"Strike at Karkand" plants you and your pals squarely in the war-ravaged Middle East.

Battlefield 3 may be the red-hotness in modern online multiplayer, but even hardened soldiers can get wistful for the war-torn streets of years gone by. Back to Karkand's main attraction is the sparkling shine it puts on four killer maps yanked from Battlefield 2.

The first thing you'll notice in this downloadable map pack, provided you don't immediately get the top of your head shot off, is the enhanced level of destructibility enabled by the upgrade to Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine. “Strike at Karkand”'s dusty avenues are brutal killing floors, but you're not a hell of a lot safer indoors. Though plenty of objects seem oddly indestructible, most objects that you can use as cover can disintegrate without warning in a flesh-shredding hail of bullets or a teeth-rattling explosion.

From “Gulf of Oman” and “Wake Island” to “Sharqi Peninsula,” every map offers a well-balanced mix of no-man's-land sprawl, close-quarters alleyways, varied sightlines, and thoughtful use of vertical space. Newcomers will quickly come to feel paranoid that assailants lurk around every corner and snipers crouch on every rooftop.

Capturing flags demands fast feet and flexible teamwork.

Back to Karkand also comes with three retooled rides to help you explore (and decimate) all that refurbished real estate. The Desert Patrol Vehicle is a pretty slick dune buggy with a machinegun a passenger can use to cause trouble, while an eight-wheeled Russian Infantry Fighting Vehicle can move a crowd quickly. However, the real star is the STOVL fighter jet, which hovers like a helicopter, controls reasonably well, and causes all kinds of hellish trouble for hostile forces. (Technically, there’s a fourth new vehicle — the Skid Loader — but this lowly vehicle offers no offensive capabilities, unless running people over counts.)

Unfortunately, the weaponry ported over from Battlefield 2's war chest isn't nearly as accessible. These 10 guns — two for each class, plus two more that any class can use — demand significant dedication. Each becomes available only after you've completed time-consuming "assignments": earn 100 kills with assault rifles, score 50 headshots, play two hours on a particular map, and so forth. Play-till-dawn vets won't mind, but casual gamers may bristle at all the extra work that's required to earn hardware like an L85A2 assault rifle or an MG36 machine gun.

The return of Battlefield 2’s Conquest Assault mode doesn't bring a ton to the table, either: giving one side possession of all control points right at the outset is an interesting wrinkle, but it hardly reinvents the experience. On the other hand, when those four classic maps are this much fun to storm around in, who says anything needs to be brand-spanking-new?

PUBLISHER: EA  •  DEVELOPER: DICE  •  ESRB: Mature  •  MULTIPLAYER: 24 over Xbox Live  •  ACHIEVEMENTS: Mixed difficulty (120G total)  •  COST: 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15), or free with Battlefield 3 Limited Edition

On Xbox 360

+ Four outstanding maps stuffed full of ambush possibilities and (mostly) destructible architecture.

+ Killer hovering jets and dune buggies; 10 familiar weapons for committed troops to unlock.

– Offers almost nothing that's truly new; Conquest Assault mode changes little.

? How many people will think of True Lies while flying the STOVL jet?

8.0