ith the virtual (no pun intended) glut of Vietnam-themed games available for home consoles and the PC, it’s sometimes hard to keep them all straight.  Titles like Conflict: Vietnam, Vietcong: Purple Haze, and Shellshock: Nam ’67 all attempt to bring the Vietnam War to life, and in their own unique ways, manage to do just that.  Well today I got a chance to sit down with a preview build of Vivendi Universal Games’ Men Of Valor, another title focusing on the increasingly popular war.  While not quite as shocking as some of the games that have preceded it (like Shellshock), Men Of Valor does manage to offer up perhaps one of the realistic Vietnam War scenarios to date.  Granted, you have your share of run and gun action, but you also get to experience the human side of the war; a factor that few titles manage to get right.

Men Of Valor follows the adventures of Dean Shepard, a young Marine green to Vietnam and not too sure of his combat abilities.  Having just reached the country, he’s thrown together with a rag tag group of other soldiers.  They, however, are a battle-hardened group of men, confident in their abilities in a conflict as well as watching each other’s back.  Almost immediately, Dean is shoved into the fray, but thankfully he has the skills of some special men behind him.

Men Of Valor is broken down in a series of different missions, some of which have you taking part in crucial real-life scenarios from the war including the Tet offensive, search and destroy missions around De Nang, and the eventual US retaliation attack on Hue.  As you complete each mission, a new one is unlocked.  To provide you a little bit of skill before you run into the lion’s den you can take part in a short training mission that gets you attuned with moves like crouching, crawling, and using various kinds of weapons.  While you may initially shrug that training off, it really does provide some invaluable help, considering that most battles require you to have an able ability to use cover objects to stay alive. 

While you don’t actually take control of any of your allies during the game, there is a strong focus on team-based action.  During most conflicts your squad mates will lay down covering fire for you, in the event that you’re charged with performing a certain task, or they’ll confront the enemy themselves.  For the most part they react pretty well when taking on the enemy from a distance, but when it comes to close range fighting the AI for each characters leaves something to be desired.  On numerous occasions I found my buddies running into me or getting in the way of enemies that I was aiming at.  Also, when an enemy gets extremely close to a squad mate, they tend to ignore them and simply focus on foes further away.  Thankfully your allies can’t die, so you won’t be faced with any premature “game over” screens if they take too many bullets, but given the sometimes dire situations you’re faced with, it would have been nice to see their AI levels spruced up a bit.

Given the sometimes sketchy AI, you’ll really find yourself taking control of each conflict, whether it be taking out enemies by yourself or storming through the jungle on your way to a key location.  At your disposal is a pretty varied arsenal of era-specific weapons, including the M14, M16, M1911, and M79.  You can also pick up weapons from killed Vietcong like the SKS and AK47.  Each weapon is recreated right down to the minutest of details, so when you’re running around the first person view of your gun is always accurate and well rendered.  Developer 2015 has also taken great pains to recreate how each weapon operates, which is evident in the stopping power of each gun as well as its recoil.  Heavy guns will kick like it’s going out of style, while smaller rifles like the M14 recoil with minimal kick back.  Being able to master each weapon and how it functions ends up being essential to survival since you’ll often times find yourself having to swap weapons mid-level after you run out of ammo for your first. 

This isn’t to say that the rest of the game is lacking in detail, however.  The missions in the game take place in a wide variety of locales, each of which is created with an impressive amount of realism.  Whether you’re trudging through the jungles or taking part in a night raid up a river, you’ll notice that the world of Men Of Valor is full of environmental dynamics and factors.  Jungles are full of foliage, such as trees, bushes, and tree stumps.  Water is muddy and hindering, since when you walk through it you move at a slower pace and can go prone to crawl.  But besides begin simple eye candy; the environments do play a huge role in the overall experience of the game.  Remember, you’re taking part in mostly guerilla-styled combat, so cover and foliage is of the utmost importance for not only sneaking up on enemies but also keeping yourself alive.  The crouch and crawl maneuvers really start to play an important role when faced with areas that offer little cover other than some trees or a dead log.  But, by mastering the use of cover you’ll be able to succeed greatly while fighting.

The rest of the game’s visuals are also nice to look out, whether it is the well rendered character models, buildings, or particle effects.  While it’s not the best looking game ever made (for the Xbox and PC), it does offer up perhaps one of the most visually appealing depictions of the Vietnam War to date. 

While all the combat and the visuals are exceptionally realistic in Men Of Valor, I was perhaps most impressed by the human quality that pervades almost every single scenario.  You’re not just running around the jungle with a bunch of gun-toting goons, but instead trust your life with a diverse group of men from around the country.  Each of them has different personalities and backgrounds, which you learn more about as you progress through the game.  Besides simply being focused on your men, you’ll also run into human conflict in terms of the people of Vietnam.  For every situation there seems to be a morally opposite reaction for all that you do.  One example is a mission that has you being ambushed in a small village.  After the carnage is over your men set fire to the peoples’ huts and burn everything to the ground.  While the next mission loads, you’re treated to a letter from your father, who tries to tell you that while War is a terrible thing, you need to follow your heart and do what you think is right.  It’s details like this that help take the horrific experiences that you’ll face and give them a more realistic edge.  True, other Vietnam games have focused on the human aspect of the War, but Men Of Valor seems to get it down pat.  Granted, there’s plenty of shock value, but the realism in that seems much more sensible than simply trying to exaggerate the horrors of war.

On the audio side of things, Men Of Valor continues its impressive report card with some taut and atmospheric tunes as well as some well written and recorded voice over dialogue.  Keep in mind, the game has some pretty harsh language, but given the title’s topic, it’s an understandable and seemingly necessary inclusion. 

Overall Men Of Valor is perhaps one of the best Vietnam War games that I’ve played so far.  While it doesn’t quite reach the cinematic depths of a title like Medal Of Honor (despite the fact that 2015 created MOH: Allied Assault), it offers up enough realism and action to keep both fans of history and fans of shooting things extremely happy.  The missions provided are a blast to play through, and while some seem a bit too difficult for their own good, they give you plenty of challenge.  All in all, VU Games has a really good chance of having this game standout from its collective Vietnam War game counterparts.