I actually remembered playing this game on the original Xbox back when it came out in late 2004 and as I am writing down this review, I still have my physical copy of the Xbox version right here in front of me. I absolutely love this game as I played the campaign over and over again that I lost count. You may be wondering: What’s so special about this game? Well, I am going to tell you.

Men of Valor is a 2004 PC (and original Xbox) first-person military shooter that takes place in the earlier stages of the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1968. You play as Dean Shepard, an African-American soldier who took part in the conflict alongside with his squadmates: Greaser, Smooth, Zook, Hodges, and all other characters (Oh my goodness, I even remembered those characters from long ago). The game does not have a legitimate plot, but what I love about this game is the presentation. Men of Valor provides a great historical perspective and experience, placing the player to know what is like in that conflict. The campaign is divided into four different areas of the war in 1965-1968: Da Nang Outskirts (rooting out the Vietcong from Da Nang, taking part in Operation Starlite), Iron Triangle (eliminate the Vietcong stronghold that resides in northern Saigon and being part of the joint US-ARVN Offensive), Khe Sanh Hill (push the North Vietnamese Army away from U.S hilltops firebases in 1967), and the Tet Offensive (terminate the North Vietnamese positions out of Hue and breaking the Siege of Khe Sanh).

The game also presents a two minute “documentary” (think of it like the ‘classic’ History Channel documentary) that tells general information about the event you are about to take in. The loading screen provides photographs of the Vietnam War as well as general information about the war, including notable quotes from the leaders in both sides of the conflict. The graphics are a bit dated today, but the gameplay is absolutely breathtaking and highly immersive. The sound effects are amazing, especially with the incoming mortars blasting on the ground or in debris, and using the M79 grenade launcher against NVA positions on buildings. The voice acting for the Army Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), Vietcong, and NVA are highly authentic, legitimate (actual Vietnamese voice actors; not those ‘fake’ ones like in the 80s and early 90s films), and impressive. The aiming animation is not looking down on the iron sight, but rather ‘leaning’ (think of Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield: Vietnam). There is absolutely no health regeneration and if you get shot, you have to hold down the bandage button to stop the bleeding (there are medkits and canteens laying around in the map or from dead enemy soldiers).

The best part about this game is the soundtrack and music from Inon Zur (the composer who did the first Crysis game, Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout 3 and 4, and other notable music). His music in the game is astonishing, immersive, and majestic. Arguably, his music in Men of Valor was a stepping stone from him to compose music in popular video games that we have today.

The only negative aspects about the game is that you will get killed. A lot. The game sort of cheats when it comes from the enemy shooting at you from nowhere even when you take complete cover. The second half of the game is a bit punishing since you will get shot at from all directions and you’ll have to move slowly, inch by inch. The resolutions for the game is 4:3 primarily because the game is an oldie, but a classic. Putting on higher resolutions might be problematic but might be solvable. Additionally, recent Windows 10 updates cause the game to not fully launch even though the sounds are on. There are technical roundabouts to fix this issue, but is a grave inconvenience.

Men of Valor was a Vietnam War game that was often overlooked by EA Games’ Battlefield: Vietnam, Vietcong game, Shellshock: Nam, and Conflict: Vietnam. However, Men of Valor was also a “testing” game in the gaming industry to see if gamers and developers are willing to tolerate to have a Vietnam War game in the market that was greatly overwhelmed by World War II games (like Medal of Honor and the original Call of Duty – the 2003 version). Nowadays, modern gamers know about Call of Duty: Black Ops (for the Vietnam sections) and Bad Company 2: Vietnam as the well-known video game titles for that conflict. I never regret for having Men of Valor on the original Xbox and enjoying the campaign over and over again. I am very glad that the game is now on Steam and I strongly recommend this game to any person who is interested about the Vietnam War in a historical perspective because this game actually did an impressive job.

OMG! I'd been hoping to see Men of Valor (MOV) released on Steam for years. I even wrote to Valve several years ago when they started to include classic games from years ago in the Steam store, asking for it to be included because IMO it has a superb set of multiplayer maps that cover large open maps, temples, Jungle, Sniping, indoor and outdoor CQB, Urban, Industrial, Hillside and Valley maps. It's now 15 11 years old (as of 2019), so as you'd expect, some aspects are a little dated, but the actual maps are excellent and despite its age it still looks great. The original add-on map pack, that included an extra five multiplayer maps has been included with this Steam version expanding the original maps to 21 multiplayer maps (see below for a full list, plus a brief explanation of each map). Every major battle from the American involvement in the Vietnam war is represented in these maps. I do hope we see some servers coming online regularly. Sadly over the last several years, when I have found a server running you'd only see ta few players at any one time, so some of the bigger maps were never included in the map rotations and most of the ones that were felt empty and when joining, you spent more time looking for players to shoot, lol. There were exceptions such as Charlieville and the two temple ruins i.e. Cambodian and Jungle Ruins, all three being small CQB maps, with some sniping.

