VC2 brings the Vietcong franchise into urban combat. Is it successful? Almost, but not quite.
VC2 has two distinct campaigns: a 13 mission US one spanning the Tet Offensive in the city of Hue and a short 4 mission VC campaign, mostly set in the jungle in the lead up to Tet. For me the US campaign failed to deliver a "Vietnam feel", but it does a reasonable job depicting squad level urban combat with enemy fire coming from all directions. The city of Hue seems rather sterile and clean for a 1960s-era South East Asian city, and a war torn one at that. The VC campaign, although very short, was a welcome return to the familiar jungle roots of the Vietcong gaming franchise.
The main US character, Dan Boone, unlike the earlier protagonists in Vietcong and Fist Alpha, is never really developed. It's pretty much a case of the Tet Offensive intruding on his R&R. Once the action starts it's pretty much full on. Sadly the mission to mission transitions are not explained in terms of a storyline. Each new US mission is introduced by showing a new pin on the map of Hue but without backstory. Cut scenes usually feature the on-the-spot TV reporter but the graphics have an unsatisfying washed out blurry look, very similar to those in the far less satisfying Shellshock Nam '67 game (which I am playing at the moment). Perhaps this style of cut scene was an attempt to be "artistic", alas for me it was a failed attempt.
On the contrary the story of Mai Van Minh, told retrospectively in the VC campaign, is a far more satisfying experience. The narrative is nicely developed using the diary of the ultimately doomed Minh to tell the story and unlike the US campaign the cut scenes and mission transitions are very well done. In some ways taking the narrative viewpoint of a VC character is reminiscent of the negro soldier's perspective in Men of Valor, which for me is a winner. Without the VC campaign the my overall view of VC2 would be less favourable. Sadly the VC campaign is over far too quickly.
One of the annoying aspects of VC2 is the voice acting or more accurately the use of stereotypical sound bites from the US and Australian characters. I guess if you're going to be stuck in a tight spot it's good to have some Aussie squad mates around to lend a hand. Alas in VC2 the boys from Downunder and indeed New York repeat the same stale jingoistic taunts over and over and over again and it really grates after a while. The characters in the VC campaign speak Vietnamese and their dialogue is subtitled.
Just to clarify I played Vietcong 2 with the Fist Bravo ~250MB mod (plus FB 1.1 Patch). I have not yet taken the time to see if playing vanilla Vietcong 2 (with Patch 1.1) is appreciably different to the Fist Bravo mod version, the description of the FB mod indicates that any changes it makes are more in the nature of "realism tweaks" and MP maps rather than additional SP content like new missions.
Gameplay pluses are the ability to issue move and fire team commands to your squad is a new feature of the Vietcong franchise and it allows Dan Boone to share the load in the endless firefights. These team commands are in the nature of "point and click" that are typical of contemporaneous tactical shooter games like GRAW. The ability to call for a medic and extra ammo, that was in the original titles, is also available in VC2. Otherwise VC2 is a straight forward FPS and the missions, while not as varied in gameplay terms as the earlier Vietcong titles, provide a reasonable view of the battles depicted. The various maps in the campaign missions are fairly open and although you need to complete objectives VC2, like its predessessors, is not an "on the rails" FPS.
Graphics, especially in the US campaign, are acceptable at best, whereas the VC characters and missions look and feel superior. Overall the jungle atmosphere is captured better than that of the city. As mentioned the Hue cityscape just looks too clean. Sound and effects are acceptable but unlike most Vietnam games, including its series predessors, VC2 only uses limited period music.
Unlike Vietcong and Fist Alpha there are no Quick Fight (squad based) missions using campaign or MP maps which were an added bonus. You do have the ability refight the various missions and select alternate weapons load outs and gameplay difficulty as the missions are completed and hence unlocked. There are also a number of MP co-op maps that you can play SP using the LAN server settings against VC bots. To complete a LAN co-op map you need to kill all the VC on it and the maps feel quite spacious and include a few favourites from the earlier games. You can play as an Aussie character, which is a plus in itself, especially as you can use a Stirling, Sten or SLR rather than the usual US weaponry. To play as VC you need to play one of the more common (non co-op) MP modes.
I should also mention the excellent PLATOoN co-op map pack (~2.35GB) which has 50+ co-op maps with good enemy AI and drivable vehicles, including a couple of maps where you can play as the VC (available at www.platoonteam.eu).
For me the best SP missions in the US campaign were #6 "Street near bridge", #7 "Last Bridge in Hue", #9 "Seizing the city", #10 "Catherdral", which when completed unlocks the VC campaign (although I played the US campaign straight through and played the VC campaigns afterwards), and #12-13 which cover the final assault on the ancient city complex. All missions in the VC campaign are solid but sadly short, but as noted are a welcome return to the jungle.
OVERALL: Despite initial misgivings I ended up enjoying Vietcong 2, mainly because of the short but excellent VC campaign. The lack of developing story and repetitive taunts spoils the US campaign. It's not my favourite Vietnam game, that honour remains with the original Vietcong and Men of Valor games. For a sequal, Vietcong 2, is satisfactory, but not exceptional.
Should you buy this game? Well, it's not a bad game but the aforementioned games are a better way to immerse yourself in a virtual Vietnam experience. But at the end of the day, I do not feel worse for having played it. (It's certainly much better than Shellshock Nam '67, which so far appears to be a low point in the genre ... a review of SN67 will be forthcoming.)