It'd be damn near impossible to address a game like Vietcong without considering whether it should ever have been made in the first place. Pretty much everyone agrees that the Vietnam war was in principle, a Bad Thing (tm), where lots of people did lots of things that frankly, they shouldn't have. Y'know, butchery, pillage and the like, stuff you're definitely not getting a Care Bear hug for. So as with the movie industry, perhaps a digital recreation of the conflict should either take a political stance, try to teach us something, or perhaps represent both sides of the war as fairly as possible?
Or alternatively, not. This, after all is the videogames industry, the world of Who Frags Wins, and deep thought was never much of a raison d'etre for best selling titles. Pterodon has attempted to avoid any politically oriented criticism by not reproducing any of the grunt ground-troop conflicts of the war, instead concentrating on the role of the US special forces, who wouldn't have done anything naughty. Honest. Probably. This would be fine, if the enemy weren't painted unambiguously as the bad guys, and if your comrades didn't go through the game screaming racist obscenities at the enemy whilst gunning them down and whooping a lot.
But lo and verily, this is, after all a game, so perhaps it's best to consider it just as that. The game is labelled as a tactical shooter, but that's a bit of a misnomer, as there's not really all that much in it worthy of the label "tactical". You go through each level with your squad of team-mates, each with their own speciality, but your control over them is limited to hold and attack commands - there's really very little you can do to affect their progress. And you don't necessarily need to, since each and every one of them seems almost totally invulnerable to damage. They can't complete the mission without you - at least that much is left to you - but they can take withering amounts of gunfire from the enemy with nothing more than a witty comeback and a sneer.
The missions themselves are pleasantly varied, from base defence and attacks, to taking out snipers, tunnel combat, helicopter gun-operation missions, and all-out jungle firefights. These are the most exciting missions the game has to offer, with a frenetic pace, and excellent use of the jungle cover. Ducking under logs as horrendous amounts of bullets fly to and fro, popping up and laying down covering fire is about as much fun as you can have in an FPS. This contrasts horrendously with the tunnel missions, which are dull beyond belief, pitch-black, and deeply unfulfilling. Why are we paying money to stare at a black screen with a crosshairs on it? Dramatic tension? If only.
What the game does do well is make you feel like a hero, although the voiceovers make you want to slit your own throat. You have to lead your team into missions, because no-one else will, and generally success is down to your single-handed ingenuity and skill in combat. If you can stomach the over-enthusiastic flag-waving, you can get a real thrill at your successes, although there's always the realisation in the back of your mind that there's not much point in rejoicing that much, because no matter what happens, you lose in the end (not that the game would admit it).
The graphics aren't helping much, unfortunately. The engine seems a little tired, with blocky characters, and a uniform mixture of khaki, khaki, and, er, brown for the environments. For Vietnam movie enthusiasts used to the rainforest palette of jungle warfare, the monotonous undergrowth in shades of green and dark beige is a poor second best. Weaponry however, is well represented, and seemingly accurate for the time (er, we guess. Not having been alive then, or having any great involvement with military hardware.). You'll certainly notice some touches of realism, as grenades ring in your ears when they detonate close-by, and nice kickback from the firearms.
Despite decidedly average visuals, it's also a fairly atmospheric ride - your camp, which you can explore between missions, is fully decked out with interactive characters, and there's a decent selection of recognisable 60s music playing in the background to get you in the mood. There's also the A-Team thrill of seeing those helicopters flying in formation overhead.
Online, the game performs pretty well. One team can play the VCs, and the variety of gameplay strategies merged with some clever environments, should make some enticing gameplay. The ins and outs of dodging under logs, through trees, and behind cover can be tense stuff. Take 2 is already reporting good numbers participating online.
Vietcong is a game that struggles with itself. While being by and large a straight-forward action shooter, it's really aching to be a tactical shooter, and in that vein it's a pity there's not more control over your team members. The missions themselves are varied, both in content and in quality, although the standard difficulty level is really far too easy, with the next one up being furiously tricky. If atmospheric shooters are your thing, it could be worth a look, but if accurate historical depictions are your bag, you'll be hard pushed to get excited.
Review By GamesDomain
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Comments and reviews
I still have the disks for this game and the DLC
name - content check
Hi there, I have a zip file of the Magipack Repack for this game, which I downloaded from Magito's Repository on the Internet Archive [I grabbed it around a month before the repository got shut down].