When this was released on Steam over three years ago, I'd just purchased 15 copies a few weeks previously as a job lot from a game shop with the intention of giving them to friends as I knew nothing of the impending release on Steam. I used to love playing the Multiplayer part of this game, so was hoping I could persuade friends to join me with the hope that they would love the game as much as me. We play games like Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Killing Floor, Dead Island, Left Dead and Serious Sam I felt MOV would be a great addition to our gaming sessions. Apart from Rising Storm 2 Vietnam, I've not seen a decent Vietnam based game released since Men of Valor {MOV} apart from Battlefield Vietnam and Vietcong, both of which were released before MOV.

I'd previously contacted Valve several years ago asking if there was any chance MOV could be released on Steam as I thought it would inspire the community to open up some dedicated servers. There hasn't been a regular server service for several years apart from shortly after the Steam version was released three years ago, but that has been closed for a couple of years now (as of Aug 2019). Anyway, After buying those 15 copies I was then very surprised to find it released a couple of weeks later. It was actually cheaper to gift the games to friends rather than post the hard copies to them, especially those living overseas as I'd be paying up to four times the Steam price. Also, the Steam version has supposedly been updated to the latest v1.3; (though after much testing I think there are issues with this which I've briefly detailed below) and included is the add-on map pack that boosts the original multiplayer maps to 21 maps.

I have managed to get a server running both online and local online, but ,I've had to have a separate copy running to create the server and then play with another version. However, I've since discovered that there appears to be an issue with the Steam version. Every time you boot it up you have to verify the files if you want to play online especially if the server that has been set up is using the v1.3 version. Because files are always missing before verifying the game every time i check, despite having installed the missing files each time its verified. I am intending to install versions that are updated to different patches to see if the Steam version will work without verifying the files. This may confirm my suspicion that the Steam version keeps reverting to an earlier version. Also, with the Steam version, the map rotation appears broken. this may be due to the version issue though and i've still to confirm this.
As it stands a the moment when I run a v1.3 server using a hard copy of the game, my Steam version will crash or freeze the server if I try to add more than one map to the rotation. I found the only way around this if you wanted to play more than one map in a session, was to reboot the server for each map, and each player would also have to re-scan for servers.

The other issue is that it can take several minutes for the game to load up, which if you wish to play more than one map each session, can be a little disruptive due to the waiting times for the servers to show up, which can span several minutes. Often when booting the game up; at least with the Steam version, you can hear the background music first before the main menu appears and sometimes I've had to open task manager and close the game down on the first attempt.

These issues have probably led some players to abandon the game simply because they thought no servers were available and/ or the game was too buggy. I am hoping eventually to keep a server running on one of my spare computer each weekend 24 hours a day, so that people can play online with friends. I will post a note below when (or if) that happens.

Another possible problem is that I think you need a hard copy of the game to actually get a working server to work; this is possibly because of the issue with Steam not updating the game correctly. At this point in time that is only an assumption on my part. I have spent a couple of days, several hours a day trying to figure out the issues and after tying to set up combinations of the game using two copies of MOV on Steam or one copy on Steam and one via an hard copy or both hard copies I provisionally concluded the need to use an original hard copy updated to v1.3. for the server. As yet I've still to test this with some of my friends. i'm in the process of sending some of those 15 copies to friends who have agreed to try the game out using the hard copies instead of their Steam versions.

Most of single player missions are excellent to brilliant. I remember playing MOV for the first time when it was released back in 2004 and really felt like I was on patrol in Vietnam. Once I'd completed the basic training which I always enjoyed playing that were inevitably included with all FPS games a decade or more ago. Once the intro was finished where one of your soldiers is being interviewed by a reporter, you are thrown into the thick of it. The first mission gave me an adrenaline rush the likes of which I'd never experienced playing an FPS game before.

