The three campaigns carry over from last year's Hammers of Fate expansion. You start by guiding an orcish rebellion with the Stronghold in a single mission, move on to the Necropolis faction, then to the Academy, and finally wrap up back with the orcs. Influence from the Dark Messiah of Might & Magic action game can be seen throughout the campaigns, especially in the Necropolis section, which revives that game's big baddie, the necromancer Arantir. Thankfully, you don't have to have any familiarity with Dark Messiah to understand what's going on here.
There are some new creatures, some new spells, some new sets of magical artifacts, and a revamped promotion scheme that provides alternate upgrades for units (though most aren't exactly imaginative). There are also a handful of new multiplayer and scenario maps, but you'd really have a tough time telling the new stuff from the old without the feature list sitting in front of you. The look and sound of the expansion seem to be exactly the same as in the original Heroes, too. Yet with all that said, there remains something in this formula that is still extremely addictive. Even with the repetitions forced on you by the harder missions and the same-old, same-old overall design, it's hard to stop playing...at least if you're a Heroes V fan who hasn't gotten enough yet.
