Expeditions: Rome - Death or Glory DLC Review

 Seeing as I had originally played Expeditions: Rome and rated the game favourably, I was excited to see the game's brand-new DLC named Death or Glory. With new foes, a new class, and even new items, should you pick up Death or Glory? First, we'll be looking at everything that got added and the price, and then we'll move on to how fun all of the added content is.

Expeditions: Rome's new DLC is priced at £7.99 and adds plenty of gladiator content that fans (including myself) were sad to see absent in the original release. The new gladiator class comes packed with the usual three subclasses and a total of 24 abilities to choose from. 

I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that a new option — named Gladiator Companion — is available for brand-new saves. This option allows the last "essential" character you unlock in the game to have the gladiator class, in case you want one but don't want your main character to be it.

That said, the game offers you a complete refund of skills for you and the aforementioned character to be able to respec into a gladiator for those that had a save before the release of the Death or Glory expansion. All you have to do is launch the game, open the menu, and all characters — including those that can't be gladiators — will be completely reset. I was happy to see the opportunity to continue my save file and still have a gladiator to play with.

Now, I had mixed feelings about the gladiator class myself. Upon seeing the abilities, it appeared to be a mild combination between the triarchus and veles classes (which makes sense, seeing as both gladiators in-game are these classes). I felt it was sort of lacking in comparison to both of these, as it feels like the gladiator is spread thin between these two. That said, there are some notable abilities that made the gladiator seem to be a pretty formidable class, just not necessarily a high-damage one. It wasn't until I started looking at the gladiator as a support class that I saw its beauty. The gladiator is great for supporting others, and having at least one of them in your party will be beneficial, as they'll work as a second tank.

The gladiator arenas themselves had me worried when I first started. As a history buff, I was concerned about how the portrayal of the gladiatorial sport would affect the gameplay, and how "entertaining the crowd" would work. Death or Glory implements this beautifully by showcasing what the crowd wants to see in the top-right corner of the screen. To gain crowd favour, you will need to meet specific requirements throughout the battle. More often than not, you will want to use tools provided in the arena, incapacitate enemies, and kill them in specific ways. This was a unique take on Expeditions: Rome's combat that brought more flavour, while also not making it too hard — in fact, it felt a bit too easy. 

Winning each round requires you to increase the crowd favour to 100 (usually from -50) by meeting these requirements, and you'll often do so in a breeze, especially when well equipped. Although I did get stuck in a gladiator fight, it was mostly an oversight on my end because I refused to equip my praetorians and myself properly. Once I replayed the previous one (because I had to load an autosave) and equipped my team properly, I breezed through it and the rest of the fights. 

You'll be experiencing the brand-new content either by playing through the main story and stumbling upon arenas or by playing through the brand-new "GLADIATOR MODE". If you've already finished Expeditions: Rome and decide to pick up Death or Glory, you'll want to experience it with the GLADIATOR MODE (unless you want to replay the campaign). However, it might not be worth picking up Death or Glory at all if you're not interested in replaying the game.

The gladiator arenas are enjoyable enough with their unique twists and approach to combat, but unless you're a big fan of Expeditions: Rome, it might not add enough content to satisfy you. I absolutely love Expeditions: Rome, and I think that the £7.99 price tag is phenomenal, especially because the main game feels criminally underpriced. Although new tools and a new class are definitely welcome, if you want this to add enough content to make a new playthrough feel completely unique, you'll be disappointed.

I can confidently say that, if you've played part of Expeditions: Rome and love the game or are a big fan of it, Death or Glory is definitely worth the purchase. If you enjoyed the game and are hoping for enough new content to warrant a full replay, it might not be worth it. This isn't to say that the DLC isn't phenomenal, but more as a caution to all that want this to be something it isn't.