As I swept across a field towards the Jungle edge in the first of many missions ''called Body Count'', shooting Vietcong guerrilla right left and center; then, creeping along a narrow clearing in the forest, avoiding traps and some Vietcong (though you can shoot them if you wish), only to be faced by several enemy that are dug well in further up the trail, and hard to see was exhilarating. I'd never experienced a FPS game quite like it up to this point.

For those expecting a run and gun like game such as Call of Duty, Men of Honor and later Battlefield games, post Battlefield 2042, you'll be disappointed. You need to play the game as stealthily as you can, otherwise you'll quickly cop a bullet in the head if there are any enemy around and usually your first knowledge of them being in the vicinity is getting wounded. Re-spawning is simply a click of your mouse. If you are wounded you have to quickly bandage yourself otherwise you'll bleed out. You can pick up health packs and canteens from dead enemies and friendlies, both of which fill up your health indicator. when your health indicator is low, you'll find it harder to aim effectively, so search every body.

Men of Valor is one of my favorite games about the Vietnam War.
It captures the atmosphere of films like Apocalypse now !, Platoon or Full Metal Jacket.
However, several years have passed since the release in 2004 and the game has not aged well in all aspects.

But first things first:
Men of Valor take on the role of African-American Marines Dean Shepard.
Everything starts unspectacular in the boot camp on perry's island. The next step is Vietnam and at the beginning the Marines are chilling, playing football, drinking beer and hosting a BBQ.
But as we all know, the Vietnam War was not a big picnic after all.
You have to fight in the Tet offensive, the siege of Khe Sanh and Da Nang and other well known places during the Vietnam War.
Before each mission, the story is told through letters you exchange with your parents. The rest is told in short in-game cutscenes.
The levels are all very linear and offer little room to explore. The comparison with games like Medal of Honor is fitting.

The soundtrack is perfect and especially the radio music in the bases and vehicles of the Americans is a best of the 60s and gives me even today some cool vibes.

Now to the question: How well has the game aged?
Well... not that good. The AI ​​is sometimes incredibly bad, especially those of your comrades. Most of the time they only run in front of your rifle and only in exceptional situations they manage to kill an opponent on their own.
The enemy AI is not much better and is basically just cannon fodder.

The graphics are of course outdated by today's standards, but overall they have enough vegetation to create a believable jungle feel.

Experienced players, however, will hardly need more than 6-7 hours.

So, do I still recommend a purchase? Yes! Because in the genre of first-person shooters about the Vietnam War, there are few current alternatives.
Anyone who can live with the technical limitations, which all old games have in one or another way, will have fun with it.

Men of Valor, what can i say...

I'm very glad to see that not only does this game show up on Steam after all these years, but finally signs on Vietnam games on Steam! I could barely try and scratch the surface back when it was about a year old, but i do remember it.

Some Yay and Nay :

Positive stuff -
* Vietnam War shooter, yes please and give us seconds. There needs to be more of them.
*Famous Voice Actors such as Steve Blum and Michael Gough providing good soldier voices.
* Time accurate Weapon arsenal progresses throughout the war, as you start out in '65 with the 7.62 Nato Raifu M14 and the M1 Thompson which sooner or later will be phased out by the M16A1 (unfortunate in my opinion)
* Surprising, but accuratly, the game has female NVA inviduals. I have yet seen a Vietnam game than this game have that.
* While you rarely hear them, you can hear classic 'nam songs such as "Wooly Bully" at certain US controlled areas and vechicles.
* Fun if very simple. It's like a blend of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and tiny fragments of Ghost Recon (don't ask)
* Hard, but fair health System. You get shot, you hold <button> to stop the bleeding and then you need to find/loot for canteens and or Medkits to regain your health. No silly health regen here, private Pyle!
*First thing you do is throwing an american football with your squad at the base. A fine detail.


Neutral:
* The AI on the US team can sometimes be quite dumb as it can be quite helpful. They will never die (although they can be temporarily buzzed down). They can dissable NVA traps aswell, but you mostly work around them before they can react. Sometimes they can go Colonel James Braddock on their enemies and clear out a whole bunch of them before you can say "Jelly Donut."
*As expected, munition for the US weaponry are scarse (somtimes found in crates) and you are sometimes forced to loot an NVA invidual's body for a weapon. Luckily you have up to four weapon slots, which grenades also take up.
*NVA inviduals can sometimes be dumb as balls as they can sometimes be your worst nightmare.
*Pistols are gained further in the game, unfortunatly. Not a neccesity, but a fine luxury. ( I love the M1911A1)

