by
Ted Kritsonis
Faze Video Game Editor

Expansion packs are always interesting because they’re meant to expand and slightly enhance certain aspects of the original game. Call of Duty: United Offensive falls into this mold, though there aren’t many enhancements to speak of. Last year, the original game was captivating mainly because it was so much fun to play, and while I would say the same about United Offensive, it also seems like something’s missing.

Like the previous game, United Offensive splits 13 missions into three perspectives: American, British and Russian. This was a huge bright spot in the original because the Russians did most of the fighting on the ground in Europe during World War II, and yet there isn’t much based on their contribution in the video game world. United Offensive follows the same trend, putting a lot of emphasis on the ferocity and chaos of the Russian campaign.

One nice addition was the bomber mission in the British campaign. It was a different experience being on a plane and moving around, firing all those rounds at German fighter planes. The mission does go by a little fast, although I would attribute that more to the madness going on throughout the course of the mission, which keeps you more than occupied.

Generally, the respective campaigns take much the same tone of the previous game. The American campaign is focused solely on the Battle of the Bulge, which was a last-ditch attempt by the Germans to gain the initiative on the Western Front. The Russian campaign, like the previous game, is the most chaotic. The Battle of Kursk, which is history’s largest tank battle ever, is the starting point, with the retaking of the city of Kharkov in the Ukraine ending things. The British campaign is the most interesting because it focuses on the bombing mission and an interesting interpretation of British contributions to the invasion of Sicily. At one point, you’ll ride in a motorcycle sidecar, and soon after, on a boat. The one problem is the lack of Italian troops in Sicily, as not one Italian soldier is seen in those missions. An unfortunate oversight.

New weapons were also added, making things a little tougher. Each country has a .30 calibre machine gun with a bipod. They pack a lot of punch and are vicious to the enemy, but your mobility is very limited and you can only fire it when aiming. The German flammenwerfer (flamethrower), so feared by the Allies during the war, is also a functional weapon, though it isn’t always useful.

Make no mistake, you’ll be quicksaving many times while going through United Offensive. While it is a run-and-gun game in many ways, tactics should also be a very important part of the mix, but it’s hard to see how you can utilize any tactics in a few of the missions.

Ultimately, there is a very frustrating angle to United Offensive. There’s a lot of trial and error in the way you go about achieving your objectives, or to just stay alive. While the staying alive part may be a slightly realistic portrayal of what the actual soldiers in those days went through, this is a video game after all, and dying over and over again in the same spots can get very annoying.

Despite all that, Call of Duty: United Offensive is a fine expansion pack to one of the greatest World War II video games ever released. And it’s nice to see that the developers care a great deal about how this game salutes those who fought to preserve freedom.

Publisher:
Activision
Developer:
Gray Matter Studios

Platform:
PC

Rating: 9/10