Caves Of Shadow is a GREAT introduction to D&D.
It's basically written as a stripped down version of D&D 3.0 (which actually makes it easier to adapt to 5e than a more rules intense 3.0 scenario). Although the adventure is quite short happening all in one location and only having seven encounter areas having an NPC, a few mysterious objects to explore, and a significant final fight gives the feel of a 'real' D&D game.
My two criticisms of the adventure both come from it's overall uninteresting visual presentation. Given how small the map is it looks like it could have been laid out over the two center pages and then been pulled out and used with counters or miniatures. The second issue is that the addition of a few small pieces of art (a door, a rat, the old man, an ogre) would have really imersed the reader/DM more in the adventure.
Overall I think Caves Of Shadow is one of the best introductory adventures for any edition of D&D both for players and for DMs. And for $0 it's certain good value :)
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