A good, solid expansion to an already great game. And do not believe in that stupid (and quite unfair) Gamespot r
The main critic appears to be the campaign missions that are said to be too hard...
Well, it is a second expansion, so it is no wonder that the missions are harder (in fact, if you finished the original game and the first expansion Hammers of Fate on normal difficulty, you will not go through as much trouble as the review would make you believe). Did everybody complain when Blizzard shipped Brood War? The campaigns were very hard in this expansion, though...
On the contrary, it is good to see a challenging campaign, once in a while, else there would be nothing of interest for someone who has been successfully playing through the previous game and expansion.
Well, aside from that, the new contents are pretty standard, even though there is more new concepts than in Hammers of fate :
- a new Race, the Orcs. They are a Might race, totally focused on attack (as opposed to the defensive Dwarves of Hammers). They do not have the standard 4 school magics, but instead have "War shouts", which increases the orc soldiers' abilities, by increasing their Rage points, and optionally dealing a secondary effect. Rage is the special ability. Rage points are gained by a unit when it attacks, or retaliates, but the unit looses a few points when defending, and a lot more when waiting (see why Orcs are bent on attack?). Rage points give two advantages to the orc troopers : they absorb damage (when hit, the unit will lose rage points but take much less damage), and they give combat bonuses that are different depending on which unit they apply.
- neutral armies : before the expansion, the neutrals monsters were of the same unit type (possibly you could find several stacks, some of the unupgraded version, and some upgraded version). Now you will find "armies" of neutral monsters, meaning that there will be different units in it (for example : marksmen, champions, griffins and priests).
- alternative upgrades : each unit now has a new upgrade that you can choose instead of the standard one. Nival has made a great job here, by making sure that the two possible upgrades are quite different for each unit, allowing multiple new strategies. This is in my opinion what makes this expansion shine, since you have by now, 8 races with (7 units +7*2 upgrades) each (~150 units, + the neutrals), and they managed to balance things quite correctly.
- some new items (sacrificial altar) / stat boosts, but that is secondary
- the equipments sets : as in many RPG, the most powerful equipment items for your heroes have been grouped into sets. By equipping several items of the same set, you get some bonuses. There is one set dedicated to each race, meaning that you get additional bonuses if you equip your race's set. Sets can really make a huge difference in a battle.
- some new spells in each magic school (but only a few are useful), some spells have also been modified.
- Improved IA, especially considering the neutral stacks
(IA heroes are still quite dumb in normal)
- a new bunch of skirmish/multiplayer maps + 5 stand-alone scenarios (nothing to get excited about).
Well, to sum up my opinion, this is a good, well balanced expansion (better than Hammers anyways), but do not enter the Heroes series with this one! It is aimed at those who played the previous expansion, and the original game. And for these people, this game is well worth playing. You will like the orcs, or you will hate them, but in the latter case, the alternative upgrades have changed the existing races so much, that you will have a good time trying them all! And if you like challenges, try the campaigns on heroic difficulty!
On the sad part, do not expect a compelling story-line in the campaigns, but I guess you are used to it now...