United we frag.
Like the heartburn from my Aunt Boochie’s Lasagna, those wily Nazis just won’t seem to stay down despite our best military efforts and largest bottles of extra strength Tums. So with taut backs, soothed bellies and heads held high, we decided to return to the battlefield to duke it out with Call of Duty: United Offensive.
The good news is that Activision and developer Gray Matter have created a solid
expansion to a great game (yes, it requires the original Call
of Duty to play).
The bad news is, well, there really isn’t
much, actually.
Call of Duty: United Offensive adds 13 new missions, 11
new multiplayer maps and 3 multiplayer game modes. Although this op is less
than 10 hours long, it all coalesces into a graphically rich and exciting excuse
to relieve even more digital Nazis of their fake existence.
You
again play the part of three different soldiers in the British, Russian and U.
S. militaries. Famous battles include the U.S. Battles of the Bulge, the invasion
of Sicily from the British point of view and the lesser known Russian Battle
of Kursk. While defection stays the same, the scenery and rules of engagement
have changed, giving the campaigns their own feel and level of excitement.
You begin as a U.S. paratrooper dropped into the Battle of the Bulge, an epic,
chaotic firefight brimming with intense action. It’s like original Call
of Duty hopped up on methamphetamines. The battles are huge with a staggering
number of NPCs on screen. Wave after wave of enemy soldiers are thrown at you
and your CPU squadmates, and the frigid forest backdrop makes for an impressive,
challenging theater for war.
Provided you survive, you’ll have a moment to catch your breath before taking
part in a high-flying aerial battle as you assume the post of a British SAS Commando.
You begin by manning one of the heavy machine guns of a British bomber. Your
job is to shoot down incoming enemy planes and secure a landing point behind
enemy lines. Once on land, this campaign becomes much more restrained, a fairly
typical fragfest. These commando missions are naturally less chaotic due to
fewer soldiers on screen, and the battles lack the scope of the game’s remaining
infantry incursions.
Your final Russian missions tips the scales back to grandiose by dealing out
a heaping dose of excitement via trench warfare and close-quarters combat in
confined areas. You’ll face off against German tanks, mortar fire and a seemingly
indefatigable complement of German soldiers.
Each campaign is thrilling in its own right and, like in the original Call
of Duty, United Offensive‘s use of scripting is terrific. The first and third episodes really push the limits in terms of truly capturing the epic nature of WWII and stand out as prime examples of great game design
Unfortunately,
some A.I. issues threaten to spoil the immersion. Your buddies can’t
be commanded, which still seems just short of necessary at times (not to mention
cool). There are some curious A.I. irregularities, like weird hiccups where U.S.
and German soldiers stand face to face perfectly still amid a chaotic battlefield,
but these programming flaws are less noticeable when you study the enemies. They
generally stay on their toes too and will find a number of ways to outflank
you.
Little touches add polish to the shine. The new Sprint feature allows you to
run for a short distance and really helps to get you from one spot of cover to
the next. “Cooking Off” grenades is pretty handy as well. This lets you pull
the pin and then hold the ‘nade for a few seconds so it explodes much sooner
after being thrown. Very useful.
These aren’t the only new ingredients to this expansive stew, however. You’ll find a few new toys to play with like the flamethrower, smoke grenades and a couple deployable heavy machine guns, which require you to fire only from a prone position. The deployable machine guns are heavy, lumbering things that take forever to reload, but when they let loose their lead, bodies fall in huge numbers for serious satisfaction.
Unfortunately, the single player portion of United Offensive isn’t
very long. Though the $30 price tag is very good, the 13 missions just go by
too quickly. An experienced FPS-er will be done and ready for more in about 8
hours, maybe a few more if you take your time.
Luckily, the game pulls no punches in its online additions. United
Offensive sports 11 new maps and 3 new online game types. The new maps
are a great addition and are well-structured for intense play, but the
new modes really make the strongest impression. The familiar Capture the Flag
makes an appearance alongside Domination (very similar to Joint
Ops and the Battlefield games).
The
newest is Base Assault, in which the goal is to destroy an enemy’s base. Doing
so requires players to effectively disable it, then successfully infiltrate the
base to plant and explode charges and seal the deal – not the easiest of tasks.
It’s nice to see continued support and new additions to the online front, including
drivable vehicles like jeeps and tanks for military road rage. They’re
refreshing and extend the life of the game.
On or offline, United Offensive looks pretty damn sharp. Gray
Matter has tweaked the graphics from the original game, giving this expansion
added polish not found in Call
of Duty, which was a well decorated soldier in its own right. United
Offensive features more bump-mapping, more texture detail and many more
bodies on screen than its progenitor. It’s not Doom
3, but it’s no slouch.
The sound completes the package. The “pang” of helmets flying from terrified heads and the haunting “ping” of empty rifle magazines ejecting return with canorous splendor. Go get some burly speakers for this one, seriously.
The look, sound and feel of Call of Duty: United Offensive ooze
quality and playability. Couple that with the $30 price tag and you wind up with
a strong expansion. It might be short, but that should hardly prevent you from
enlisting again.
