For the past 27 years, whenever someone asks me what my favorite game of all time is, I don’t even have to think about it. Since its launch in 1999, Heroes of Might & Magic 3 has been the game I’ve spent the most hours with. I’ve uncovered every nook and cranny there is to find in that game, played on thousands of custom maps, and still enjoy my regular sessions.
But for years, the Heroes of Might & Magic series has kind of fallen by the wayside. Sure, there’s been other games in the franchise, but nothing has really hit since, at least, Heroes of Might & Magic 4. That is, until Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era.
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Early Access Impressions
A prequel to the original games from Unfrozen and Hooded Horse, Olden Era does more than take the series into the future. It takes so much of what worked from games two to four, and modernizes it with some welcome additions.
The game returns with the same turn-based format, where each turn counts as a “day”. You use your time to traverse the map, improve your heroes, collect resources, recruit creatures for your army, fight enemies, and build up your base(s). It’s been the same formula for decades, but if it isn’t broke, why fix it?
What is a drastic change from past entries is the art style. Unfrozen takes a bold chance with a hand-drawn and watercolor-looking style in Olden Era. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and it could be jarring at first, but it works for me. The creatures (more on them later) all stand out in their special ways, and each faction base does enough to differentiate itself from the others.
Various Ways To Play
Despite being in early access, Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era offers a variety of game modes. There’s the campaign you can dive into, but it only features the first act right now, with the rest coming alongside the 1.0 release.
I don’t believe in spoiling story contents in reviews and impression pieces, so I won’t. But what I will say is that the dialogue features impressive voice acting that gives you a feel for each character’s personality, and there are even options that can affect how your journey plays out at times. Some will get you out of fighting a battle you may not win, while others will get you battling a throng of enemies to move forward.
It’s all about how you want to progress.
Aside from the campaign, the game offers you the Classic mode that everyone’s used to, as well as Scenarios and the brand-new Single Hero and Arena modes. Single Hero is for quick games that don’t allow the recruiting of new heroes; once you die, it’s game over.
Arena lets you draft your hero, units, spells, artifacts, and skills. You’ll then take everything to the battlefield against another player to see who built the best group. It’s a perfect “quick session” type of experience if you don’t have time to start a full game or scenario.
There’s also online and local hotseat multiplayer for more game time, though no online multiplayer maps offer teams. So, it’s only free-for-all right now.
And don’t worry, there is a map creator for the sickos like me that want to spend hours creating the perfect map. It’s still in beta, so expect some hiccups as more updates come, but it gets the job done right now.
The Mechanics Get An Upgrade
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era features six factions: Dungeon, Grove, Hive, Necropolis, Schism, and Temple. There’s, thankfully, no Inferno this time around, though Hive is close in terms of being fire-based. I want you to experience these factions for yourself, but they all do a good job of feeling unique.
Most of the mechanics in Olden Era are similar to what long-time players have come to expect. You can have armies of up to seven stacks of creatures that battle on a hexagonal-patterned terrain. Each hero controls their army and has a spellbook at their disposal to cast a variety of spells.
That is where my one problem stems right now. I would’ve liked to see more spells geared specifically to a faction or hero, but there can be times when two heroes from different factions have similar spell books. It’s not enough to hurt the overall experience, but it would’ve been nice to see.
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Despite the game feeling similar on the surface, there are new mechanics at play here with Spell Constellations, Focus Points, and Faction Laws.
Faction Laws are used to give bonuses to your units and faction, like improving skeleton growth and their abilities, or generating more daily gold. Points to unlock the laws are earned passively.
Lastly, Focus Points are exclusive to combat. You can use them for things like having your hero attack an enemy unit or using a unit’s special ability. It adds a bit of new strategy to your battles, and can actually be the difference between a win and a loss.
Spell Constellations are used to unlock or upgrade spells as you play, such as teleporting back to town or revealing the location of all neutral units on a map. You’ll earn the ability to unlock more spells passively, and while building out your mage guilds.
Sticking with spells, that gets a bit of a change in Olden Era. There are four magic disciplines, and each spell has a cooldown based on its power level. That prevents you from casting the same spell each turn, even if you have enough spell points. You have to use the spells that work in the moment.
The battles are the highlight of the game, with how they can play out. But when I say that, from start to finish, the gameplay, animations, and fights are top-notch, take it to the bank. There’s really nothing I can complain about with how the game plays.
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Final Thoughts
This is a game that’s already become hard for me to put down. Whether it’s because I’ve been a long-time fan of the series or not is moot; this is a fantastic turn-based strategy game, even in early access.
Combat is fluid, the maps are beautiful and fair, and everything just works as it should right away. Sure, some creatures need to be adjusted with either a buff or a nerf, but that is sure to come throughout Early Access and beyond. The bones are here, and then some, for a franchise that’s risen from the ashes like a Phoenix (shoutout to the Conflux players from HoMM3).
It’s been 24 years since the last great Heroes game (Heroes 4 in 2002), but Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is already proving to be worth the wait.
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is currently available on Steam in Early Access. A full score review will come when the full 1.0 release happens. A copy of the game was provided to Insider Gaming for the purpose of coverage.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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