A very difficult but very good game.
User Rating: 9 | Men of Valor XBOX
Men of Valor is one of the few Vietnam war games that is good, very good infact, its done in the standard FPS model of games but it has a storyline and the game follows you and your squad throughout the vietnam war. The Graphics are ok'ish, nothing ground breaking but solid throughout, there are some nice little effects from such things as explosions and napalm strikes but for the most part you wont be amazed. The character models are pretty poor but the terrain is very good, especially in the latter levels where your fighting in urban areas. The graphics do a decent enough job at keeping you immersed in the game, the jungle levels are also done pretty well and cangive a feeling of what it was like in the Vietnam war, with gun shots seemingly coming out fo nowhere in the dense jungle and being forced to aim at muzzle flashes because the enemy can be disguised so well. Sound wise, things are solid, again nothing paritculary ground breaking but each weapon sounds just about right with some guns sounding more powerful than others. Enemies speak in vietnamise (offcourse) and your team mates will swear alot (offcourse), the voice acting is done well both in game and in the mission briefings. The music is fitting for the game, its a mix between modern sounds from the west (a great sound track including the song california dreaming for instance) and old traditional asian ambient music (much like the game Mercenaries.) very fitting and very atmospheric. Gameplay, well heres its greatest strengths and weaknesses, Men of Valor is good, but its also exceedingly difficult with people quitting in disgust at several points in the game no doubt, some of it does indeed seem cheap such as respawning enemies if you dont reach a certain point, enemy fire coming out of the dense jungle you cant go to but this just makes it more challenging although it could have been done better. Next you have the atrocious AI which makes Rome Total War's AI look acceptable!!, enemies will charge at you more often than not and your squad mates are diabolical shots even at point blank range which can make you pause and wander if you really did just see a squad mate with a M16 stand 1 feet away from an enemy and miss 30 shots. The AI could have been MUCH better (just like in Rome Total War) but if it had been the game would have been that much harder and its bloody hard as it is!! still competent AI is always a must in my book. Next we have the save game issues, Men of Valor wants to adapt a Halo style checkpoint save for its game but its done badly, some checkpoints are seemingly miles apart some of them AFTER unskippable cut scenes so if you die you have to go through the cut scene again which strikes me as though the game could have done with more play testing and general polishing. But for its faults Men of Valor has overall good gameplay, its a very fun game which makes you have some feeling of what 'Nam must have been like. Also i feel its worth noting that Men of Valor also includes a wonderful multiplayer function over xbox live which has you playing team death match or death match with huge open levels were you pick a class of solider and fight it out. Overall id recommend buying this game, yes its diffcult but thats part of the challenge, if you can keep playing and get pass the irritating moments and handle the bad AI you will find Men Of Valor to be a good, rewarding game which is very challenging, very difficult but very fun for the gamer who wants a difficult challenge and wants to feel a sense of accomplishment from compeleting a game, wereas most games today are a piece of piss. 
