Ubisoft have continued their great value for money scheme of releasing budget priced stand-alone expansion packs for its popular Tom Clancy franchises. The latest game to get the treatment is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (XBW 88%), with the release of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike. Summit Strike does not require the original Ghost Recon 2 to function and is more than a bunch of new missions and maps. Summit Strike gives players 11 brand new single player missions in an original campaign, 16 new multiplayer maps, two new multiplayer game modes, new multiplayer skins, new weapons and an impressive graphical overhaul, all for $49.95 (RRP).

In the games new campaign, the Ghosts are sent to Kazakhstan when its President is assassinated by a Pakistani warlord. The UN is sent in to attempt to stop the warlord seizing power and the Ghosts are tasked with hunting him down. The 11 missions unfold over a variety of locations with a mix of squad based and 'Lone Wolf' missions. The Lone Wolf missions are particularly satisfying as the player is equipped with the latest hi-tech military gadgets of the near future. Imagine using a rifle mounted camera to aim around corners or above your head before detonating an air-burst grenade over a group of enemy soldiers. Very cool stuff indeed, and an abundance of bonus material is unlockable if you want to know more about future military technologies or the games development process.

I freely admit that I was a huge fan of the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (XBW 85%) and its similar expansion Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (XBW 82%) but never played Ghost Recon 2. The main reason for this was because I believed the series had gone soft. Ghost Recon was synonymous with hard core, military first-person shooters'it was the most realistic military shooter available on any console, and still is. Ghost Recon 2 lowered the difficulty, upped the visual quality and to the dismay of many fans, switched to a third-person perspective. The decision to take the series into the third-person was too much for some fans to handle (including myself), even if the first-person view was still offered as an option.

The first thing you will notice about Summit Strike are the graphics. Put simply, they are gorgeous. Ubisoft have a real knack of squeezing every last bit of graphical power out of the aging Xbox and Summit Strike is definitely no exception. Bloom lighting is the new bump-map, and this- along with just about every other graphical effect capable on the Xbox- is utilised to great effect to produce one of the prettiest looking games on any console. But you won't be forced to admire the same pretty sequence over and over again: Summit Strike allows you to save your progress whenever you want and as often as you want- no more checkpoints! Use it or abuse it, the choice is yours to make.

As you would expect from a game designed to be played in a third-person perspective, character animations are key. In particular the animations of your character are fluid, detailed and spatially precise. Secondary weapons are slung across backs when not equipped and magazine changes go through all the right motions. All movements look slick and the bizarre gliding walk so common in games is barely noticeable.

The single-player maps in Summit Strike are extraordinarily well designed. Geographically they are huge and allow for multiple attack plans and tactical options. The overhead map is rendered somewhat redundant as the levels are designed in such a way that you always find yourself travelling where you should be going without the level ever feeling linear in design. I can't praise Ubisoft enough in this area, as extensive play testing must have been employed to tune the levels to such a high standard. You won't get lost and you won't feel like you are on rails, great stuff.

You are permitted to carry a primary weapon, sidearm, an anti-armour weapon and an explosive device such as claymores or hand grenades. Prior to beginning a mission you can choose your primary weapon from four categories, Rifleman, Gunner, Grenadier and Marksman. Unfortunately, you can not equip the other three members of your team in any way. They don't even vary their weapons load-out if you switch between character classes so that the squad remains evenly balanced.

Squad orders in Summit Strike resemble Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3. You are unable to issue orders using the map screen and you can't split your squad other than sending two members to flank left or right. Tapping Y Button issues context sensitive commands with the default being Advance. For example, if you are aiming at a vehicle the command will switch to Attack Vehicle and one of you squad members will do so. Having to take your thumb of the Right Thumbstick to tap the Y Button can cause some frustration when trying to track a fast moving target such as an enemy chopper as you can inadvertently order your squad to advance from behind the safety of cover. All the more reason to utilise Summit Strikes' voice recognition features and just tell your quad to attack instead. Basic actions and commands can be performed simply by saying them into your Xbox Communicator Headset.

Holding the Y Button brings up a radial order select screen with four options, Suppress, Flank Left, Flank Right and Hold Position. Additionally, the Black Button immediately orders you squad to regroup and the White Button toggles between weapons free and hold fire. In a nice touch, your character will issue orders with hand signals but why bother when he still barks the orders out aloud'So much for silent and deadly.

The sound design in Summit Strike is very impressive and uses Dolby Digital 5.1 surround to great effect. Additionally, environmental and ambient sounds play an important roll in simulating a chaotic battlefield environment. I particularly like the sound of your character breathing as changing conditions have an audible effect making you believe that you character is indeed feeling the burn and is not some invincible robot. Music is the typical Tom Clancy affair and would be appropriate for any Hollywood movie adaptation of his work.

The only significant down side to Summit Strike is the inconsistent AI of both your squad mates and the enemy. Your squad is generally grossly outnumbered in each mission and groups of enemies love to employ the terminally unsuccessful frontal charge tactic. Your team mates sometime have trouble dealing with enemies within spitting distance but at other times will snipe a bad guy before he is more that a pixel tall in your sights. They usually seek effective cover but will occasionally step out into the path of a hail of bullets for no good reason'Is there ever a good reason to step out into a hail of bullets? This troublesome AI distracts from the overall realism of Summit Strike and does nothing to improve gameplay. However, this is only an issue in single player and where Summit Strike really shines is during multiplayer.

Multiplayer and Xbox Live features in Summit Strike are vast and varied, with the inclusion of 16 new multiplayer maps. The game supports split-screen, system-link and Xbox Live adversarial and co-op modes. All the multiplayer modes from Ghost Recon 2 are available but additional to these features are two brand new multiplayer modes bringing the total available to 24! The new modes are Helo Hunt and Armour Strike. Helo Hunt is a four-player co-op mode against the games' AI controlled Helicopters. Wave after wave of attack choppers will relentlessly attack the human controlled squad whose sole mission in life is to survive. This plays like an arcade challenge and as such tends to be best played in short bursts to avoid loosing interest.

Armour Strike is by far the coolest new mode with two teams competing to destroy each others armour assets through the use of laser designators and air strikes. Teams need to balance defending their armour and finding vantage points to paint their own targets for an indirect fire attack. It is highly enjoyable with a cooperative and functional team and should be a favourite mode on Xbox Live.