The Negative
* No jump button. You will never be required to jump in this game, but it happened to me that i get stuck between a few rocks or similar situations and i can't get out. No jump function means i have to reload to my previous point.
* Animations are really strange and or delayed on your teammates. Not a huge thing, but ugly as hell.
* Overly aggressive AI with slightly overpowered weapons. I played it on Medium and expected a fair fight, i'm stuck on a level where i can't get out of a Rat hole without being mowed down by a machinegun goof. You are sometimes forced to get extremely close with certain weapons and they can mow you down easily. Therefore i stopped playing because i'm literally stuck.
*Melee bashes are utterly worthless. I had to bash a guy for fifty (three) bashes. He could land a shot on me between each one too. The SKS however has a bayonet, but i never use it.
* There are times you will be forced to attack with an MG from a chopper, you won't gain any health during this and the NVA shoots like pros.
*Some levels have a weird FPS drop. And if you encounter a stuttering fps/lag drop early on, look up the v-sync fix on the discussion list to disable it. Quick and easy.
*Graphical misses by the developers, such as the Maxim 1910 and the world model for the M60 not having any ammo belt.


And so forth, i've likely missed a lot of points on all three bases up there but there you have it.
Do i recommend this game? Yes, i do.
Keep in mind that this is a fairly old, fairly cheap made, difficult FPS with glitches and bugs here and there, but if you can look away from that, you'll get a good treat of this Vietnam war gem.

There needs to be more Vietnam games (especially on steam) and this is a start until Tripwire get their slow butts off Killing Floor II and make Rising Storm II: Vietnam. (Hopefully not on Early Access.)
9,99€ (Ten bucks?) isn't bad at all and you'll get a good kick out of this. Go for it my friend.

Hope you get what you wanted with this review!
This review dosn't suck...it blows.

Men of Valor is one of those rare first-person shooter titles that takes place during the Vietnam War circa 1965. Many of the reviews for this title on Steam are negative, primarily because of the hard difficulty of the game, as well as the fact that this title has some problems getting started. Before we go any further into this review, Men of Valor will not appear when launched, you must press CTRL + ALT to get the window to show, and then CTRL + Enter to go full screen. There's also a handy guide in the community hub that will help you eliminate the stuttering issue that the game has by simply editing out the vsync option in the .ini file. If you can handle those minimal tasks then read on, as Men of Valor is a pretty decent FPS overall.

You play as an inexperienced African-American Marine named Dean who has been assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division. It's important to note the main character's skin color, as given the year that the game takes place in, it's a prominent and recurring theme. All in all, you will battle your way through sixteen missions in total, through a number of locations that range from dense, thick jungles, to underground tunnels, and urban landscapes. Men of Valor is laden with true-to-life historical locations and battles that took place in Vietnam during 1965, including what happened at the height of the Tet Offensive.

Now, as far as difficulty goes, this game can be frustratingly hard at some points. Though there are three difficulty settings outlined in the menu, for some reason only medium can be played; this is most likely a bug in the port that the developer never issued a patch for. The damage that you take is high, and going toe-to-toe with any enemy is almost always a guaranteed death. A death is almost always a guaranteed restart to the beginning of the level as well, as checkpoints are few and far between and there are no manual saves. Luckily, each mission is rather short, so when you are forced to give it another go from the beginning it isn't detrimental to your overall progress.

Some more elements that add to the difficulty factor of Men of Valor are the health and healing system, as well as searching bodies. Your health is indicated by a medical sign in the bottom left corner of the screen, and when you are hit you start "bleeding", any blood lost will then become permanent damage, which is indicated in a dark red on the same medallion. To stop the bleeding, you have to bandage yourself by pressing F; the sooner the better, as the more blood you lose, the more permanent damage you incur. To recover permanent damage, you have to find med-kits and canteens on dead bodies by searching them, which requires holding down the spacebar for a length of time. It's rather time consuming, and in some cases can put you in more danger than it's worth, but that's just another ingredient that makes the title more realistic.

For a game from 2004, the graphics aren't half bad. The character models are a little blocky, but there's a good variety of enemies and your squad-mates are easily defined from the generic soldiers that are scattered about. The environments are very well detailed, with lush forestry, reflective water, devastating fires, and atmospheric mist. In particular, the final level is extremely graphic, as bombs that are going off in the distance look like lightning strikes. The soundtrack is also decent, as it's heavily cinematic and ensures that your heart stays racing from the very first battle, to the very last.

