Coyote Development is the team who brought Xbox owners the remarkably below average first person shooter Diehard: Vendetta, and not forgetting Bad Boys 2, Slot Racer and Barbie's Horse Riding Adventure...Eeek! Their follow up to this abysmal pedigree of Xbox games is a port of the popular PC title Vietcong. Vietcong exploded onto the PC a while back offering gamers a relatively realistic take on the historical war first person shooter genre.

Instead of directly porting the original game (and add-on missions) to the Xbox, Coyote have made some significant changes. Some of these changes are for the better like the lower emphasis on repetitive and confusing ‘Tunnel Rat' missions but others are curious omissions or alterations that only distract from the overall enjoyment of the game. The latter include cutting of ‘on-rails' sequences (Helicopter gunner) or ‘dumbing-down' of previously challenging defensive levels.

What sets Vietcong apart from the competition is its emphasis on working in a squad of Special Forces operatives. The player takes on the role of Sergeant First Class Steve Hawkins...By far the ugliest protagonist of any game in history, this guy makes Shrek look sexy. Throughout the game various squad members including a Medic, Engineer, Machine-gunner, Radioman and Scout join Hawkins to assist him. Each of these squad members performs a specific role during missions. The Medic will heal you and your team without the need for medpacks, Engineers carry enough ammunition to make a packhorse cry and the Machine-gunner...Er, carries a machine-gun. The Radioman allows you to send and receive radio transmissions between higher headquarters and the Scout leads you through the levels and identifies traps that the sneaky VC has set in your path. For some unknown reason even though the scout can find traps, only you can disarm them. It would have been much faster and less obtrusive if this process was done automatically without the need to constantly stop and start.

The squad emphasis is a great gameplay mechanic, but just like its PC version, the squad (and enemy) Artificial Intelligence (AI) is atrocious. Your team will quite happily stand in the open and get themselves killed, jump up in front of your line of fire and get themselves killed, or just get stuck in confined areas so that the only way for you to pass them is to kill them yourself! These AI problems don't occur continually, but they will occur with enough frequency to annoy you.

The collision detection of both enemy and squad AI is also terrible as you will frequently see characters stuck on level geometry or jumping ridiculously high in order to navigate the terrain successfully. Squad movement throughout the game is slow, very slow and this is not entirely a bad thing. As far as realism goes, soldiers on patrol in Vietnam didn't sprint through the Jungle looking for VC. However, it is also a real pain that you can't order you squad to move fast on occasions. There is one mission in particular where you have to take out a number of mortar positions that are attacking a friendly fire base. If you are not fast enough then the mission is a failure, but the only way to complete it in time is to run ahead of your squad and dive in Rambo style.

A two level command system is implemented in Vietcong: Purple Haze to issue orders to your squad. The first level issues commands to all squad members in your immediate vicinity. These commands are Attack, Disperse, Stop and Follow Me. The command menu is activated with a press of the X Button and orders are selected with the Right Trigger or D-Pad. The second level of commands are issued directly to individual members of your squad and are specific to each member. Selecting a portrait of each squad member will order them to perform their specific function. Eg. Selecting the Medic will cause him to come to you and heal your wounds, selecting the Engineer will cause him to come to you and resupply your ammunition.

The level design in Vietcong: Purple Haze leaves a lot to the imagination. In a feeble attempt to model a jungle environment, invisible or "jungle textured” walls have been placed in various parts of the levels to constrict your movement and contain you within the levels boundaries. These wouldn't be so bad if they were not so blatantly obvious and ugly. It's even quite possible for an enemy to be shooting you from the other side of one of these walls and the only way for you to hit them is to toss a grenade over the top.

One aspect of Vietcong: Purple Haze that is top notch is the sound effects. The weapon sounds are spot on and the ear ringing effect from being too close to explosions is fantastic and should be standard for all realistic games of this type. It really makes it feel like you were almost fragged by a grenade when all sound is replaced by a fading ringing noise. Unfortunately the music is a little uninspired with only four licensed songs (Hey Joe performed by Deep Purple!?) and no option for a custom soundtrack. This game would have been the perfect candidate for a custom soundtrack as you could have inserted the soundtrack from your favourite Vietnam War movies. Alas, this option is not offered.

Vietcong: Purple Haze only offers players multiplayer action over Xbox Live. There is no offline multiplayer, not even split screen. To make matters worse, your Live connection status is constantly displayed in the lower left corner of the screen...Even in single-player when you don't have a Live account! Live multiplayer options are quite varied and with the choice of playing as a US or VC soldier and with a total of 27 realistically modelled weapons eventually available (you unlock multiplayer content by completing the single-player missions) you should be able to find a mode to your liking.

It is also worth bearing in mind that downloadable content is also promised to be available in the future, which will most likely contain additional maps and weapons. Live game modes consist of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assault Team Game (mission driven team game), Capture the Flag, Real War (Multiple flag game but only on five of the nine multiplayer maps) and Co-operative (but only on three of the multiplayer maps). From all accounts performance on Live is more that acceptable and games should not be plagued with any serious lag issues. It may be hard to find anyone to play however as they are all probably playing Halo 2 instead.