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Publisher:  Genre: Action Expansion For:
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Mac OS X: 10.2.8 Mac OS Classic: Not Supported
CPU: G4 @ 867 MHz RAM: 256 MB Hard Disk: 1400 MB DVD-ROM Graphics: 32 MB VRAM |
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As James Doyle, you complete bombing runs starting with the Battle of Bastogne, aboard a Yankee B-17 or “Fortress 1.” The first mission seats you in the dorsal turret, which, if you’ll remember your biology (or military engineering), is atop the plane. It’s an impressive sight, seeing the RAF squadron around you, and the cloudy skies all about. This is an addition to the game; whereas Call of Duty found you tank- and jeep-bound, United Offensive gives you all that and the air assault. It’s funny to play in a sense, because you can’t help feeling like Captain Yossarian in Catch-22 when the flak starts flying.
Whilst flying, a diagram of the plane sits in place of your compass to help you get your bearings and to indicate the location of your objectives. Iron crosses line up to indicate your kills. You move from dorsal gun to tail gun once your tail gunner gives up the ghost. As your Fortress 1 takes damage, areas of the diagram change from green to amber to red, indicating the severity of the damage. As you travel the length of the plane, changing from gun station to gun station, or scrambling to turn off valves, you notice holes…and the slumped-over bodies of your fellow soldiers.
As I just noted, action inside the plane is varied inasmuch as your pilot repeatedly barks orders at you. You need to leave your dorsal gun to run back to the tail gun, and likewise you need to hurry to shut off fuel valves, lest the escaping gas from damage taken causes your ship to explode. And errant shooting towards your own RAF teammates will earn you immediate rebuke.
This isn’t the end of Doyle’s campaign, though; his role in United Offensive isn’t limited to bombing runs. You embark on a mission through the forests of Holland with your British mates, which ends in Italy. The levels of these missions are somewhat smaller than the near-epic battles you face in the American and Russian campaigns, although they are at least as thrilling.
The Russian campaign is the third in the battle line-up. As in Call of Duty, you get the sense of a large but ill-equipped Soviet army. This matters less as you progress through the campaign, though, as there are always plenty of weapons lying around. And as in Call of Duty, the scenery in the Soviet campaign may be the most impressive. Sprawling, bombed-out cities lay in waste, the ruined buildings smoldering. You dodge in and out of cover, sometimes entering buildings through gaping holes in their façade. Dark hallways are eerily lit by fires in adjacent rooms.
Levels are long on loading time, but once loaded, you respawn almost immediately from your last save point. The levels, especially in the American and Russian campaigns, are huge, sprawling affairs, so the wait is most certainly worth it. The size and spectacle of the challenges you face are what add to the value of this expansion pack.
New weapons and features grace United Offensive as well. One of Call of Duty’s most notable improvements to the genre was the ability to aim your weapon down its sight, a curious oversight in previous games, if you think about it. You can now cook off your grenades, letting the fuse burn down before you release it. This can make for more accurate throws, and makes it hard for the bad guys to lob your own grenade back at you in the single-player missions.
For dispensing with tanks at close range, satchel charges are now available in multiplayer. These are sacks of dynamite that will hobble the hulking steel behemoths. They are equally effective against your decidedly softer human enemies. In multiplayer levels, you also have smoke grenades available for obscuring your position or causing confusion for the enemy.
Several new firearms make their debut in United Offensive. Infantry rifles, automatic rifles, and pistols have been added. Light machine guns represent the most novel of these additions; these guns must be placed on their tripods to be fired. This allows you to set up powerful machine gun nests as you move about, rather than take advantage of sandbag emplacements with fixed machine guns when you come upon them.
And there is, of course, the flamethrower. You strap a large metal can to your back and poof, you’re The Human Torch. You may also be a big flaming target in multiplayer maps, but you’ve got to pay to play. It’s terrifying to see it for the first time in the Russian campaign as you’re crawling around in muddy trenches, but the weapon plays a small role in the game due to its limited utility. That utility, however, includes clearing trenches and rooms of highly flammable enemies.
Multiplayer mode in United Offensive elevates what was already highly addictive. New to the scuffle is the ability to use vehicles, namely different tanks, jeeps, and light trucks. Tanks are lumbering and slow, but offer the driver the power to let fly with the heavy artillery. Another player can hop in the turret above and use the machine gun to spray lead. Jeeps and trucks offer a quick way to get into the heat of battle from your base. This is helpful, as the maps are gigantic. Furthermore, these rolling tin cans sport mounted machine guns, so it’s a blast, literally, to stuff your jeep with other players and a gunner.
In multiplayer, an intriguing ranking system rewards your successes. As you earn promotions for completing objectives, bars of rank accrue on your screen reflecting your successes on the battlefield. With this prestige comes additional privilege; you can, for example, call in air strikes once you’ve earned a pair of binoculars, and you respawn with deeper pockets for your ammo.
New games add variety to United Offensive’s multiplayer mode. In addition to Call of Duty’s original multiplayer games, you can engage yourself in Domination, Capture the Flag, and Base Assault. Capture the Flag requires no introduction here; Domination requires you and your team mates to raise flags in five to seven zones to win, while Base Assault sees you attacking the enemy’s defenses in order to plant and detonate charges.
You can now sprint in United Offensive, dashing between areas of cover. Mind you, this isn’t simply an adrenalized run mode you can toggle with caps lock; rather, sprinting requires you to make the most your ability to cover short distances effectively. As in real life, your character will tucker out quickly, so sprinting is a skill best attempted after some practice. The game itself never really requires sprinting; no mission require that you sprint as a matter of acquainting you this useful new feature. You will find some battles, such as the final battle of Kursk in the Russian campaign, more manageable if you can hot-foot it to the health pack and panzer stashes...but only if you know about it. RTFM, eh?
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