War. But when you strip away the blood and gore, the cursing, the sexual themes and the violent cutscenes, you’re left with a shell of a game - if you’ll pardon the pun - that fails to deliver the unnerving realism it advertises.

It looks like the Vietnam War is quickly becoming the new World War II. ShellShock: Nam '67 is the second Vietnam War-themed shooter to be released in as many weeks, and another three will arrive in stores over the next month. ShellShock attempts to differentiate itself from the pack by threatening to provide a disturbing level of realism, or, as the official Web site puts it, "the shocking realities and tragedies of what actually happened out in the jungle." Unfortunately, what this means in practical terms is that ShellShock is a run-of-the-mill shooter with periodic interruptions for bad language and really violent cutscenes.

The experience of Shellshock is similar to the Vietnam War in perhaps the wrong ways. Numbing repetition and combat that is chaotic and often unfair (sometimes in your favour, sometimes not). Like the real thing, if you end up enjoying it, it’ll probably be over sooner. The uncomfortable feeling of an unjust conflict that the developers try to create only serves to bolster the uncomfortable feeling of dealing with the clumsy gameplay. Ultimately, Shellshock does the wrong things for the wrong reasons and there are no winners, only casualties.

En dehors de vos petites guerres, vous passerez vos journées à faire du shopping. Vous pourrez en effet acheter diverses choses mais aussi faire des échanges. C’est assez inhabituel dans ce genre de jeux, où l’on a plutôt l’habitude de passer d’une mission à une autre sans pouvoir vivre sa vie de soldat. En somme, Shellshock nous propose deux jeux en un, et c’est tant mieux vu la violence extrême du titre. Faut bien détendre le joueur pour qu’il ne pense pas aux conséquences de ses actes lors de la précédente mission. Bien que techniquement le jeu soit dans l’ensemble honnête, c’est son contenu qui nous place plus en spectateur qui dérange. Voici un titre qui plaira aux amateurs de réalisme qui se moquent de réfléchir un tant soit peu à l’idéologie douteuse du titre, mais genre de joueurs fait-il partie du lectorat de Gamezine ? Soyez plus intelligents que les concepteurs du jeu, et si vous aviez vraiment envie de l’acheter, sachez d’abord vous poser les bonnes questions.

I tried so hard to like this game but I wasn't given a continuing reason to want to continue to play it. The story was interesting, but I didn't feel a deep enough connection with my character to truly care if he lived or died. The cut scenes were detailed and care was put into them, but they were too few and far between. Skirmishes were plentiful, however, too easy: you could mostly wait them out and just play through them conservatively with the liberal and forgiving damage system. If you rush in like a hero that you tend to want to be in these kinds of games, you usually get massacred. Shellshock suffers from a bout of indecision; it's not enough of an action or FPS game and it doesn't have enough drama or tension or story to be engaging. Hoping for Apocalypse Now, or Full Metal Jacket, I got Rambo sans Stallone. Shellshock: Nam '67 needs to sound off like it has a pair!

Vietnam-Shooter sind momentan voll im Trend. Auch Shellshock Nam’67 von den Guerrilla Studios schlägt in diese Kerbe. Im Gegensatz zu der Konkurrenz, will Sie Publisher Eidos mit diesem Produkt allerdings nicht nur einfache Dschungelkämpfe ausfechten lassen, sondern dem Spieler auch alle die Gräueltaten, die in diesem Krieg passiert sind, näher bringen. Was sich hinter dem Spiel tatsächlich verbirgt, zeigt folgender Artikel.