Following upon the success of he current flux of the Game of the Year Call of Duty.
The folks at Gray Matter and Activision have squeezed every drop out of the modified Quake 3 engine once again to continue the success of the groundbreaking WWII game series.
Players take on the characters of three characters as they take up American, British, and Russian campaigns. Each campaign is based on historical events such as the Battle of the Bulge, The Battle of Kursk, and the Invasion of Sicily, and like the original, allows players to interact with a number of AI controlled players as they embark on both solo and squad missions.
Unlike the previous game, the early levels of the game were a solid challenge and ,and just when I was thinking that the add on would be more of the same , I was tossed some real curve balls especially by some tenacious and very accurate German troops in the early American campaign.
Playing across 13 levels, this add on pack offers more than just new maps, but it offers new weapons and locales.One of my favorites was when my character was cast as a gunner on a plane. The freedom to navigate the plane as well as the detail level of the damage inflicted by enemy guns was amazing. For those who are not all about guns ablaze, United Offensive will have just what the doctor ordered in the form of the SAS missions that involve bridge demolition and other covert opps.
Players do get the chance to use stationary weapons and vehicles, but the games main focus is on tactics and action such as with the original game.
The artwork of the game is outstanding as the settings were well detailed and interesting. Weapons consisted of a pistol, grenades, a rifle and a machine gun the first time out, but the add on adds silencers, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and silencers as well as a selection of new weapons such as heavy machine guns which require the user to be stationary to fire.
Multiplay was solid as there are many servers available for all sorts of games from traditional deathmatch to team deathmatch and other mission based multiplay modes.
The only real issue I had an it is minor was that the games frequent saves were based at checkpoints rather than specific locations and at times it made me want to rush ahead to find a checkpoint rather than work on objectives so I could avoid having to repeat several sections should my player be killed. That being said, Call of Duty United Offensive is easily the best add on pack of the year and makes the phenomenal Call of Duty even better.