Even though it has some issues getting started on more modern systems, Men of Valor is an excellent FPS title. Moreover, it adds to its already unique setting by centering around an African-American Marine, which was uncommon back in 1965, when every minority was heavily discriminated against. The historical accuracy of the battles and locations is just another added factor to the in-depth care that went to crafting this title. It's a tough one, but if you don't mind the challenge then Men of Valor will be sure to scratch an itch that's been unreachable for a long time.

The Horror Network Curator | Group Click for Gore

Nice to see a great 'Nam-themed shooter here on Steam!

Men of Valor was released in the early 2000s like the famous "Vietcong". It's a classic FPS - You are a US-Marine, who faces the cruelties of the early Vietnam War in 1965.
The controls are easy ( I miss the Iron sights though), the voice acting is cool, and the cutscenes are peppered with original shoots from the war.

As a big surprise for an old game (which is released on Steam after a decade), this one runs stable on modern PCs.

A definite recommendation for shooterfans!

Childhood memories <3 words can't express how much i like this game, definitely one of my favourites

Yet another instance in which Steam's binary "Like"/ "Dislike" system is proven to be most foolish. I would not really recommend, nor would I really recommend against Men of Valor, because half of it is good, while the other half is not.

For starters, in case you were unaware, Men of Valor was developed in I believe 2004 or so by 2015 Inc. (2015 is the name of the company.) These are the same guys who created Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, minus the sub-set of that team that left to go found Infinity Ward and create the original Call of Duty. In short, "Men of Valor" can be viewed as the spiritual sequel to the iconic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, simply set during the Vietnam War, rather than World War II.

However, there is a reason why Men of Valor (MoV hereafter) is not quite as well known or widely recognized as its illustrious predecessor.

What MoV shares in common with MoH: AA is a deep regard for the feeling and attitudes of the era; a passion for accurately bringing those turbulent times to life; a sense of historical authenticity and immersion--and in more ways than one. The game doesn't just deal with the carnage and terror that was the Vietnam War, but it also delves into the Civil Rights movement that was simultaneously boiling to a climax back home. This is achieved both through dialogue between the squad members and you, and in fully-narrated letters, or correspondence between you and your family. Furthermore, this is one of the few military FPS protagonists who is actually Black, which is quite fitting since it allows the game to thoroughly explore those issues and changing attitudes, from the point of view of someone most affected by those changes.

However, despite nailing the "historical authenticity" front of a military era-piece fps, it falls short as a fun, unique, or engaging video game.

As a perfect example of this, take the Respawn screen. When you die, you fall over, mutter your final words, and the screen fades to black, before fading in to a screen showing a letter. Specifically, the letter which the CO had to write and send back home to your folks letting them know you were KIA (killed in action). This letter is even voiced over, and there are different voice actors and different letters for each of the different missions where you have a separate CO (commanding officer). You can press "X" to skip it, but only after a few seconds. Then it fades to yet another screen, showing you rather meaningless statistics such as how many headshots, how many misses/hits, how many leg shots, etc. Again you can press a button to skip but only after a second or two. Then it gradually fades that out and you finally respawn...way back because the checkpoints are spread rather far apart. (And if you leave the game, it only saves at the start of the level, not your checkpoint inside of the level, despite it telling you "Game Saved" at checkpoints).

From a directorial standpoint, this extra screen adds to the weight of the game; it makes the player feel the loss of death more heavily, at least in theory. Perhaps it would if it only showed the screen the first time you die. But in reality, having to go through that every single time you die just nullifies its significance because you pop back to life in a moment anyway, and it ultimately just becomes a needlessly excessive wait time before respawning.

In short, it makes sense from a perspective of setting the right mood, but it doesn't make sense from a video game perspective.

The gameplay is much the same story. While the gunplay is realistic--you have to aim down sights in order for shots to be more accurate, and holding down the trigger makes your fire increasingly inaccurate--and there's even an innovative health system that requires you to bandage wounds or you'll slowly bleed out, losing more health, these mechanics don't make for a more fun system. The reason is, while you bandage, you obviously can't aim simultaneously. You have to either hip fire inaccurately or just wait in one place for it to bandage faster (so less health is lost from bleeding out). And while you're distracted with bandaging yourself, you're not paying attention to the world around you, and you're a stationary target, so you'll often get shot more just as you finish bandaging yourself, and this compounds till you just die and respawn. It's best to go through taking as minimal damage as possible. On that note, I will add that medkits are rather plentiful when you need them, and any dead foe can drop some small amount of health.

