Search and Rescue Vietnam Med-Evac – PC – Review

SRVME is a new title brought
to us from the makers of the Search and Rescue series.  This is the next
generation, stand alone successor to the storied series, placing you in
command of the world famous UH1 "Huey" helicopter, as you fly rescue missions
into the heart of war torn Vietnam during the American campaign.

This game features over 100
missions.  The best way to get started is the quick training missions to get
you familiar with how to pilot your Huey. You can take some free flight
missions to get comfortable with the way the chopper handles, and there are
some training missions to help you along with all the other rescue
responsibilities you will find yourself managing in the quite extensive
campaign.  I have to admit, the developers boast that this is the most
realistic game of its kind, and I must tell you, I believe them.  If you load
up the game and expect that you can fly a helicopter with all the realistic
settings turned on, think again.  Not to worry you can set the difficulty to
easy which I needed to do.  Set the realistic settings to their fullest and
you could probably handle your own chopper someday…that is if you don’t know
how to already fly one!

Ok, just what the game
implies is search and rescue.  Locate your wounded in hostile territory, get
your medic out there to assess the injuries, deploy means of getting them to
the chopper and get him to the hospital.  Sound easy?  Now throw into the fray
all the elements of weather, night and day, wind, fog, hostile fire, etc.  Yes
you may be on the right track…it can be quite challenging.

Graphically the game is
quite nice. I would of liked to see a bit more detail, but overall I was quite
happy.  There are realistic effects that definitely added to the game like
waves, rain, and the wash from your rotors at low altitudes.  The sound was
quite good.  The sound effects were decent and the voiceovers were great.  I
especially enjoyed when you approached your wounded sometimes you could hear
them wailing in pain.  Nice touch.

All in all the game is
quite worth having if you like the genre.  Even if you just want to get the
real feeling of learning how to take flight in a Vietnam Huey.  I was quite
impressed with how technical the manual can be with flight physics to give the
player a nice start to becoming a chopper pilot.  Most players will probably
set the settings to easy just to get up and playing, but the option is there
to make gameplay very realistic.  A better tutorial might have been nice so I
did not have to constantly refer to the manual, but that is a personal
preference.  


Reviewer’s Scoring Details


Gameplay: 8
You are going to have to give the
manual a good once-over just to get off the ground.  But after an hour or so
and a few training missions you should become quite comfortable.

Graphics: 8
Not eye popping
per say, but were quite nice.

Sound: 8.5
sound effects and
voice were good.  Realistic helicopter sounds and wailing injured soldiers
added to the realism.

Difficulty: Hard
You have some options you can
toggle
to make the game a bit easier,
but if you want to play at the full realistic level, you may need to spend a
few hours just learning how to fly.

Concept: 8.5 
Not many games
quite like this one.  I definitely enjoyed the change from the usual see how
many bad guys you can kill.

Overall: 8.5
Very realistic
with a joystick and pedals.  If you are playing from just a keyboard and a
mouse, you may not enjoy the game nearly as much.