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Monday, November 29, 2004
Call of Duty: United OffensiveRelated categories • Reviews • Game Reviews
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- Genre: First-Person Shooter
- Format: DVD
- Developer: Infinity Ward
- Original Publisher: Activision
- Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media
- Minimum System Requirements: Call of Duty, 867MHz G4, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 1.4GB hard disk space, 32MB VRAM (ATI RADEON 7500 or nVidia GeForce 2), DVD drive, 56 Kbps modem for internet play
- Review Computer: 2.5GHz Dual Processor G5, 512MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.3.6, ATI RADEON 9800 Pro graphics acceleration
- Network Feature: Yes
- Price: $29.99
- ESRB Rating: Teen (blood, mild language and violence)
- Availability: Now
- Official Website: [url=http://www.callofduty.com/unitedoffensive/main.html]http://www.callofduty.com/unitedoffensive/main.html[/url]
Oh, United Offensive came so close—so, so close— to being the first expansion pack to which I ever awarded a five out of five. Just about everything is there to make it as perfect as an expansion pack can be. And in the end, wouldn't you just know it would have to be something as annoying as a bug to ruin Christmas for everybody?
United Offensive is the expansion pack to Aspyr's Call of Duty, which was quite simply one of the best first-person shooters I've ever played. An expansion pack that brought back even half the entertainment value of its predecessor would be game enough for me, but no; the developers decided to take what was already a very intense game and kick it wide open. How wide open? How about as wide open as the skies over Holland?
I'll remind our readers that Call of Duty separated itself from other WWII based first-person shooters by emphasizing teamwork. You were more often surrounded by computer controlled squad members—soldiers who would help you out and whom you would help—than you were alone. As a result, the action was quite intense...plenty of bullets flying in every direction. The same goes for the United Offensive expansion pack, which sticks with that formula but raises the intensity to levels that exceed those accepted by the Geneva Convention.
I guess I should point out that this offensive isn't actually all that united. Yes, you again play U.S., British and Russian soldiers, but not within the same timeline. The U.S. levels begin at the end of the war, the British levels find you in the new B-17 in 1941, and the Russian bump us back up to 1943.
Still, you're not going to mind all of the bouncing around, as the levels flow together nicely nonetheless. Some are all out assaults on town squares, some require you to defend houses from enemy onslaughts, and others require sneak attacks. You're on foot in most of the levels, but some will place you in jeeps, on a boat, in a tank and on a B-17.
It's that B-17 that seals up this game. First-person shooters often have a level or two that steal the show, and the B-17 level wins this one hands down. In it, you'll find yourself manning the dorsal, six o'clock and three o'clock guns as needed, while also preventing engine fires and hand cranking the bomb bay doors...which, of course, jam (it makes you wonder why the three o'clock gunner couldn't handle any of these problems...he's standing right there!). During all of this, you'll be facing what often seems like (to both you and to your computer controlled pilots) the entire Luftwaffe. Me-109s will pound you relentlessly. To make matters worse, you'll occasionally have to watch the other B-17s in your squadron go down around you, which is never good for morale.
It's a level you have to experience to truly comprehend. I took a break from my daughter's birthday party recently to show the level off to my brother. Before long, he, my brother-in-law, my three nephews, my niece and my father were all fighting for their turn at the controls.
It's unfortunate that only one of the 13 new single player levels take place on the B-17, but the rest of the game often equals the intensity level, if not the "wow" factor. There are some levels that take place in houses, of all places, that are just nuts. You'll have to hold off tank assaults while German soldiers invade the house, and while your buddies will help you somewhat, you can't expect to just find a spot, sit down and shoot. In fact, quite often you'll have run into harm's way just get the proper weapon. I tried playing this game on the normal difficulty level, but quickly had to drop back to "greenhorn" in order to get through the game in time for this review deadline.
Along with the 13 new single-player missions come 11 new multiplayer maps and three new game modes: Domination (capture five to seven separate zones on a map), Capture the Flag (surely, you know what this is by now) and Base Assault (locate and destroy three enemy bases on a map). Unfortunately, the B-17 is not one of the new multiplayer options. I'm still waiting for someone to give me a multiplayer flight sim in which gamers can each take a different gun or pilot position on a B-17 in a bombing run over Europe. Multiplayer heaven, if you ask me. Until then, I'll have to settle with the single mission presented here.
And yes, more weapons. Jeeze, you people are weird sometimes.
The orchestral score in this game is top notch...better than most of what we get out of Hollywood these days (hands up...who else is sick of Danny Elfman?) and the sound effects also rival those we get from major motion pictures. Combine this with the fantastic graphics and excellent level design, and you've got a game that feels more like a cinematic experience than a gaming session. The graphics requirements will test your system, so make sure you're comfortably above the minimum to really see this game they way you should. It's playable with an older system, although some of the more intense battles can reduce your framerates considerably. If you've got a system that can handle the game the way it's meant to be played, though, you're in for a real treat.
Most of the way. Unfortunately, United Offensive suffers from something I haven't seen for a while...bugs. The game would often freeze up when exiting (almost always after cleaning out my saved games), but that's not too much a problem. Every now and again, however, I'd also see a weird error message that would kick me out of the level, but not out of the game. Okay, boot back up, start playing again, no big deal. But then, towards the end of one of the Russian levels, I was unable to get past one of these errors—"Undefined is not an entity," or something like that#151;which brought all of the action a screeching halt.
This killed the experience, therefore running what would've been a perfect rating. Well, that and the fact that I never like to pay more than $19.99 for a an expansion pack, but if there was ever a game that's worth the higher price, this is it. It's an amazing experience, both as a first-person shooter and as a World War II game, diminished slightly if your system is at the bottom of the spec range, and diminished greatly by the bugs. Still, if you enjoyed Call of Duty, United Offensive will give you more than you could ask for. If you don't have Call of Duty, it's worth buying just so you can play its expansion pack. Don't even wait for Aspyr to bundle them...just do it now.
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