Characters The player-character initially assumes the role of Hoàng Đăng Bình, a Việt Minh soldier who gets caught up in the war. He is joined by heavy weapons specialist Nguyễn Thế Vinh, marksman Lưu Trọng Hà, and anti-aircraft specialist Hoàng Đăng An (who is also Bình's younger brother). Over the course of the game, the player perspective switches between each of the four men.
Story The game begins with a historical exposition of French rule over Indochina from 1858 until the outbreak of the
Franco-Vietnamese War in 1946. At the start of the game, Binh answers the Vietnamese leadership's call to arms against the French. He joins the defense of the Metropole Hanoi from French forces during the
Battle of Hanoi. As he links up with Hà and Vinh, the French wear down the defenses and assault the hotel at night. Vietnamese forces head to the mountains to launch a guerrilla war. Now part of the Việt Minh's 204th regiment in October 1950, Binh's team is assigned to attack a French fort astride
Route Coloniale 4 and rescue captured prisoners. The troops fight their way to the town of Đông Khê as French forces pull out. Vinh is later assigned to the 9th Infantry Regiment as it ambushes a French column out of Hòa Bình in December 1952. However, one of the tanks slips through the cordon and seemingly kills Binh. With his last breath, Binh asks Vinh to give him a letter to his family as Vinh later destroys the tank. Several months later, in
late 1953, General
Võ Nguyên Giáp's assaults into Laos later results in Gen
Henri Navarre replacing
Raoul Salan and advocating a new defensive strategy. An joins the 148th regiment in the attack on Dien Bien Phu as the French launches Operation Castor. An later laments that Binh, who recovered to join an attack on Giang Mo, has not been heard from since he was relocated to a military hospital in the rear. The Dien Bien Phu siege finally begins in March 1954 and An is reassigned to the 316th Division for the initial assault. French troops attack in an attempt to silence the 316th's artillery positions in a hill east of the camp, but are heavily repelled within hours; the hill is later named the "Hill of Medals". Vinh, meanwhile, is part of the attack force on
Beatrice; the success of the attack leads to the fall of
Gabrielle and
Ban Keo within days. An, who was present at the Hill of Medals, helps in the defense of Gabrielle against French airstrikes. Ha is with the 304th Division as part of sniper teams attacking Isabelle. Binh is assigned to a commando raid on a French airbase to disrupt air support missions to Dien Bien Phu. Vinh is part of the troops attacking Eliane 1 and participates in the brutal fighting over the hill (where he is either KIA or WIA after destroying a tank). Binh returns to the Dien Bien Phu front on May 6 as the Việt Minh begin their
final assault, starting with a dynamite blast on Eliane 2. In the midst of the battle, Binh briefly reunites with Ha before heading back into action, but Ha is later killed. During the final attack, Binh unexpectedly reunites with An and learns about their mother's death. Binh's team captures a French soldier and forces him to point out Col
Christian de Castries' command bunker, but French troops open fire and An is hit in the process as he encourages his comrades to rush the bunker. Binh kills the soldiers and later holds An in his arms. An apologizes to Binh before he passes away (later on he is confirmed alive by the developer). Other soldiers start herding away French troops and a soldier raises the Vietnamese
Yellow Star flag over the bunker. == Development ==