Is there any way for me to send it over so it can be added to the Downloads section?
OMG the memories are coming back. THE TUNNELS! Oh God, the tunnels
I also had the issue with mouse not working once I got into the main menu, but I fixed it by following the instructions from David (comment from 2023-10-08).
i like this game my dad played it and recommended me this game and we play thogeter now
Love VC to Play this is my Illusion Softworks
An amazing gritty slow realistic game I really recommend but the ai is very stupid and the vc ai are somehow 1000x better then a person so be careful and watch out for booby traps
Illusion Softworks, is to superfluous for me
Some of the worst friendly AI I´ve ever seen in a video game. Incredibly frustrating. Too bad, could have been a good game otherwise
The English ISO is not only English, it is English, Spain, French
Please add this flag to first download Thank you :)
If you wanna install VC for Windows 11, you have to download app Elby Virtual CloneDrive and always .iso file launch in this app.
Of course, like first .iso from CD1 and in half of the instalation open .iso file via Elby app again.
If you're having trouble with the Securom message, you have a couple of options:
1. this message is irrelevant, if you open the image in Deamon Tools, the message will appear but you can access the game files in the explorer and install it without any problem.
2. If you want the message to disappear use an older version of Deamon Tools or another program, I use DMT so I will give the reason for it:
Deamon Tools has stopped supporting Securom in new versions, the reasons are Legal but also that there is no longer a need to have this emulation for games
for other programs it is probably similar, as far as I know alcohol 120% still uses this integrity so use it
Hi guys can u tell me how to fix this little problem, the problem is then i start game on patch 1.60 and vc starter 1.7 i have black screen then game just close myself ???
It works on WIN 10. Thanks
How do you eliminate the screen tearing? Triple buffer does nothing and forcing nvidia vsync on doesn’t completely get rid of it.
If the game lags with low FPS, you have to download a new VC Starter 1.7 available here:
http://www.vietcong1.cz/index.php?site=news_comments&newsID=368&lang=uk
Copy and override all files from the zip archive into the game folder and run the game. The zip file doesn't contain gifs from 1.65.1 (available to download from this page), so I'd suggest downloading and applying this one first before using the 1.7 version. Also don't forget to apply all the patches from CD1 iso file first.
Worked for me on Windows 10.
hey is this game the Vietcong a bad virus? or is good to install and play. i am required to know the Vietcong for modern history, is this game get me good grades??
how about windows 11? i started to downloaded it and it's not working... i'd follow your instruction and there's no mounting or unmounting stuff
Works great - I followed the instructions in the comments to make sure the installer recognised CD2, then updated with the 3 patches, then copied over the NOCD.
Win 10 - Feb 2023. Cheers!
Why doesnt this Czech game have the Czech localization?!
wrong dicsk inserdted
that what show me after i do all thinks
any help.pls?
Mouse doesn't work.
My mouse doesn't move in the lobby or the game?
downloading, is there legendary (original) czech voice lines?
Ahhh the memories.
Relatively easy install just mount in iso's in the same drive as needed during install as needed. Then I installed the patch's then replaced the original Vietcong application with the NO CD. Didn't bother with the optional VC starter. Have played through the training missions and it works perfectly. Haven't played the campaign yet but we'll see.
Oh and btw, I've downloaded all the patches in order too, so the problem is maybe in the NoCD thing
Hey, so i've installed the game and just needed the NoCD crack thing, i've downloaded the NoCD from this site, pasted it into the Vietcong file alongside the CD 1 & CD2. It keeps saying "wrong disk inserted". Anyone got solutions?
This is the only game I've ever wanted since 2009, any help would be very much appreciated!
I made so many friends in this game, so nostalgic! Installation went fine, had to download all the patches so the new launcher would work!
For those that are having FPS issues, I did the following and the FPS became a lot more stable:
Go to http://www.vietcong.info/portal/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=899 and download the new VCStarter, replace the .dll in your vietcong folder with the one from this website.
Also, when starting Vietcong, make sure to load textures in video memory (its the option next to "prefer 16-bit textures."
Much better for me now :)
Thank you so much for the fixed launcher, works fine on Windows 10 !
