The Vietnam War hasn't seen nearly as much representation in gaming as other major armed conflicts. To be clear, there are some very good reasons for this; the controversial motives behind the war on the Western side, the brutal nature of its prosecution by all sides, and of course, the fact that it ended in failure from the American perspective.
All of these make it a harder subject to portray than something like World War 2. That said, some games have come out more recently that have successfully translated the conflict into a worthwhile experience. From Call of Duty to Rising Storm 2, the Vietnam War has proven to be a difficult but nonetheless interesting subject to explore within the medium of gaming.
Updated February 6, 2023 by Gregory Louis Gomez: The Vietnam War is widely looked back on as one of the most turbulent eras in American history. Not only was it the first real time that the people began to rethink their relationship with the government, but it was also the first time that Americans could remember losing a war in such dramatic fashion. The subsequent impact the war had on popular culture has been well documented, with films such as Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter serving as critiques of the conflict in their own ways.
The imagery and tropes of these films filtered down through time until they eventually found their way into gaming media, where once again, there was yet more that could be said about the Vietnam War. With this in mind, we've gone ahead and added a few more Vietnam War games that are worth checking out to this list.
8 Battlefield: Vietnam - 2004
- Platform: PC
- Developers: Dice Canada
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
Battlefield: Vietnam was probably the best Vietnam-themed FPS around when it was released for Microsoft Windows in 2004. It is the successor to the popular WW2 game, Battlefield: 1942, and the second release in what would become a very successful series of large-scale FPS games developed by Dice and published by Electronic Arts.
Like 1942, Vietnam features a number of period-accurate weapons and vehicles along with maps inspired by historically significant places and events such as the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Ia Drang Valley, the Battle of Hue City, and the Fall of Saigon. The game even features a historically authentic soundtrack that can be heard in-game.
7 Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War - 2020
- Platform: Xbox, PlayStation, Android, PC
- Developers: Treyarch, Raven Software, Beenox
- Publisher: Activision
Like its predecessor, Black Ops Cold War is not primarily a Vietnam War-centric game; however, the war plays a significant role in the game's story (if only by proxy) and even ends up being one of the highlights of the single-player campaign. There are two single-player levels set to the backdrop of the Vietnam War: Fracture Jaw and Break on Through. Both of these are standout levels in the campaign for both gameplay and narrative reasons.
BOCW is also the first game in the series to have a Vietnam themed zombies map with Firebase Z. Some of the game's coolest weapons are from the Vietnam era as well, such as the campaign-locked M16a1 and the always-appreciated Stoner 63 light machine gun. Overall, COD: Black Ops Cold War features a surprisingly strong translation of the Vietnam War in mainstream AAA gaming.
6 Far Cry 5: Hours of Darkness - 2018
- Platform: Xbox, PlayStation, PC
- Developer: Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Toronto
- Publisher: Ubisoft
While Hours of Darkness is only a DLC expansion for Far Cry 5, it is nevertheless a fun expansion based on the Vietnam War. Hours of Darkness distills Far Cry down to its strongest elements, forgoing some of the formalities that the series only begrudgingly acknowledges, such as story or characters, delivering a tight yet frenetic gameplay experience.
The player is tasked with saving their fellow POWs scattered around the valley before they can leave, with all the standard enemy types, bases, checkpoints, and other miscellaneous objectives in between. It hasn't got much to say on the war itself, but one can't deny that it's a damn fun expansion.
5 Rising Storm 2: Vietnam - 2017
- Platform: PC
- Developers: Tripwire Interactive, Antimatter Games
- Publisher: Tripwire Interactive
Coming off of the successful WW2 multiplayer game Red Orchestra 2, Tripwire Interactive would enlist the help of the modding community to develop and release a Pacific theater spin-off/expansion called Rising Storm in 2013. The success of this expansion prompted Tripwire and Antimatter Games to begin developing a Vietnam War-themed sequel entitled Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, which was released in 2017. Rising Storm 2, like its predecessors, is a large-scale hardcore multiplayer FPS game, but unlike them, it takes the asymmetric warfare elements of the first Rising Storm and turns them up to eleven, making a core element of gameplay.
