What do you expect from an expansion pack? Most add-ons are happy to give some new weapons and filler missions to hold players' attention until the next sequel arrives. Sometimes, however, an expansion can make the original game a better place to visit. Urban Operations is that type of spice.

Rogue Spear, with the Urban Operations pack, is certainly not perfect and valid criticisms of the series persist. The military action game still suffers from mediocre artificial intelligence, enemies that can seem superhuman, and rigid play that poorly handles situation changes on the battlefield. Urban Operations doesn't address these issues, but does give the player the requisite new missions and weapons, plus new multiplayer maps, reengineered maps from the original Rainbow Six, and a new mode of play.

The pack's focus is on five new urban settings. Locales such as Hong Kong, Istanbul, and Venice may seem exotic, but when you're exploring their nooks and staircases with gun barrels pointed at you, they turn frightening. The levels are convincingly rendered, with three- story buildings such as markets, banks, subways, and parking garages. Challenge is doubled with the addition of hostages or bystanders in some scenarios, and it's easy to peer into a market square and not know who the bad guy is. The urban hot spots are chained together in a five-mission mini-campaign, and as a bonus, so are five maps from the original Rainbow Six, along with new support for the 3D planning tool.