Vietnam War

About

Vietnam War is a single player action game. It was developed by Thorium Game Lab and was released on April 25, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Vietnam War offers large-scale tactical combat in an expansive open world set during the Vietnam conflict. Players can command U.S. or Vietcong/N.V.A. squads, issuing commands and calling in airstrikes, artillery, and reinforcements. Engage in varied missions across jungles, river valleys, and hilltop bases while managing survival elements and dynamic battlefield conditions.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,205 reviews

gameplay42 positive mentions

stability143 negative mentions

The game offers a massive open-world sandbox experience set during the Vietnam War, allowing players to engage in various roles and missions.
Despite its jankiness, the game is filled with charm and humor, providing a unique and immersive experience.
The developer is actively updating the game, showing dedication to improving performance and fixing bugs.

The game suffers from significant performance issues, including lag, crashes, and unresponsive AI, making it frustrating to play.
Movement feels floaty and unpolished, often leading to awkward navigation and gameplay experiences.
Many features and mechanics are not well-explained, leaving players confused about how to progress or utilize the game's systems.

stability
144 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
2%
99%
The game is widely criticized for its extreme instability, with numerous users reporting frequent crashes, freezes, and a plethora of bugs that significantly hinder gameplay. Despite these issues, many players express optimism about the game's potential, noting that it can still be enjoyable if one can tolerate the jankiness and lack of polish. Overall, while the game shows promise, its current state is deemed too buggy for a full recommendation, with many suggesting waiting for further updates before purchasing.
- “The game runs smoothly without any major bugs, making for a stable experience.”
- “I appreciate how well-optimized the game is; it rarely crashes and performs consistently.”
- “The developers have done a great job ensuring stability, allowing me to enjoy the game without interruptions.”
- “The game is a buggy mess, and yet somehow is very in-depth at the same time.”
- “I would not recommend because it's still buggy as hell to the extent that sometimes it is unplayable.”
- “Great content but it damn near doesn't even work; constant crashes, helicopters are a complete toss-up of whether they crash you or not, it's not optimized at all.”
gameplay
136 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31%
65%
4%
The gameplay is a chaotic blend of first-person shooting, squad tactics, and vehicular warfare set in a vast open-world map, offering a variety of mechanics and emergent gameplay experiences. However, many players report significant bugs, clunky controls, and poorly explained mechanics that detract from the overall experience. Despite its rough edges, the game shows great potential with its depth and variety, making it enjoyable for those willing to navigate its jankiness.
- “There's FPS gameplay, squad tactics, flying choppers, prop planes and jets, driving everything from bikes to tanks, and all of it happens at once on a pretty sizeable map.”
- “Combat is layered and multifaceted, blending infantry firefights with squad command mechanics and large-scale vehicular warfare.”
- “The depth and breadth of the mechanics and gameplay is insane - an actual Vietnam war is going on all around you, all the time.”
- “But if I should judge the progress based only on the gameplay experience, not much has changed since the purchase (almost a year ago).”
- “This game has so much potential and when you actually get into combat it's a lot of fun, but overall it's a janky, buggy mess of a game that makes little to no sense, terrible AI, terrible controls, and overall terrible gameplay.”
- “The issue is that there are so many bugs and janky mechanics that it is unplayable.”
optimization
119 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
64%
24%
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with numerous users reporting severe performance issues, including low frame rates, stuttering, and frequent crashes. Many players express frustration over the game's bugs and unoptimized mechanics, which hinder gameplay and enjoyment. While the game shows potential, it is currently deemed unplayable by some until significant optimization and bug fixes are implemented.
- “This game has a lot of potential, but right now it has serious performance issues that need to be addressed.”
- “I do know that optimization is fluctuating as the developer tests new additions to the game.”
- “Good concept, however it's very under-optimized, buggy, and just overall a mess.”
- “Once this game is polished and optimized I will return, but at this particular moment this game is unplayable.”
- “The only thing holding this game back is its optimization.”
graphics
79 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
10%
77%
13%
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with many players noting their low-poly, simplistic style reminiscent of older titles, which some find charming while others deem inadequate. Performance issues, such as stuttering and limited graphical options, have been frequently mentioned, leading to frustration among users with higher-end hardware. Overall, while the visuals may not impress, they do not significantly detract from the gameplay experience, which many find enjoyable despite the graphical shortcomings.
- “The graphics are charming and simple but detailed enough; the environments are great with a surprising variety of animals, and the map is genuinely impressive, encompassing all of Vietnam and then some.”
- “It's rough around the edges, needs a lot of bug fixing, AI improvements, graphic updates, UI updates, etc., but this is an exceptionally fun starting point.”
- “Sure, the graphics are low-poly, but the gameplay easily makes up for it.”
- “I have a 5090 and 9800x3d and this has a very unsmooth frame-time graph and stutters like crazy regardless of graphics settings.”
- “Graphically, not much better than Minecraft.”
- “Game is slow to start, hardly get to do anything fun with the game always freezing and lagging even in low graphics settings, AI are dumb as hell, and so many other wrong things, I tried to give this game a chance but it's just unplayable.”
story
69 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
90%
4%