CZ: Pro ty, kterým to nejde, musíte stáhnout poslední položku s launcherem pro nové windowsy.
skuste tu složky extavova
pokud to nebude fungovat dostanes flakanec
Hey thanks for the game, but i run it with very low fps, unless I look straight at the ground or the sky, anyone has solutions ? I already tried running it with compatibility mode with older windows version
To Fix No Disk Inserted: Select Extract to Temporary Folder when you're installing for both disks, be sure to unmount disk one when complete and mount disk 2, extract to temporary folder again. Have fun.
how am i supposed to play it? just downloaded it and it just said "no disk inserted" everytime i click the .exe file.
For those having trouble running the game, you need to install Vietcong Starter. Link is below. It's basically a cracked exe with a bunch of bug fixes for the game that allows you to play it without needing the disk. I use it for my physical copy, so it might work for you too.
https://www.moddb.com/games/vietcong/downloads/vietcong-starter-1651
got the whole thing installe, but now it just reads "no disc inserted" or "wrong disc" with both discs, what am i missing?
heres a fix just change the drive name to the same as the first cd https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=nBDjHidZLLY&ab_channel=LeszekBurda
Says the wrong disc is inserted when I try to start up the game. Have tried mounting both CD 1 and CD 2, same result. Shizen
i got insert disc message after installation. any tips?
I cannot get the game to install on Windows 10. Any help is much appreciated. I played this game back in the day and it is one of my all time favs!
To suppress graphic lag disable full screen option.
The starter is only giving me the option to run on direct3d8 even though I hv direct3d9 installed. Changing the graphics card wouldn't solve it either. The game works, but it's laggy. Is there a way to fix this?
Works good! You have to eject disc1 to make it work.
To play online just follow this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUpHI8JlWpE&feature=share
Still some people playing online mostly in east-Europe so a little bit of lag for me
Enjoy!!!!
I found the solution for the setup not recognizing disk 2. Here are the complete installation steps using Windows 10:
1. Unzip both disk #1 and disk #2 in a folder somewhere on your harddrive.
2. Open the disk #1 folder and mount the ISO file.
3. Start the setup.
4. When installing, the setup will stop to ask for disk #2. From Windows Explorer, unmount disk #1.
5. Now go to the disk #2 folder, and mount that ISO file.
6. Go back to Vietcong installer and press ok, it should recognize disk #2 and continue installing.
The reason why so many people are having trouble with this, is that when you forget to unmount disk #1, Windows will mount disk #2 on a new drive. So disk #1 will remain on D:/ while disk #2 will sit on E:/ That's why the installer can't find disk #2 as it's on a different drive. Hope this helps!
I am very agnry! What to do when it says vietcong disk #2?
Works fine on Windows 10!
Immer auf Lan gezockt war episch
It won't seem to run with a smooth frame rate anyone know how to fix please help
No CD2. Thanks
Das beste spiel Online das es damals gab.. immernoch echt der hammer..
vermisse alle die ich online damals peer Teamspeak kennen lernen durfte
tommes heute 44 jahre alt
EVERYTHING WORKS FINE!
all the other commentators that have problems must have done something wrong
CD 2 doesn't work. The installation process doesn't recognize it even if it's mounted
can someone pls make a tuturial video on how to instal this pls thx
Doesn't seem to install as disc 2 seems to be missing files and the installer doesn't recognize it when it's mounted.
Hey my friends ! I miss Vietcong so much I tried downloading it few years ago but it never worked for the mission 3 it always crashed at a certain moment of the game unfortunately. Does it work now ? I am on Windows 10.
where is disk 2 for the installation? it is not in the cd2 folder
To solve the crashes and various errors, you need to patch the game and apply the appropriate no-cd crack.
v1.30-patch works just fine.
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game crashes in first mission, vc starter all aktuell, win7.
Sir this game is closing in the 3rd mission unfortunately
And showimg uncommon eror and crash
Thanks for this game I have it laying around the house somewhere. Love playing this game!
Once i got through all of first undergrounds without flashligh. After all that a friend told me i have flashlight under "F"! :)
Great Game! To find out how to play online check http://vietcong.tk/download-play-vietcong.php !
Thanks for upload! :)
A superb atmosphere and level design.
The athmosphere is great! True Vietnam conflict feeling, may the best of this genre!
Thanks for uploading. I spent some of the best years playing this having the best roleplay-evenings with friends from all over the world.
This game is still awesome!
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.