Leave No One Behind: Ia Drang VR
Steam Game Description
Leave No One Behind is a tactical real-time strategy war game. Experience some of the hardest battles fought during the Vietnam War in 1965 between the US Army and the Army of Northern Vietnam to control the X-Ray and Albany landing zones and the Plei Me special forces camp. VR brings an incredible level of immersion and provides an authentic feeling of the Vietnam War from the small unit´s prospective.
VR Technology as Atmosphere´s Multiplier
Leave No One Behind has been developed since the beginning with the intention to make both PC and PC VR versions. VR allows the player to literally fly over the battlefield and see and feel the combat both from the ground and strategic level. Leave No One Behind in VR remains a demanding game of strategy and intense battle management which requires player to learn intensively while fighting for the lives of your men and the success of your mission.
Main Features
Lead American troops to their key engagements in Vietnam, in 1965, the year when the full commitment of US forces started. Inspired by and with respect to playability, the game depicts the battles for control of the X-Ray landing zone, the Albany landing zone and the Plei Me special forces camp. These battles set the tone of the Vietnam War and the strategy of both sides for years to come. Fresh on the battlefield and thousands of miles away from home, American troops must face a tough and determined enemy with superior troop numbers. As their commander, you must confront your enemy with skilful positioning of your units and the use of artillery and air support. Helicopters both in transport and combat roles are a key component to prevail. Every life matters and everyone should be saved. You should leave no one behind!
The game covers the following historical battles:
- Battle of LZ X-Ray
- Battle of LZ-Albany
- Battle for control of the Plei Me special operations camp
The battles are divided in multiple missions inspired by true events. Players in the role of an American commander must achieve victory conditions to progress further. The game also includes multiple, purely fictional side missions. The missions take place mainly during the day, but several night-time missions are also included.
Environment
The terrain is modelled based on satellite data and historical maps with respect to playability. In the case of LZ X-Ray, it includes the proverbial terrain features which played a strategic role during the battle: ´dry creek bed´ as a main line of defense and ´termite hill´ which served as a command post of the American commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore. The terrain and flora respect the reality of highlands of central Vietnam where the events of the game take place: plains and hills covered by thick grass and bushes with scattered woody areas.
Infantry Combat
The workhorse of the game which bears the brunt of fighting, conquering, and holding terrain are infantry platoons armed with historical weapons (the M-16 assault rifle, M-79 grenade launcher, Colt 1911 pistol, M-60 machine gun). The player can detach a patrol from a platoon which lacks firepower but is fast and a vigilant observer. The platoons, if not destroyed in battle, collect combat experience, and improve. In the management interface of the game, the player can reinforce platoons with both men and equipment.
Artillery Support
Artillery is an instrumental tool for the American infantry, and it balances the situation when American infantrymen are badly outnumbered, which is the usual case in the game. It can fire classic high-explosive, smoke, or phosphorus ammunition. The aiming of artillery is a critical ability. It takes several seconds before the grenade hits the selected location; the aiming procedure utilizes a grid with coordinates.
Air Support
Bombers are yet another critical asset of support for the hard-fighting American infantrymen. In the game, they are represented by the single engine A1-Skyrider. The armament consists of napalm bombs which are appealing not only for their devastating effect on enemy infantry, but also for the stunning visuals they provide.
Helicopters
Helicopters became the symbol of Vietnam War and rightly so. They provided mobility for the American troops in the conflict without frontlines which was mainly fought in difficult terrain with no road infrastructure. Within the game, Bell UH-1 Iroquois as troop carriers (´slicks´) mean the bloodline for reinforcements and ammunition necessary to sustain intensive battle. The same type of helicopters in a different configuration serves as gunships providing flexible and timely fire support. Finally, the player will have the smaller Hughes OH-6 in their arsenal as fast scouts.
Management
The game features a simple economical system where points gained by succeeding on the battlefield serve as currency for the procurement of reinforcements, equipment, artillery, and air support. If the fighting gets intense and the player scores a high enough headcount in a short time, they can enable the option ´broken arrow´ where air support is free and unlimited.