I like how the game encourages you to aim from behind cover, just peeking out; or to use an M-60 the way it's actually meant to be used, suppressing targets like MG nests so your squad can move up to neutralize them (as opposed to going Rambo like you would in Call of Duty); or popping smoke to call in airstrikes. The problem is, "the way the game wants you to play" is pretty much the only way.

Even if you thought you neutralized that MG nest by sharpshooting the gunner with good aim or by fragging it with a grenade, it doesn't matter. That's not the way they're scripted to die, so they're invincible to everything else.

The biggest criticism of Men of Valor is the lack of unique and interesting level design. The entire game feels like slowly walking down a very linear corridor, despite being mostly if not entirely set outside in a jungle. It's just the veneer of outdoors. Mechanically it's effectively a narrow corridor you're funneled down, and you just shoot enemies as they pop out, rather arcade-like. Move up, rinse and repeat. Occasionally press use here and there. Granted, this is the case in many, perhaps most shooters of this genre, but games like MoV's predecessor Allied Assault still managed to have interesting, varied and fun level design from one mission to the next, even while still being a linear game. MoV on the other hand just feels like every level is much the same slog shooting roughly the same enemies in the same corridor environment, with little change.

Ultimately, if you're just a regular fan of shooters, then this relatively obscure title is probably not for you. As a video game and a shooter, it's really not that great. I'd even say it's rather mediocre, despite some innovative healing mechanics for the time. While I respect the willingness to experiment (which you rarely see devs of big studios do anymore), this particular experiment wasn't that successful.

However, if you are specifically looking for an immersive Vietnam War experience, and you're willing to overlook the less-than-stellar gameplay, than it is worth it on sale, since it's pretty cheap to obtain now. There aren't very many Vietnam-themed games out there (at least compared to the infinity of WW II games), even fewer that are singleplayer. Besides Men of Valor, there's CoD: Black Ops 1 (which is amazing) but that isn't strictly a Vietnam game, more of a fictional story that is partly set during Vietnam for a few missions. There's Battlefield Vietnam, the expansion or sequel for Battlefield 1942, which I haven't played. There's the Vietnam DLC for Battlefield Bad Company 2 which I have played and is amazing (and you can still find servers for it some of the time at a good hour). There's Rising Storm 2, but that's a niche game in the mil-sim shooter genre. All of those are multiplayer only (except BO1). And then there's Far Cry 5's Vietnam-themed DLC called "Hours of Darkness," but that's just a mini-Far Cry game with Vietnam aesthetics.

So, to make a long story short, if you specifically want a realistic, singleplayer Vietnam War game to immerse yourself in the battles, and the feel of the Civil Rights era surrounding it, and don't mind the average to mediocre gameplay, then it's worth it on sale. But if you're not that interested in the history and just want a shooter, then pass. It's not very fun when looked at purely as a game.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Roland Shepard:

This is one of the most difficult letters i have been required to write.

I didn't play this game when I was young so I don't really have nostalgia with this game since it was gifted to me a few years back and I never played it until recently when I was looking for a Vietnam era shooter. I would say that if you're looking for a Vietnam-era singleplayer shooter this is probably the best one in terms of graphics and gameplay somewhat. The story is nothing special which is not a bad thing in my opinion. You're basically a Marine grunt that starts in 1965 and fights all the way until the Tet offensive and Khe Sanh in 1968. Since you're a Marine that means you'll get to use a Thompson in the earlier levels which is really cool. The game also uses some period accurate music here and there. There is also some references to Vietnam-era movies like Apocalypse now and Full Metal Jacket. There could be more that I missed. Game- and gunplay isn't bad, I'd call it a product of its time so it's serviceable. I'd recommend that you play on easy because the game likes throwing waves of enemies at you. Also a big downside in my opinion which may also be because the game is so old is that the checkpoint system isn't really forgiving which means that you might have to replay quite a few stretches of a level if you die. Just in case you get tired of it you might wanna toggle godmode or infinite ammo. When you're in-game press the Tab key and enter "dinkydau" for invulnerability and "madminute" for infinite ammo. Type it in again to deactivate the cheats. I'd say if you're a fan of the Vietnam war give this game a try when it's on sale and if you're really interested buy it full prize