While many have attempted to bridge the gap between fantasy role-playing and tactical strategy gaming, few have succeeded. Spellforce however, actually did manage to splice these genres together, creating a surprisingly enjoyable and coherent game. Being the hit it was, fans are undoubtedly going to be seeking word of a sequel, yet until its announcement, this second expansion pack, Shadow of the Phoenix, neatly fills the gap.

Again, the game thrusts you into the middle of a huge adventure that yet again sees the world in peril. A powerful Necromancer is attempting to raise a group of long dead and extremely powerful mages, in order to rule over them. It's up to you to stop this menace using the Phoenix Stone (acquired during the first game). But unfortunately, the powers of the stone needed to vanquish this new foe must be unlocked by a special sword, which just happens to be many miles away. And so begins a new adventure, through new unexplored lands.

Those of you disappointed about not being able to chose their avatar from Order of Dawn to play in the last expansion should be pleased to hear that such an irritation isn't present here. It's now possible to use your character created from the main game to play through these new levels and to top it all off, your avatar can now reach level 50 and utilise a whole new set of powerful magic spells and abilities. Those who found themselves creating a new character for the Breath of Winter expansion needn't feel left out either, as the same applies to them, yet with a slight difference in how the story pans out.

The game itself plays exactly the same as it has in the previous two outings. Again, masterfully blending both role-playing and strategy, levels often start off as simple hack and slash affairs, with your avatar set against armies of creatures and beasties. There's still the ability to call for extra hero characters from special structures usually dotted about the place, but for those instances when such structures are unavailable, there's always the option to build your very own army. Building armies does become more of a priority later on, as the amount of creatures and monsters increases and with this being the third outing for Spellforce, enemies here are particularly strong and put up much more of a fight.

As far as additions go, Shadow of the Phoenix does the usual. New units (two per race), a host of new enemies and monsters to fight against and some new environments to traverse through. While the selection of levels may seem small compared with previous outings, their size is quite the opposite. Levels are now much bigger than before, leaving plenty of room for a variety of optional side quests and a plethora of hidden treasures. But these new levels are far from easy to explore, given the amount of enemies that now populate them.

More substantial changes focus on the games many bug's, or rather lack of. While Order of Dawn and Breath of Winter where criticised for the amount of glitches and bugs contained within them, Shadow of the Phoenix finally readdresses things and comes almost bug free. The most substantial flaws have been worked out and while it's not completely free of the odd glitch or two, it's no more serious than any other game of it's kind and certainly won't impede the gaming experience on the whole.

Graphics and sound have also been improved on, even though the game still uses the same engine as its predecessors. This expansion does boast some new, impressive levels of detail in both the environments and characters. The sound also benefits from being updated, including a very impressive Lord of the Rings style score, even though it still disappoints a little in the voice acting area.

If there's one thing that's still missing from this expansion and from Spellforce on a whole, it's the lack of a skirmish mode. While the game does allow you to play some of the co-op multiplayer levels as single player maps, they lack the huge amount of options to customise each game. On the plus side, the co-op multiplayer mode does get a boost with an extra 15 maps, which now provide quests for each player. It's not a significant improvement but it's more than enough.

As with the majority of expansions, Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix doesn't do anything new but it does provide enough to satisfy those looking for something more from the Spellforce universe. It's not quite a sequel and doesn't add anything particularly revolutionary, but it does provide a few more hours of enjoyable entertainment and will certainly keep fans busy until that elusive announcement for Spellforce 2 reaches our eager ears.

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).