You’d think that by now trying to pull more spark out of World War 2 in the gaming industry would be akin to squeezing blood from a stone, but somehow, god knows how, Activision has managed to keep everybody coming back to shoot even MORE Germans, with their latest example being the big-time hit release of Call of Duty late last year (has it been that long already?). But, of course, that wasn’t enough for most people, prompting Gray Matter Studios to start hammering out an expansion pack. Now that I’ve effectively blown my week on repeated excursions behind enemy lines, I’m proud to announce that the Call of Duty: United Offensive expansion pack is at least as good as the original was, though a few snags keep it from becoming the picture-perfect expansion it could be – snags fortunately not vast enough to completely destroy the experience, of course, as evidenced by that big 4/5 rating you see at the top.

The expansion pack promises several new singleplayer missions, as well as some new multiplayer maps, and, best of all, new gameplay modes. I’ll go into detail on some of the cool new multiplayer features in a bit (TANKS!), but suffice it to say, United Offensive appeared at first glance to add enough functionality to the original to make it definitely worth investigating. After tearing off the wrapping and going through the two-disc install process, I booted right into the game and was treated to a thrilling intro of the insanity awaiting me. Mortar fire, tanks, soldiers scurrying for cover, B-17s, and, of course, Jerries getting cut down by the hundreds covered just some of the stuff presented, and thanks to a nice dramatic musical score and some great sound effects, I was already hyped. Even if the theme was getting a little tired, the action certainly looked good, so I quickly set up my controls and launched into a new game. The next several hours was… orgasmic, to say the least, albeit with a few hitches that slightly hurt the experience, all of which I’ll delve into over the course of the next few paragraphs.

Getting started on the ever-important singleplayer component, United Offensive contains three sequential campaigns; American, British, and Russian, that all play out in order. Each campaign offers only about four missions on average, but these missions are surprisingly large-scale and long, which makes for a satisfying amount of playtime. Unfortunately, “satisfying” is about the best it gets, because it was still all too soon before I had reached the final, pain-in-the-ass mission and was still left craving more. Everything prior to that point, however, is a ride of sheer bliss. The American campaign starts off in the snowy forests of Bastogne, where you’re cast into the role of a recon company scouting the enemy lines in anticipation of an attack. After a quick briefing, you’re sent up a nearby hill, only to find a group of Germans who don’t hesitate to start slinging a lot of bad stuff your way. Making with the shooty-shooty action, it’s only a few seconds before an enemy tank crests the nearby ridge to ruin your day, and then it’s back to the nearby jeep for a crazy escape back to friendly lines. Blessed with manning the machinegun turret, the next few minutes involve an intense romp through the forest as tanks, trucks, and an assortment of enemy infantry try to block your path. Despite being only a few minutes into the game, I was already witnessing some of the same brilliant mission scripting that had driven the original Call of Duty release to such insane popularity, but, of course, it was only the beginning of what the expansion pack had to offer.

All three of the expansion’s campaigns are chock-full of these kinds of scripted sequences, and missions can take a turn in any kind of direction. One moment you could be rushing through a German bunker, clearing it of enemies, while the next could be a crazy motorcycle chase down a lakeside road with you in the sidecar and tanks and enemy infantry constantly attacking from all directions. It’s really noticeable how the level designers went all-out with the mission events while making the game, and commonly I found myself amazed just by the sheer amount of stuff happening at any one time during a mission – far more than I could ever hope to keep track of, but things still managed to come together somehow in a beautiful and harmonious manner. On top of the usual “rushing a village with a huge team of men while mortars and defensive fire flies all around you” kinds of situations encountered early on in the game, some of the later missions also take a really creative role – one in particular actually revolves entirely around manning a gun turret on a B-17. But the development team took it one step further, as the mission isn’t just an on-a-rails shooter gig, but in fact demands the player step down from his turret several times to switch positions as other gunners become injured, or even to attend to certain cranks and switches as parts of the plane become damaged. Thanks to an impressive graphical presentation and some beautiful voice acting and sound effects, any decent fan should have no problem getting immersed.

With all the cool stuff this expansion has to offer just from the mission scripting alone, it saddens me to discuss some of the sore sports of United Offensive that hurt the experience a little. First, the infamous “Doom House” from the original’s Russian campaign (involving a mad rush to take a heavily defended building, and then hold it for a painfully long period of time against an insane enemy counter-attack) has returned once again, this time during the later part of the American campaign. After taking a fancy chateau with my trigger-happy buddies, I was then tasked with holding it against a fresh German assault. At first, things were fairly easy-going, with only a few attacking infantry to worry about, but then the tanks showed up. And more infantry. And more tanks. And even more infantry. Eventually it got to the point where I had at least fifty things trying to shoot my head off every time I tried to poke it out from behind cover, and given how the only anti-tank weapon was conveniently sitting outside the building and I was the only one who apparently knew how to use it, I ended up whoring the hell out of the load game function (thank goodness for quick load times) through repeated, frustrating attempts to stay alive for more than five seconds per attempt. Adding to the irritation is the fact that my squad mates were woefully inept at covering my ass during critical moments, and, despite being in nice ambush positions, still had no problem with letting several Germans wander in through the side door before they reacted.

