Most first person shooter fans are used to going alone through every level, cutting down everything that moves with hails of gunfire. This "bull through a china shop" mentality, while effective for many titles that simply throw hordes of enemies at you to mow down, had the unfortunate consequence of giving players a false sense of invulnerability. Last year's Call of Duty promptly set about destroying this notion in two ways: first, it made you dependent upon squad mates for your survival, and second, thanks to plenty of snipers, it stripped away any pretext for surviving unharmed. We recently managed to get our hands on four levels of the upcoming expansion pack, United Offensive, and these two guidelines definitely seemed reinforced as far as gameplay is concerned. Once again, players will take on the German war machine in American, British and Russian campaigns across separate regions of Europe. The first two levels were the battles of Foy and Noville, both significant struggles after the Battle of the Bulge for the 101st Airborne. The struggle to take both towns from deeply entrenched Nazis during one of the coldest winters of the war was incredibly draining on the manpower of the Allies. There were three reasons for this. First were the wide killzones the Germans ran the Americans through, which we experienced on the Foy level as we literally ran for our life through a large open field sparsely dotted with haystacks for cover. Thanks to the newly included sprint feature, we were able to dodge some of the incoming fire, but it was possibly one of the most harrowing missions of this title. The second part that whittled Yankee troops down was the extremely close quarters fighting as soldiers went from house to house, clearing every single building of Nazi troops. In Foy alone, we had to navigate through at least 5 buildings and even a church that’d become a deadly sniper’s perch. Finally, the heavy deployment of German tank divisions made defense of held areas tenuous at best. Nothing illustrates this more than the chateau section of Noville, where we had to completely clear a massive manor of its occupiers, then hole up and defend ourselves against an entire division of troops and tanks that swarmed the house. While the use of one of the newer deployable heavy machine guns helped to stem the tide, there were still plenty of times that we’d have to retreat as enemy troops broke through our defenses. The British mission took us high above the skies of Rotterdam on a bombing mission of critical targets. The level started out light, with crewmembers bantering back and forth about the job at hand. This quickly subsided once we came closer to the target and heavy curtains of flak filled the skies around us. We had to leap into the dorsal turret and fight off waves of incoming planes from all directions. We didn’t remain there for very long, as we were often needed to put out fires started by incoming bullets or relieve crewmembers that’d been killed in the heat of battle. Fortunately, we didn’t have to take a position in the most dangerous place in a bomber (the ball turret underneath the plane), but we did wind up sending scores of Luftwaffe screaming to the ground below. I managed to light up at least 32 on one play through alone, and there were plenty I missed! The Russian campaign took place during the battle of Kursk, which was another incredibly bloody campaign for the conscripted troops. Imagine our surprise when we discovered that we actually started the mission with a rifle! (COD vets will probably remember with shell shock the lack of arms from the first game) However, there wasn’t much to celebrate, because we had to climb down into a trench network reminiscent of World War I battlefields and repel a massive charge from the German infantry. Considering that we had both shells from tanks going off all around us and dozens of enemies crawling their way across the hills, the ammunition felt like little comfort when faced with those odds. On top of that, the sergeants ordered us to run into the middle of the warzone and detonate some tanks with satchel charges. It can get pretty tricky to accomplish demolitions work behind enemy lines when you’re practically surrounded by opposing forces. From what we played, United Offensive looks incredibly solid. The explosions seem to be much larger and violent, and will even serve to obscure your vision during the heat of battle, which definitely raises the tension level of missions even higher. The voice acting and sound effects seem just as sharp as ever, and I still find it hard to think that I’m not watching a Spielberg movie instead of playing a game with the melodic soundtrack. We’re looking forward to enlisting when Call of Duty: United Offensive invades store shelves next Tuesday. Check back soon for a full review! Questions or comments about the upcoming release of Call of Duty: United Offensive for the PC? Talk to us! [ E-Mail Lawrence Wong ] [ Comment in our Forums ]

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