Leave No One Behind
It is not just the game´s title but also one of the game´s mechanics. Dead and wounded soldiers are collected by stretchers and should be airlifted by helicopters back to base. If the player ignores this principle, he will suffer a penalization in point gain. Dead or alive, all American soldiers should return home!
A Remark on Historical Accuracy
The game is inspired by the true events of the Vietnam War and employs many principles and mechanics based on real combat tactics. The game was developed with respect to the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers who fought on both sides. The great source of inspiration for developers is the book We Were Soldiers Once… and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, who led the soldiers of 7th Cavalry to LZ X-Ray, and war journalist Joseph L. Galloway. Whoever is interested in the true history of the events which were the source of inspiration for the game, reading these books is highly recommended.
Game Discussion
Steam User 33
I also feel obligated to give this game a very positive review (for the most part) after having played it a couple hours (Quest 2, link cable). I gotta tell you, Ive recently been burned on VR games, the last 2 I bought were RFVR and The Living Remain. Both were just released, produced by an indie developer, and early access, but after playing, I found them unpolished, unoptimized, ugly, and buggy. Please keep in mind Im resorting to buying new games as Ive played all the classics at this point (Alyx, Boneworks, Lone Echo, Medal of Honor, B&S, H3, Saints & Sinners, Phantom CO, GTA5 mod, etc).
With all that in mind, I decided to give this game a blind buy purely because it looked pretty and dealt with a battle Im very familiar with, the week-long Battle of La Drang. This battle is important in that it gave birth to a different strategy to the Airborne, or Air Cav. Helicopters were now used to ferry US soldiers (instead of planes) to the battle much like taxis due to the different geography found in Northern Vietnam. No roads or any infrastructure whatsoever existed, so Lt Col Hal Moore devised this new method during this long, intense battle. A book was written (We Were Soldiers Once, and Young) which spawned a film directed by Mel Gibson (We Were Soldiers) that were both excellent. When all was said and done, this battle went down technically as a failure for the US, mostly due to the simple fact Col Moore stirred the hornets nest, and ended up extremely outnumbered by the NVA and made a desperate retreat after trying to hold out for a week. But just look at the casualty list and you will see the US lost only 237 soldiers, but killed 1,037 enemy soldiers. That, my friends, is a crazy K/D ratio. In that light, and in light of the adaptability shown with the use of helicopters, this battle in my opinion should be seen as a victory.
So, on to the actual game. As FastLawyer already pointed out, this games concept is a dream come true for me. It is extremely pretty in VR, running an RTX 3060ti with 32ram Ryzen 5 3600 it looks to be in the top 5 best looking VR games. It reminded me a bit of the flat game Company of Heroes. Both games have a high attention to detail and how actual battles panned out; the specific strategies used, ambushes and surprise attacks, counterattacks, accurate ordinance and weapons used... its all very close to the real deal. I appreciate that attention given in a historical game. There is smooth turning and locomotion, the ability to turn off all blinders or aid, DLSS is available, several graphics settings like grass detail, far shadows, shadow res, draw distance, extra foliage, so you can really custom-tune it. You zoom in and out exactly like in Paths of Glorys map. Hold triggers and pull hands apart to zoom in, pull together to zoom out. It feels good, as does selecting units by pointing at them.
There are some bugs. You will get stuck on trees and rocks in the ground-camera. My game crashed to desktop just after capturing the central base during the end of the tutorial, will try it again today. There is a weird blur sometimes on the infantry units during movement which can be a bit distracting. And as Fast Lawyer also pointed out, the tutorial is very rough in the lack of direction or explanation of what to do. I constantly referred to my journal because it has the map and your objective list on it. Oh, and they dont tell you if you click both analog sticks, each side, left and right, has a different action menu. Also, if you hold-click the right analog, eventually a menu comes up that allows for quick unit selection. None of that is told to you. And to call an artillery strike, you gotta click in the left stick when the HQ is selected and look for the bomb icon in the menu. All in all, I was blown away by the fun I had in this.