The game's story is largely player-driven, set in a vast open-world representation of Vietnam, where players can engage in a variety of randomly generated and handcrafted missions without a linear narrative guiding them. While this sandbox approach allows for emergent gameplay and personal storytelling, it also leads to frustrations with mission triggers and AI behavior, resulting in a chaotic experience that can feel aimless. Overall, players appreciate the freedom to create their own narratives amidst the backdrop of a dynamic war, despite the game's technical shortcomings.
- “Instead of guiding players through linear missions or historical set pieces, Vietnam War drops them into a massive open world that represents large swaths of Vietnam and surrounding regions.”
- “There are an infinite number of randomly generated missions and a decent number of handmade operations provided for the character, but there is no obligation to follow orders, and the player is free to design their own story across an open world map of Southeast Asia, complete with an arsenal of period-accurate weapons and vehicles for both the northern and southern forces.”
- “There's a dynamic war going on around you, and you can get tasked missions as it evolves to help your side.”
- “The missions don't matter; get over it. This is a sandbox for you to play in at this stage in development, and it's a deep and wide enough sandbox to keep me entertained for a few dozen hours at least.”
- “Game has some fun features, but overall it's a mess. AI bugs out, and as soon as you spawn in, you're in action with no story or help of any kind. Friendly AI don't do anything but shoot in the sky or at civilians. This game needs a lot of work if it's going to go anywhere.”
- “Performance can be inconsistent, and some missions may not trigger or resolve correctly.”
humor
46 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is largely derived from its janky mechanics and absurd situations, often leading to unintentional hilarity that players find endearing. Many reviews highlight the game's chaotic nature, with funny AI behavior and dry voice acting contributing to the overall comedic experience. Despite its bugs and optimization issues, players appreciate the depth and potential of the game, often laughing out loud at the absurdity of their in-game experiences.
- “Great game, great depth, great humor, huge map absolute chaos sometimes but works.”
- “It's a mess, but it's a glorious one, and the dev has a good sense of humor.”
- “I remember being as close to physically rolling on the floor laughing at just the absurdity of it all.”
replayability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Overall, the game shows significant potential for replayability due to its vast content and mechanics, with many users noting that improvements in AI, UI, and bug fixes could enhance the experience further. While currently marred by frustrations, the ambition and scale of the game suggest that it could offer endless replay value if these issues are addressed. Frequent updates also indicate a commitment to improving the game's playability over time.
- “In fact, if the UI and interactions were fixed, this would be a way better game than Easy Red 2 due to its massive scale and replayability.”
- “It is insanely ambitious, has incredible potential for role play, and if the game's systems can be honed, it offers endless replayability.”
- “Good gameplay and replay value!”
- “I'll pick it back up when it's in a more playable state, but right now I just can't enjoy the game with all of the frustrations that it brings.”
- “In fact, if the UI and interactions were fixed, this would be a way better game than Easy Red 2 due to its massive scale and replayability, but as mentioned, this game does suffer from bad UI and bugs.”
- “It is insanely ambitious, has incredible potential for role play, and if the game's systems can be honed, it could offer endless replayability.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The music in the game is described as a mix of propaganda tunes and ambient sounds that enhance the chaotic atmosphere of war, with players noting its impact on immersion. However, some users express frustration over the lack of tutorials and clarity regarding the game's mechanics, which detracts from the overall experience. Overall, while the music contributes to the game's unique setting, it is accompanied by a sense of confusion and disorientation.
- “The music, the radio chatter, the insane moments that randomly occur as the war goes on around you!”
- “A song blaring in the wind!”
- “Spawned in with US propaganda music playing through the speaker, a million buttons that have no explanation on how to use them with no tutorial. I walked about ten feet to take a shower, I guess, and my squad gets blown up, leaving me the sole survivor with PTSD.”
- “I can't usually be bothered to write reviews as so many games are just mediocre, same old songs sung in a different key.”
- “There is no more voice chat, angry monkeys, music playing as I surround the radio shooting, and no gunfire and explosions.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players appreciate the developer's dedication and frequent updates, highlighting the effort put into the game despite it being a one-man project. However, the grinding aspect of gameplay, particularly the repetitive nature of capturing and defending bases, can become tedious due to the AI's limitations.
- “Currently the only objective as infantry is to capture bases or defend them, which will end up being tedious due to how the AI is.”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is praised for its deep emotional engagement, effectively simulating the complexities of the Vietnam War by exploring often-overlooked elements such as logistics, civilian interactions, and the aftermath of deployment. This nuanced approach adds layers of emotional depth that set it apart from typical shooter games.
- “This game is perhaps the definitive simulation of the Vietnam War, touching on many aspects overlooked by typical shooter games, such as the logistics network behind the scenes, the shaky interactions with local civilians, the quality of government-issued rations, and even, just barely, life after deployment in the fictional state of Kansota.”
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is generally praised for its uniqueness and ambition, contributing to an engaging experience. However, some users feel that improvements in AI and performance are necessary to fully realize its potential.
- “The combat is solid, the vehicles are all unique, and there are a lot of them. The overall atmosphere is great, and the progression system works well.”
- “The atmosphere is perfect and the concept is ambitious.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization aspect of the game is generally acceptable, with players willing to overlook low-quality graphics and simplistic controls, though there is a desire for more detailed first-person gun models to enhance their usability in advertisements.