Call of Duty: United Offensive (Expansion Pack) (PC, 2004)

Right from the start when you play the Allied Offensive
single campaign , Expansion Pack , you will notice the
difficulty has changed. It is in excess of Call Of Duty 1.

Although the gameplay base is the same , the amount of AI
has been extended to include more tanks and difficult to
combat , vehicles or panzerfausts. Making the game more
challenging on normal or regular mode. This may cause you
to change to "Greenhorn" mode for the first time.

With more computer derived soldiers and vehicles the new
maps even challenge your exact routing , due to the land
mines that have existed in the previous maps on the perimeter
areas only. The existance of more of everything makes it so
that you can hardly stay in 1 spot for any length of time ,
forcing you into battle.

This Expansion Pack makes it clear that you are not playing
the same game in the single player campaign. Well worth adding
to COD1. It is also a reminder of how good it would be to have
the ability to create an online game , against a multitude of
computer players as the single player mode does. Instead of
completely creating both Axis & Allied players.

With the ability to create an online team as Allied players
only , all sorts of maps and levels could be played , instead
of the scorecard type game that is presently the only way to
play online. Not to mention taking the single player team
through the maps with a limited number of real players ,
together. As it is now , if there are only 2or3 real players ,
the game itself does fall short , compared to other games that
play against the computer players within the maps , all the time.

Hopefully in the future there will be another Expansion Pack that
will allow all maps to be played by the existing COD Team , that
would include full ability to set the programming from a full
featured interface. And even allow the ability to also take on
battles from an Axis Team point of view , against Allied computer
players , in all battles that took place.

So far , this Expansion Pack is intense and well worth adding to
your PC game collection.

Game Play
3 of 5 stars

Graphics
4 of 5 stars

Sound
2 of 5 stars

A.I.
3 of 5 stars

Pros:

Cons:

Overall:
This is a good title and will provide several hours of entertainment.

Please note: this title was reviewed using a Dell XPS Gen 4, P4 HT @ 3.20 GHz, 4 Gig RAM, Dual 160 SATA RAID(0) hard drives and a nVidia GeForce 6800 256mb PCIe video adapter. It is important to read and understand the minimum and recommended system requirements for any PC video game. Systems that are faster than the minimum may provide significantly better performance and improve your gaming experience. Some PC video games list specific video card requirements and will not function without.

It is also important to mention (because we sell video games on ebay) that we do not sell titles as NEW once they are opened and installed for testing. Most test games find a home with one of our testors (employees) and in rare circumstances, we will sell clearly marked as opened and used.

I got started late in the Call of Duty series. I got the first one shortly before Call of Duty 4 came out. I really really enjoyed the first Call of Duty so I thought I would get United Offensive. This game was absolutely amazing. I had installed Call of Duty 1 on a Windows XP and wasn't sure if the second one would work on a Vista. It worked perfectly! I believe there are 10 missions. Three with the Americans, three with the British, and four with the Russians. All of the missions are fairly long and all of them are very intense. I will admit even on the second to easiest difficulty level it was still very hard. I had to save and reload a hundred different times, that's the reason it gets 4 stars instead of 5 stars. Other than the dying and reloading continuously it was a terrific game.

The graphics are great. There are several new weapons in the game including flamethrowers, bazookas, and a silenced Sten. They added an entertaining level when you are a gunner on a flying fortresss, but I won't put in any more spoilers. The computer that I played on doesn't have Internet so I can't tell you about the multiplayer. I liked everyting about this game except for the saving and reloading part of it. So I would recommend this game without a second thought to anyone.

A decent game in the lines of Medal of Honor. Crosshairs are twitchy on older systems, but not insurmountable. One real glitch is at the "Bridge" level. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to find the dead VanDyke soldier in order to pick up his explosives to finish the level. The patch helps get the objectives checked off, but overall, the MOHAA series is a much smoother and less fuss game.

One way to work the "Bridge" level through, if you can't find the explosives, is to replay the "Bomber" level again, then let the game goto the "Bridge" level. You know you have the "Bridge" level started correctly, if it looks as if you are hanging from a tree, looking down at several Germans fighting the squad who comes to cut you down, and you have a pistol as your first weapon. Go through the gamelevel until you end up at the bridge and the bunker on the right of the bridge. The explosive is on the ground in front of the bunker, although VanDyke's body may not be there [for some weird reason].

Gameplay is close to reality, although I still dislike the idea of picking up health packs. The zoom view thru a scoped rifle wavers,and the amount of waver depends on whether i am standing, crouching or prone. It is definitely not rock steady. Audio quality is too good to be true, with each weapon sounding different, so even if I get ambushed in the Multiplayer game, I have a fair idea of the weapon being used by my opponent. I dedicated my Onkyo 500 W receiver for this game! I can hear bullets whizzing past my ear, the clink of empty brass shells falling to the ground. If I crouch and move I make no sound, and so do not give away my position, but if I walk there is a regular thud thud of footsteps, especially on wooden stairs. Climbing on metal ladders makes a clank clank sound. And all this is in 3D. Grenades can be cooked..meaning you can remove the firing pin, hang on to the grenade for some time, and then throw it, so the enemy gets little or no time to get away.... you can even blow yourself up if you hang onto to it long enough :-))
The best part is the online Multiplayer, where I get to shoot..or get shot :-(( by a real human being!! Online also offers extensive maps not found in the single user game.
The only con I can think of is that this is a expansion pack, and one needs the COD in place before this can be installed. Hmmm... needs some good hardware too.. currently have a Pentium M with 1 gig RAM and nVidia Geforce go 6600 with 128MB( PCI Express 16) and I get 90 FPS with no problems at 1024 x 768 and all graphics options maxed out, so UO looks great. HOWEVER, this config is just NOT good for the sequel COD II.. need to upgrade to core 2 duo and a nVidia 7900 GT .. expenses..expenses :-((

Happy shooting....get online...the real fun begins there....:-))))