A Great Expansion Pack

By Hardflip

If you asked me who made Call of Duty: United Offensive, I’d probably say it was Infinity Ward. Is there any truth behind this? No. Gray Matter, also known as the people who made the god-awful Return to Castle Wolfenstein single player developed it. Perhaps it was just the idea of zombies, ghosts and demons that sidetracked their ambition to make a ‘good game’. If so, it’s very evident in this highly-anticipated expansion pack to the Call of Duty; a PC Game of the Year award winner.

To begin with, if you loved the original Call of Duty, you’ll love this one. As far as I can tell, Gray Matter have found what people liked the most about the original, improved on it with some of the best campaigns they could choose from World War 2, and improved a hell of a lot on the negative aspects Call of Duty had. One of these could be considered the difficulty. I’m not a brilliant first person shooter player, I’ll give you that. However, Call of Duty was one of the easiest games I’ve ever played; even on ‘Veteran’ mode it seemed as if it was on a normal setting.

In United Offensive, you start off with an extremely hard and cinematic mission in Bastogne against an incoming wave of German infantry and tanks. I’d have to say this mission was harder than any in Call of Duty, and it really showed with the constant artillery bombardment and one-hundred bullets flying at you a second effect. Straight away you can also pick up the graphical improvements they’ve made to the game. The particle effects have been vastly improved with dirt, fire and smoke. These vastly up the cinema effect you get from playing this well above-average World War 2 game, being better than any Medal of Honor game or expansion out there.

I’m not certain if the artificial intelligence has changed since Call of Duty, but in the expansion your team mates seem to be far more effective in covering for you. They follow you around more effectively and do the thing you’re more likely to do. Can’t say I’m terribly impressed at the Kraut’s method of hiding behind a pillar and peeking their head out to get shot, but I guess you do need cannon fodder to make these games more fun.

The game itself has climaxes, always at the beginning and end of a campaign. I’d have to say the beginnings of both three campaigns are the most explosive, and the endings are very reminiscent of the Pegasus Bridge mission from Call of Duty. Essentially, they’ve made a brilliant World War 2 expansion which is worth getting for the single player alone. I haven’t touched the multi player yet, since I wasn’t that interested in Call of Duty’s in the first place. But if you want an insanely fun single player experience to act as a filler between Doom 3 and the on-coming (I hope) Half-Life 2, get Call of Duty: United Offensive.

Graphics: 8.5/10
Dated, obviously, but with the new particle effects and all that’s going on, it’s still beautiful to look at.

Sound: 9/10
Everything seems so authentic, and it has awesome EAX effects for those with a 5.1 setup. You’ll feel you’re at the battle.

Gameplay: 9/10
It remains strong in this expansion, with rarely any slowdowns. You’ll be kept on your feet at all times.

Overall: 9/10
You may want to replay the single player on a harder difficulty, but I can’t imagine myself going through it again. However, it has multiplayer, with a decent mod community, so there’ll always be something new for you.