Call of Duty: United Offensive Preview

When Call of Duty was released last year, it presented gamers with one of the most immersive WWII FPS experiences to date.  The game was a great commercial and critical success, garnering multiple Game of the Year awards from many different publications.  Now, the first expansion pack for Call of Duty, United Offensive, is gearing up for release and the results are very exciting. United Offensive will feature ten new single-player campaign levels with brand new weapons and abilities (your character can now sprint), some graphical improvements and great new multiplayer modes.  Soldiers take note: the United Offensive begins next month.

As I said earlier, United Offensive will feature a brand new 10 level campaign, rife with the same brand of white-knuckle cinematic action as the original game.  Among the highlights are the Battle of the Bulge (which pitted more than one million soldiers in combat in the freezing snow covered Ardennes Forest), the Battle of Kursk (a clash between Soviet and German forces that led to veritable gauntlet of tanks and a virtual maelstrom of gunfire and explosions) and a mission onboard of a B-17 Flying Fortress, where the player must man the tail gun and shoot down approaching German aircraft.  As the level progresses, the plane will take damage according to how well you protect it from enemy fire.  If you protect it poorly and it takes a lot of fire, the plane will handle badly, causing it to shake and move in the air, making it that much more difficult for you to shoot down enemy aircraft.

Speaking of aircraft, that is just one of the new vehicles that come into heavy presence in the new expansion pack.  You will also go around in light and heavy tanks, motorcycle sidecars and gunboats.  Switching between the driving of vehicles and manning their weapons is done relatively quickly and seamlessly with no interruption in the action.  You can also switch your view when driving vehicles from first to third person view, depending on your given preference.

The new multiplayer features look pretty exciting, now with a focus on the new crop of vehicles.  There are three new online modes, Base Assault, Domination and Capture the Flag.  The Domination mode involved capturing and holding five different locations on the game map.  This was a very suspenseful mode of gameplay, because once you get a hold of your position, then there is really no telling when or where the attack will come from.  Playing this mode also showed me the great new ways that vehicles factored into online matches.  A well-positioned tank controlled by one side of a match could definitely turn the tides of a battle.

The use of vehicles adds a whole new dynamic to the online gameplay.  You could commandeer a tank and use it to protect your position, that is, until someone from the other team decides that they want to take you out with a panzerfaust or bazooka.  The vehicles really showcased a definite sense of checks and balances in this regard.  While it does mean that you would have access to a ton of nice firepower, your mobility is very limited while riding in a tank especially given the narrow claustrophobic cobblestone streets in some of the new multiplayer maps, leaving you pretty susceptible to attack from a wily opponent.

The graphics have been slightly improved and feature some noticeable tweaks and additions.  The new particle effects system ensures that there will never be a lack of onscreen chaos, with debris from falling bombs and chunks of dirt soaring in the air and adding to the game’s overall cinematic atmosphere.  The fire effects have also been improved, adding more to the sense of realism.

Call of Duty was (and still is) widely seen as one of the best WWII titles of any genre to be released in the past few years, and with the tons of new features set to be included in the expansion, United Offensive should be a great title for fans of the original game to pick up when its released this September.