The game covers virtually the whole war and beyond (even including the French as a playable faction). It includes many historically significant locations as maps, such as Saigon, Hue City, Hill 937 (Hamburger Hill), and features period-accurate weapons and gear for every faction. For these reasons, Rising Storm 2 is considered to be one of the most authentic Vietnam-themed FPS games released thus far (even if it is noticeably stylized after popular war-related films).
4 Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam - 2010
- Platform: PC, Xbox, PlayStation
- Developers: DICE
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
A remake of the original Battlefield: Vietnam, Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam is an expansion pack that re-imagines the original game into a smaller yet chaotic and claustrophobic (by Battlefield Standards) experience. The game also adds a significant layer of grit to everything that neither the original game nor Bad Company 2 has. Guns and vehicles are dirty and beat up, environments are twisted and uprooted by war, and the player models are all ragged. The game is brimming with an atmosphere in a way that even more modern Vietnam War games are missing for one reason or another.
The game is not a total remake of the original, however. It only features one remade map from the original (Operation Hastings) and is missing quite a few weapons and vehicles. That said, the game was reviewed very well upon release, with some saying it was even more fun to play than the main game, though others made sure to note how different the experiences are from each other.
3 Vietcong - 2003
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox
- Developers: Pterodon, Illusion Softworks
- Publisher: Gathering
Among the sea of WW2 games coming out in the late 90s and early 2000s, Vietcong was released in 2003 and was a breath of fresh air for many. Though the game wasn't technically impressive at the time and is certainly dated these days, the game was nonetheless creative for its time, offering a unique flavor of squad-type gameplay with a diverse and challenging set of missions set in the Vietnamese jungle circa 1967.
The game features both single-player and multiplayer modes. The former consists of both a story campaign and Quick Fights, a mode in which the player fights against AI enemies with no real objective on a map of their choosing. Multiplayer features the standard array of game modes, such as Team and Free for All Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and more. The game supported a total of 64 players before the server host, GameSpy Arcade, shut down.
2 Arma 3: S.O.G. Prairie Fire - 2021
- Platforms: PC
- Developers: Savage Game Design
- Publisher: Bohemia Interactive
The Arma series is well known for being one of the most hardcore military simulation games around. Though it's usually known for taking place in the 21st century, the third game in the series, Arma 3, saw the release of a paid DLC expansion focusing on the Vietnam War called SOG Prairie Fire. This expansion was actually developed in collaboration with Vietnam War veterans on both sides of the conflict.
Featuring Arma's hyper-realistic and massive combat, the DLC allows the player to experience the war from a variety of angles, whether they play as a member of MACV SOG, the Vietcong, or even the Pathet Lao whilst using faithfully recreated period accurate weaponry on huge, historically authentic maps. SOG Prairie Fire features both single-player missions and online multiplayer.
1 Call Of Duty: Black Ops - 2010
- Platform: PC, OS X, Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, Nintendo DS
- Developers: Treyarch
- Publisher: Activision
Perhaps it's cheating to consider Black Ops a "Vietnam-themed" game, but there's no denying the part the war plays in the game's story. Of the fifteen campaign missions, five of them take place in Vietnam circa 1968, with two of those taking place during the Tet Offensive. In addition, several multiplayer maps are set in Vietnam: Cracked, Hanoi, and Jungle. The game also makes several references to famous Vietnam War films such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and The Deer Hunter.
The Vietnam segments of the campaign are some of the most action-packed and intense sequences in the whole game. Whole missions are devoted to a variety of combat scenarios ranging from wet and dirty jungle fighting to claustrophobic urban meat grinders. Of all the modern games to feature the Vietnam War in some capacity, Call of Duty: Black Ops is undoubtedly one of the most sensational.