An expansion pack should be just enough to tide you over between the release of Novalogic's Black Hawk Down and their upcoming Joint Operations. So in theory, the timing is perfect for Ritual Entertainment's Team Sabre expansion pack for Black Hawk Down. Unfortunately, that's probably the best thing you can say about this underwhelming attempt to add new content.

To be fair, Team Sabre introduces some new troops, vehicles, and weapons, but they're mainly cosmetic. The new troops are the British SAS, who are functionally identical to the American Delta Force guys. You know they're SAS because they use words like 'bloody', 'bugger', and 'bloke', or occasionally make a crack about 'tea time'.

Reminds you of Mogadishu, doesn't it?
Vehicles in Team Sabre are non-interactive to the point that firing a mounted .50 caliber gun from the hood of a Humvee doesn't feel much different from firing a mounted .50 caliber gun from the bow of an inflatable dinghy. As for the weapons, the level of lethality here is such that you probably won't notice whether you've killed someone with a CAR-15 or one of the new G3s. The main difference is the picture of the gun bobbing in front of you. You'd think Black Hawk Down would be a prime candidate for new types of devices like heartbeat sensors, useful vision modes, or an easier grenade interface, but Team Sabre only offers up a skin job.

The eleven new single-player missions are set in Iran and Columbia, and feature the same AI and rigid scripting seen in Black Hawk Down. While Call of Duty proved that "scripting" doesn't have to be a dirty word, it's done so often and so poorly in Team Sabre that you can effectively see the strings. There are glitches and sloppy decisions all over the place. Your men get killed for stupid reasons, the missions fail abruptly for stupid reasons, bad guys do stupid things, objectives aren't clear, and the pacing is erratic. The most challenging part of Team Sabre is navigating through hackneyed "gotcha!" tricks like magically spawning enemies, gun emplacements around tight corners, rail rides through gauntlets of a hundred bad guys, and limited save game slots. The limit on saved games is clearly a contrived attempt to generate tension by forcing you to choose between wasting a save or risking having to replay part of the game.

For the most part, Iran's coastal settings and Columbia's jungles are a nice departure from the settings in Black Hawk Down. However, a lot of assets from the original game have been re-used. The Iranians seem to assemble their shanty towns from the exact same buildings as the Somalis. And it's pretty disappointing to find an underground drug lab in Columbia that's identical to General Aidid's bunkers under Mogadishu (drug lords and warlords must share the same contractor).

Ahh, Columbian foliage!
It's also disappointing that there aren't more new multiplayer maps (for instance, why no multiplayer map set on the oil platform?). However, the three new multiplayer maps set in the Columbian jungle are almost like a whole new game. There aren't any new game modes (you'd think this would be a no-brainer for an expansion pack), but games like Flagball and King of the Hill play out much differently with so many trees in the way. You can use the forest for escapes and approaches that aren't quite as vulnerable as crossing open terrain, but neither are they as reliable protection from distant enemies as dashing between buildings. These maps are a great addition to Black Hawk Down and they're indications that Novalogic has great things in store for this engine.

In fact, if you're a Black Hawk Down multiplayer junkie, you'll probably get your money's worth just from the three jungle maps. But everyone else should probably save their $20 until Novalogic offers something more substantial.