You start each mission being debriefed by a superior, inspecting maps and browsing documents. From the sound of rock ’n’ roll playing from descending choppers to the many Half-Life-like heart-in-mouth scripted moments, this is a truly spectacular experience. But the lack of proper storyline doesn’t mean it hasn’t got a cinematic feel.

There’s no plot as such, more a string of events organised across incredibly varied missions. And, although this is a shooter where you'll personally be in the line of fire all the time, it's also very much a team game where the death of any one of your squad means game over. Giving orders is very simple and context-sensitive, so you don’t have to mess about with menus and submenus just to get the boys to move out. Then you have a medic, who will heal you and other team members, the engineer, who handily carries an inexhaustible supply of ammo, the machine gunner and the radio carrier, whose backpack you'll be seeing a lot of. Try to set off without him and you'd soon be lost. One of the most important members is your point man, a Montanyard (a Vietnamese hill tribe) who acts as your trap-spotter and guide through the jungle. You're part of a group of Special Forces on the Cambodian border in 1967 on a six month tour of duty, about to penetrate a jungle full of life as well as death, and you’ll need every single member of your team in order to survive. It's important to realise right from the start that this - unlike so many Vietnam films - isn’t about the countless kids who went through hell and came back in body bags or straight jackets. And from what I've seen of this beauty so far, we’re all going to have flashbacks for some time to come. That's all about to change though, because a European company, free of the guilt that still haunts Americans, is here to show us that it's about time we enjoyed the Vietnam War. Of course you’ve seen the scene in any of those Nam war films you grew up watching, but they were there to tell us war is hell, not a WWII Dirty Dozen adventure. It involves you standing with a group of soldiers in the middle of a dense, mosquito-infested jungle, knee-deep in muddy water that steams slowly from the stifling heat, and pointing your weapon at every tiny flutter of leaves, every insignificant creak of wood, with a wild look in your eyes that steadily loses focus thanks to the trickle of sweat soaking through your bandana. There’s a combat situation that is imprinted in all our minds and yet has never been fully realised in a game.

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