Speaking of the AI, it impressed me at first, given how they seemed to know how to pathfind reliably, use their weapons, and even hurl the occasional grenade, but this novelty quickly wore off once I realized how heavily scripted most of their “intelligence” was, and when events occurred beyond their slightly limited code presets, their hesitation and general lack of assistance usually resulted in my eventual death. There’s also still a huge reliance on having the player take point before the rest of the team will advance, and, as I read on a certain messageboard, the most feared words in the game still seem to be “go on, we’ll cover you”. But at the same time, the game still heavily relies on using these squad mates to ensure your own survival while trying to break through enemy lines, if not so much for their offensive value as the convenience of having Jerry shoot at them for a few seconds rather than you, and while I generally frown upon the concept of infinitely respawning NPCs in a game, the consistent stream of reinforcements proved a godsend when I realized how cool and handy it was to always have team members by my side, as any non-critical soldier that got cut down was replaced a few moments later by somebody else that had spawned in from off-screen. The enemy AI is also fairly decent, but I found it annoying how they would sometimes single me out amongst a huge group of other friendly NPCs and rip me to pieces with machinegun fire, often with astonishing levels of precision. This sure made the game challenging, but I started to get a little annoyed after being forced to stab the quick load button for the fiftieth time in less than two minutes under certain circumstances – getting sliced to ribbons over and over again by the same entrenched enemy is pretty tiresome.

Another disappointment is that, once again, the Russian campaign ends up containing both the best and worst of the game. While the first mission ends up being incredibly intense, with a beautifully scripted truck ride to the front lines (where all hell is breaking loose), the remaining missions end up losing a lot of their spark and charm, and the spontaneously extreme difficulty curve really turned me off by the time I was finished (one situation involves hiding between railway cars while a Stuka dive-bombs you repeatedly in a somewhat unpredictable manner). While there’s lots of action going on (and even another mission revolving around tank-driving action), the Russian campaign ultimately turned out somewhat disappointing. Because the expansion pack really isn’t that long (the missions can be won fairly quickly if the difficulty level isn’t too high), I was hoping that each and every mission would be one unstoppable wave of awesomeness after another, but the last hour of gameplay just didn’t have the same spark or excitement as the rest of the expansion. That said, I’m still very impressed at how much the team has pulled from the Quake 3 engine, and some of the missions are really huge, offering a feeling of expansiveness despite the game’s linear nature. I also wasn’t able to find any concrete way to break the scripting and mess up the mission objectives, so it looks like everything was very solidly done.

Of course, new missions and experiences aren’t the only thing the expansion has to offer, as a number of fresh destructive toys have also been added for use. A couple of new machineguns on the American and Russian fronts (the Browning .30 M1919A6 and Degtyarev-Pekhotny 28, specifically, which require the player to go prone and deploy them for proper use), a silenced Sten Gun, and a new bazooka are featured, but most interesting (and cool) is the inclusion of a bad-ass flamethrower that, while a little quirky to use (and available only for very brief durations) does an excellent job of offering up a German barbecue, and has a really neat flame effect to boot – just beware of enemies also sporting these destructive packs. On top of those mentioned, all the old favorites are still there and available for looting, such as the ever-reliable Kar98 or Mp40, and all the other regular assortments of American, British, and Russian weapons.

No review of United Offensive would be complete without mention of the extensive multiplayer enhancements. Three new modes of play are now offered; “Domination”, a game type similar to BF1942’s “Conquest” mode of play, in which teams clamor over large maps to try and maintain control over flags marking specific zones, a conventional CTF mode, and “Base Assault”, where opposing teams have to try to knock out each other’s bases spread at certain ends of the map using any kind of explosive weaponry at their disposal. Enhancing this gameplay further is the addition of fully drivable vehicles (tanks and jeeps, primarily) and a bunch of new maps that are pretty damned huge, allowing for all kinds of tactical warfare. The vehicle handling is very well done and easy to learn, and although the jeeps sometimes felt a little unresponsive, the tanks were a true pleasure to romp around the battlefield with. Combine all this with the usual online reliability offered by games based on the Quake 3 engine, as well as Call of Duty’s excellent gritty-styled graphical elements and you’ll quickly find yourself immersed in the experience. Multiplayer looks to have been really well done, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the community picks up and expands on the new content.

With some truly amazing and intense action due to the excellent mission scripting, immersive and entertaining gameplay that is challenging without being overwhelmingly hard (most of the time), and some new multiplayer functionality that almost brings the game’s online capabilities to that of Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty: United Offensive would easily be an unquestionably excellent action pack if it weren’t so short in the singleplayer department and didn’t suffer from a few annoying quirks. That said, the fresh experiences and new multiplayer elements alone make this pack a must-buy for any fan – and considering the street price, can you really go wrong? This is an expansion pack that I would not hesitate to recommend to anybody who loved the original.