The Spanish development team, Norarama, is back with another title, but unlike their others, UNITED 1944 is based on WWII, and it combines weapon crafting, base building, and team strategy. As it stands, there are currently two playable game modes; Domination and Survival.

Domination is a 16 vs 16 urban warfare set in WWII, and you’ll need a minimum of 3 v 3 for a match to begin, but this is nearly impossible to get started, even with some help. This means that I can’t really comment on the maps you can play on – we were stuck waiting area each time we tested. Survival, on the other hand, is a little like Call of Duty’s Warzone. It’s more or less a free-for-all, so you get in, grab what you need, and extract, but again, the servers were dead, so you could run in and spend as much time as you wanted in there – nothing would happen.

I would have loved to see more people giving this game a shot. It looks like it would have been a lot of fun, especially being time set back in World War II, and the building side of things seemed like it was well implemented, but seeing as we could not get into games, we couldn’t do much more than what was in Bootcamp.

You’re dropped into Bootcamp when you first launch the game for a bit of a tutorial, and you can further hone your skills in the Shooting Range. These locations are where I got to experience the closest thing to combat – against cardboard cutouts, but it was a bit of fun being able to test the weapons and see what they’re capable of.

There are currently 20+ WWII-era weapons, like the M1 Garand, MP40, and the Kar98k, and you can also craft makeshift weapons. These are almost as effective as the real thing, but they’re pieced together on the fields of battle, just as soldiers do when the need arises.

Simple controls will often make a game more satisfying, and United 1944 was just that simple. Like most FPS on PC, you use your mouse and W, A, S, and D, but small things, like pressing “G”, will bring your hammer out for building, and a right-click brings up a radial menu with all of the options. The Bootcamp explains all the controls with ease, so you’re prepared for what may come when you enter your first battle.

I was surprised at the attention to detail with the graphics. Everything looked super polished. The only comment I will make is on the actual characters’ models, they felt a little lacking, but everything else was fine-tuned and looked stunning.

I would have loved to be able to jump into a game and a full server. It would be interesting to see how the game holds up graphically, but from what I could see, the development team did an amazing job, and the realism was fantastic.

The sounds in this title won me over straight away, particularly when I pulled out the M1 Garand, dumped the mag, and heard that beautiful “ping” that everyone waits to hear. I loved how good the firearms sounded, and you can tell that the development team put in the extra effort, either finding the best audio files or spending time recording real firearms, and the difference between shooting inside versus outside was super noticeable – a big thumbs up in my book. The small audio sample I heard in the Bootcamp, coming from radio communications, various weapons being fired, and grenade blasts had me hooked on the game.

I’m hoping the player population grows over time. There’s a lot of potential for UNITED 1944 in the future, but in the current state, and after waiting 30 minutes for a Domination game that never started was disheartening. If you’re interested in checking it out and jumping into some WWII combat, UNITED 1944 has a free multiplayer demo on Steam, so let all your friends know, and maybe we can get something going.

Written by: Hayden Nelson