Steam User 9
This game gives me faith for what the rts can be in VR. They don't tell you how to do anything unfortunately that is frustrating. That said, Its pretty darn cool looking. I recommend for something different than sims and fps and leaves me hopeful for the future of VR gaming.
Steam User 1
On the face of it, this games is great! Hovering above the jungle with helicopters flying around you in 3D is amazing.
However it is so bug ridden it makes it hard to play. I got stuck in the side of the map and had to restart the mission, this also happened to one of my platoons. Calling up units from the controller rarely works and you're forced to watch dialogue even if you know what it wants you to do next.
Dose anyone know how to refuel the chopper in the first mission?
Steam User 2
Leave no man Behind, Wet behind the ears Commander Harvey Leads his troops into Battle Lore, Murphy's Law is in command as Commander Harvey is the first to step on the Battlefield and the last to step off. After establishing our HQ outpost deep in NVA territory CMDR Harvey, Captain Jack, SSG Luther and Corporal Jerry are the sole survivors after an epic battle against 4000 NVA regulars, The battle lasts for 34 days and Commander Harvey had to call in "Broken Arrow" on the NVA outpost, however the PRC-77 was shot through by a VC Sniper known as Long Tra'ng du K'ich with a skilled shot from his Mosin Nagant rifle. To add insult to injury the ivy school medics refused to leave their MASH unit because their dark souls would not permit them to put the lives of their fellow Americans above their own. It was a life changing experience for the four surviving Brothers who vowed to the Almighty never to go into Battle again unless the code was up to Military standards and the mission was not wrought with such overwhelming odds. Commander Harvey and his men were congratulated for killing 1800 NVA but the battle was a hard lesson and we thought to ourselves as we flew that Huey out of the la Drang valley, "That was an awesome Epic Battle, maybe we could try again, and again, and again". But the outcome is determined not by the courage of individual soldiers, but by the leadership of the small Band of Brothers who know their Duty, keep their Honor, and who Love their County.
Steam User 28
Experienced on the Meta Quest 2
You can view my initial impressions review & gameplay here:
So I am going to recommend this. However, this game is very rough. I had trouble just getting past the tutorial. There's several things that I could not figure out how to do or that took me lots of time to figure out on my own after lots of trial and error. This game needs a much better tutorial.
The reason I am recommending this game is because it is the most beautiful RTS game I have ever seen in VR. This game is basically my childhood dream of playing GI Joe. You get to set up your little soldiers and helis and basically recreate battles from 1965 Vietnam as USA Army troops (you cannot choose the North Vietnam army / Viet Cong).
I believe that it is possible to finish the first mission but lock yourself out of the second mission if your troops are wiped out. Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to call an air strike to defeat an enemy tower and they were just picking off my troops like fish in a barrel.
Anyways, I would only recommend this to hardcore RTS fans who are willing to put up with time wasted on figuring out even the basics on how to play this game. I think the eye candy is worth it, but not everyone will agree with me and that is okay. Since I only got past the tutorial mission and basically with my troops wiped out, I won't score the game.
Game is running on the Unity Engine. On my RTX 3080, on high graphical settings, with DLSS on medium quality, I was getting mostly 90 fps. I did experience some bugs like getting stuck in the terrain, but I was usually able to get unstuck. You have full locomotion, as well as smooth and snap turning available. I have heard that the controls are only marked as Oculus motion controllers. If your'e not on Oculus, you should be comfortable with editing controller bindings before buying this game.
Rate ?/10. I don't regret my purchase. This game is pure eye candy and my childhood dream toy.
If you enjoyed my review, please consider joining my Steam Curator Group. You can join here:
Steam User 3
Works with the Vive now. It's kind of hard to evaluate the depth of strategy games without putting a ton of hours in but so far so good. There's some friction getting up and running. Figuring out how things work but it's not too bad. Part of the fun.
Gameplay is commanding units. Moving them. ordering attacks. Searching the area. Setting up bases. Ordering supplies...
Graphics are pretty good not great but good enough. PC quality. I've seen some graphics glitches but nothing game breaking.