A very good DLC with addition of new campaign and units.
Same outstanding game as an original and better DLC than previous one (even without new castle).
Probably the very best turned base strategy game of its time. Worth buying even today to get that retro feeling when leveling your heroes and building an army.
For me this is a really good expansion. Strangely it is also a game were fans and haters both use the same argument. It is more of the same of the main game (With only a few new additions). The additions are small except of cause the single player scenarios. Additions: There are a few new artifacts, an additional artifact can be equipped and there are more powerful artifacts that are a combination of lesser ones. These are truly powerful up to game breaking levels and some of the single player campaign evolves around this. Then there are new types of terrain with effects and quite a lot useful additions to the map editor (My experience here is limited as I did not spend much time with it. Maybe a bit less than 3 hours). My main appeal are the single player campaigns. These are connected and end in an epic final. But lets start with an introduction: It is a fantasy turn base strategy game with base building. It has great game mechanics that are easy to learn and have also a lot of depth for you to master. You are a commander of an army of various units or creatures and building / developing structures in your stronghold. There are various factions with individual strongholds and units. Per round (= 1 day) you can build a structure or upgrade an existing requiring gold and resources. The structures let you recruit a fixed number of new units at the start of each week for an amount of gold. For the exploration or battle part you maneuver your character including recruited units over the map (Range depends on slowest units, terrain and learned skills). Your character is not a unit you can use in battle. He is the commander or general. However he / she is far from useless. Your attribute-points are added to your units fixed attributes. This made them more powerful and at high levels even low tier units can outclass high tier ones without this bonus (Warning also applies to enemy commanders units). You have to defeat enemies, capture / defend strongholds, gain resources etc. I gave a longer explanation for the main game here on Metacritic and you can read it there if you want (Review nearly reaches the 5000 digits limit). Lets say the mechanics have a lot of depth but are easy to learn. Just 3 good hints: Never underestimate the power of expert level spells like I did in the beginning (Like buffs / debuffs for all units on the battle map which is devastating), a huge income helps a lot (In the long run often better than higher tier units earlier) and some good secondary skill combinations can become game-breaking. The new campaigns are set before the events of the main game and feature the adventures of a cast of heroes. As you progress you notice that there is more to their stories and it will end in an epic final. They do everything right here as I finished all campaigns and enjoyed them. Maybe the endings to some campaigns are a disappointment for themselves if you do not know that there is more than meets the eye (I am vague to avoid spoilers). The additions of the combination artifacts is excellent. These are so useful that I try to get them and prevent my enemies from getting them by at least holding 1 needed piece. They range from useful to absolutely awesome (Remark not all are fitting to all play-styles). Graphic and sound are excellent for their time and actually quite acceptable today as the maps looks hand-drawn. I will say it is nothing for graphic enthusiasts. Overall this is a good more of the same expansion and worth playing. Not every expansion needs a lot of new mechanics if the core game is excellent.
SummaryExcept for the new maps and a handful of minor gameplay changes, there's absolutely nothing in Shadow of Death that Heroes veterans haven't seen before.