You can play Multiplayer non campaign for free with SF3 versus edition. For campaign stuff though you will need to buy the campaigns.

The game is not dead, but the community is small. I recommend you find us on the official SpellForce discord, there are people asking for games daily.

It's a single player game. If you like it, you play it. What do you mean "dead"?

Originally posted by Razer:

It's a single player game. If you like it, you play it. What do you mean "dead"?

Not only singleplayer. There has been PvP tournaments and ladder, and you can play the campaign/journey/arena/skirmish coop vs AI. So there is plenty of multiplayer content.