We were excited when Call of Duty: United Offensive released. We remember being blown away by all the aspects of the original game. All the different war time situations you can be in, being driven in a vehicle and shooting as you went along, ducking and crawling while bullets flew by you... what did we get after installing this expansion? Everything all over again. This is a wonderful expansion for a wonderful game. It's an intense environment with a story and carefully scripted situations that leaves players wanting more and loving every moment of it. You'll have all your great effects, from explosions too close making you deaf momentarily, to watching everything light up around you as machine gun fire blazes from the left of you and tanks are exploding to the right of you as your trying to duck and hide in your fox hole. The expansion speaks for itself in many ways, if you get it, you'll play it, and you'll like it.

Similarly to the original, you'll be playing three different people as the game progresses. In the beginning you'll be an American soldier, riding down in a jeep, and mowing people down with your machine gun. Several missions later, you'll become a British commando, and finally the game ends with you playing a Russian soldier struggling against the Nazis. You have views of the three major fronts of the Allied forces, with tons of large battle campaigns to get through on each. You'll be in battles that include the siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge and the well-known counterattack at Kursk, sort of like another Stalingrad. If you're a history buff, you'll love how it plays out and how you'll really feel like you were back there fighting back Nazi Germany.

Like the original, the game isn't for amateurs. It requires a good amount of brains, strategy, and talent at first person shooters. Ok, the game was hard, and sometimes took a while to figure out exactly had to be done. Other times, we were flying through the action, killing left and right, and mission objective complete on the bottom left corner of your screen gave us that, "Oh yeah" feeling. It can get frustrating being suddenly blown up by a mine or incoming mortar fire. But the game is so well put together, you don't mind reloading a couple of times to figure out exactly what needs to be done. The autosaving can be quite handy after certain objectives have been accomplished. It's a nice feature, especially when you're so absorbed in the world that you'll forget to hit F5 every other minute. Unfortunately, the autosaving doesn't work when you're low on health, so keep that in mind when playing.

Game play is still solid. Nothing has really changed from the original game. Why tamper with what works, right? However, this expansion is almost exactly like playing the original Call of Duty. There are the same of type of missions, same type of situations, even similar battlefronts. You even play the same kind of people. If you're not getting the pattern yet, it IS the original Call of Duty with a new box, script, and scenarios. Nothing innovative is included in this expansion, which is fine. That's what expansions are all about. But it would have been nice to see some fresher, more interesting things, apart from the stuff that blew you away for the first time. Second time around it really loses a lot of its shine. Running from house to house fighting, sniping, shooting from a vehicle, fox holes, taking out tanks, the whole selection you get from the first game, you'll get again in the expansion. That is pretty much guaranteed. We're not saying you won't enjoy it. It's still fun - just don't expect revolution here.

You'll get a few new weapons here and there to play around with, but the high action, fast paced nature of the game will probably leave you only about a day worth of playing before you beat the game. Luckily, the multiplayer options have been improved in United Offensive. New modes like Base assault are a lot of fun, cooperating with your teammates and thinking up of good strategies to destroy the other team's bunkers. Emphasis on teamwork is really exciting, and it keeps the same highflying action feel you get in the single player. The maps are intricately designed and there's enough variety and things to do in the multiplayer to keep you playing the expansion for much longer then you will the single.

Don't try to overdue it on maxing out the graphics options if your computer isn't up to date. The expansion eats up a lot of memory and resources. Whether it's manning a machine gun, or taking down a tank, a lot of things go on at once, and you better pay attention. This is a well designed expansion to a great game, and fans of WWII FPS games will not be disappointed with what you get out of United Offensive. It's got a lot of good epic moments to it, and like any good game, it consumes you in its world, and makes you feel like your really there.