Several excerpts later, we are ready to get in touch with the 'soldier within' and venture forth and face the Vietcong. Armed with a slightly better understanding of what to expect, the game loads up. A twinge of excitement mixed with anticipation is beginning to take hold.

Any game that is dedicated to the victims of communism or the Vietnam war has to be worth taking a sniper shot at. Vietcong 2 is based on the events of the Tet offensive instigated by the Vietcong during what was supposed to be a cease-fire and period of festivity for Vietnam. It was a very bold move by the VC, one that placed the US military in an extremely difficult and compromising position. If you enjoy war games that have an historic feel to them, you should enjoy playing Vietcong 2.

Starting the game takes you to the main menu where you can choose between single- and multi-player game modes. Giving single-player a glance takes you to a further set of options. Single-player has two different modes which are to start a new campaign or engage a single mission. If you choose a new campaign, you can only play the US campaign option as the Vietcong campaign needs to be unlocked. Take note of the music playing in the background: the first song that plays sounds a whole lot like the legendary Jimi Hendrix, arguably the biggest musician of his era and predominantly one of the most listened-to artists during the Vietnam war. Nice touch, but after further researching, we couldnt locate any information crediting Hendrix as one of the featured artists on the game's soundtrack (even though Purple Haze was used in the first game, Vietcong).

Moving on from the music, it became obvious right from the get-go that the developers at Pterodon and Illusion softworks put a lot of effort into the storyline and detail. In the US campaign, you get to play as Daniel Boone (Daniel Boone was a man....), a 32 year-old US Army Captain. An ex-Green Beret, Boone has seen alot of action in 'Nam.