With the vast amount of World War II titles on the market today, I was eager to get a copy of Shellshock: Nam ’67. With all the hours I have spent taking down Nazi’s in various console and PC titles I was ready for a change. This game sets it self up to do just that by offering a whole new look from the battlefield. A chance for all of us to see what our soldiers faced in the most controversial war in American history. This game sums up the war by saying “Forget Medals; Forget Honor; Just Survive”. Nice catch phrase for a game such as this. But I think their marketing team might have deleted one of the lines from the original ad. “Forget Solid Game play”
Your story for survival starts with a quick CGI movie setting you up for the first of many monotonous missions you will face. At first glance I was impressed with the graphics of the movie. Everything was going great until the characters started talking. This game has some of the worst voice acting ever and the lip synching on the character models remind me of an Ashley Simpson concert.
“Earn That ?M’ Rating Boys”
After suffering through a meaningless conversation from your commander you and a few allies are dropped off into the field where you will immediately begin fighting Charlie. In an attempt to recreate Nam from a mature perspective, you have to mow down not only Korean men, but women as well. Nothing spells fun like being forced to blow off limbs from members of the opposite sex. Sadly, the gory, bloody, head explosion realism of war quickly becomes laughable from the players point of view. Everything is so over the top it is hard to get the feeling of intense combat which other war based games have done so well to achieve. The realism factor of the game also flies out the window due to the vast amount of times you can get shot in the face before dying. Your health meter regenerates over time similar to Halo’s system, but it heals so fast you can just find a corner to stand in for a few seconds in the middle of a fight and you’ll be good as new. You don’t have to worry about your allies either because they are invulnerable. They might occasionally fall down, but they’ll eventually get back up to start shooting blindly in the air again.
Between missions you are allowed some R&R time at the base to listen to some classic 60’s rock, buy drugs, or get some private time with a prostitute. Sounds like fun, but it winds up being just as boring as the fighting.
Controlling your character can be a nightmare. A simple jump button would have worked wonders for the game. There is nothing worse than having a foot tall rock block you from moving forward. Aiming is also a chore. The analog controls are next to impossible to effectively lock on to any target. Without the aim aid on you stand little to no chance at hitting anything. Not that it really matters. It seems like half the time you are shooting blanks anyway. Even in the rare chance I managed to get the cross hairs over an enemy the bullets didn’t seem to hit.
The graphics are dull and blurry. It’s hard to tell what’s going on most of the time and extremely hard to tell where incoming fire is coming from. The enemy character models are limited to “man with pointy hat” and “woman with pointy hat”. The racial saying, “they all look the same to me” is taken to an extreme in this game. Cut scenes look okay but are fatigued by a bad story and B-movie acting.
Many companies make games like this to push boundaries or to be controversial. Unfortunately, with a combination of a lackluster story line, retarded AI, bad acting, horrible control, and laughable game play, Shellshock falls short from being worthy of a bargain bin purchase. Having violence such as this and portraying Americans slaying women, doing drugs, and paying for sex is just in poor taste. To label Vietnam in this manner is a blatant attempt to cash in on people who don’t know any better. If the Swift Boat Veterans get hold of this game there will be hell to pay. There are just too many good war games out there right now for you to even bother with this one.