Deja Vu All Over Again

I didn't really want to go back to Freedom Fighters, so I decided to check out Vietcong on GameTap, instead. The basic training levels were straightforward enough. The cover mechanics are actually pretty nice. The game uses iron sights, and if you're crouched and using iron sights, you'll stick your head up to fire over whatever you're next to. Simple, functional; I like it.

Then I go on my first mission. We drive up to the local village. We've been training some of them to help us fight. The VC have killed some of them in retaliation. But I'm just there to be introduced to the head of the village as the new guy. I'm supposed to drink some awful rice wine, but a sniper shoots the jug. The shot goes right through the jug and kills my CO, ending the mission. Game over.

Huh? Really? Short game. The gripping story of some crappy rice wine. Great. Okay, let's reload.

This time my CO lives (although I'm shot pretty badly). We take cover. I'm told to look for bullet puffs. I look the wrong way, suck a bullet, and die. Great. Okay, let's reload.

This time I ignore my CO and keep my $*^@ing head down. I have the medic heal me from the original bullet I took. The CO says start running and follow the medic. Because of the timing of my heal request, my CO is giving no covering fire. I say *$@^ that. I'm staying right here. I stay down and watch my CO until he starts shooting again, making sure to take note of where he's shooting at, then make a run for the village. (I didn't see where the medic went and forgot to check my radar.) I'm crouched in the village, keeping buildings between me and the sniper. They're grass buildings, so I'm not sure they'll be much help. Then I apparently expose my shin and get one shotted by the sniper.

This type crap goes on for two more deaths before I decide I'm done with the game for the day. Oh, and it should be noted that this is on normal difficulty. There are two difficulty levels higher than that. How can you have a higher difficulty than that unless the level starts with a gun in your mouth? I don't know. I'll probably try again on easy, just because the game reminds me a bit of Heart of Evil, my favorite Half-Life mod of all time. Then I'll probably just get sick of it and play through Heart of Evil a third time.