Marine Heavy Gunner

From the get go MHG seemed to have a decent storyline that had me getting ready for a good game. Unfortunately the storyline is about the best thing about the game, and it's not all that wonderful.

Its 1967 in VIETNAM You are a Heavy Gunner, a Marine trained to handle the biggest, meanest guns the US Army can build. After a crash landing in ‘hot’ enemy territory, you and your platoon must track down a ruthless enemy leader and rescue your fallen comrades from a remote POW camp. Your mission will take you deep into the Vietnam jungle, across rivers, into tunnels and up heavily defended hills against overwhelming odds.

Over the 10 or so missions you will have quite an arsenal to choose from or pick up from the dead VC you will cut down along your way. You will also be able to fire mounted weapons from choppers, boats, etc that will add to the realism of the game. When those guys come at you from all sides with guns a blazing it definitely gives a bit of adrenaline rush to your trigger finger. You also have some teammates to watch your back and give you medical attention and ammo. These guys never die. Which is good if you just want to run through and beat the game riding the save key, but it so takes away from the realism. It doesn’t help either that the AI is terrible to boot. Guys running into you, covering the flat side of wall, etc. Enemy AI is not much better. Sometimes its ok and they react to your bullets, other times you can shoot at them, and they just stand there or run out in the open. I give them credit though on more than one occasion they have the ability to shoot through rocks, yet I can not kill a guy hiding in a straw hut using a M-60…hmmm.

At least the missions do have you doing more than just running through the jungle firing at the enemy. Though you do a lot of that, it is broken up by firing guns from a chopper, setting up explosives, finding and eliminating a sniper, etc. The cut scenes do bring a storyline into play, which does immerse you into the game for a moment or two. Unfortunately the sub par graphics and sound leaves you wanting more. When you hear your guys yell out things like "look at those brains" from a guy you just made into Swiss cheese, to turn and see nothing on the ground is frustrating. There could have been more blood and guts from a title with an M rating. The graphics were blocky with little to no movement. The jungles had no wind or water effects and the men talked like  ventriloquists with no mouth movement. On one mission when you are firing a heavy gun from a chopper, the guy sitting next to you just sat there and was motionless like he was dead and looked more 2-D than 3-D. Audibly the sound effects were bland and were nothing like the war games I have played in the last year. The most realistic part of the game is the language. It carries a mature rating for a reason. So if offensive language bothers you, stay clear of this one. This is just like a war movie with an R rating.

Gameplay: 7
Easy to get started and not a lot of key commands to memorize. The gameplay does get a bit boring after a while. Though the locales may change and you get to fire some cool mounted guns, it's all pretty much the same thing.

Graphics: 6.5
This could have been such a great game if it were just a bit more visually stimulating. The jungle was as still as rock with no moving trees what so ever. Not to mention the advances in technologies that have brought us some beautiful games were not utilized. Blocky terrain that looks like a game designed years ago plagued the game.

Sound: 6
The sound effects were not nearly as good as most of today's war games. In fact they were bland at best. Some voiceovers were ok but there were a few that had you wondering where did they get these guys?

Difficulty: Easy
Easy to get up and going in no time. You can toggle the difficulty setting if you like to make the game a bit more challenging.

Concept: 7
Another Vietnam War title that we have seen before. The difference here is that it lacks the luster we have come to expect from new releases.

Overall: 6.2
Could have been a great title about 3-4 years ago.