| Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a turn-based fantasy strategy game developed as the prequel to the first title of the series. Read on to learn everything we know, our review of the demo, and more.
Everything We Know About Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Plot
Olden Era’s story takes place in the original universe, on the continent of Jadame on the planet Enroth. Serving as a prequel to Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest, it sets the stage for the conflicts that shaped the series’ beginnings. In this chapter of history, the world faces the rise of the Dragonfly King and his insectoid army, forcing rival factions to set aside their differences and unite against a common enemy that could consume them all.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Gameplay
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a turn-based strategy game, requiring players to control heroes and their armies through wide-open maps full of neutral mobs to defeat, treasures to collect, resources to gather, and structures to capture. At the same time, they must skirmish against other players in an attempt to defeat their own heroes and capture their castles.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Release Date
The game is expected to release within 2026. No specific release date has been announced as of writing this review.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Review (Demo)
999 Stacks of Hype
Getting to review Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era’s demo after its release date was pushed to 2026 was certainly not in my bingo card this year, but here we are.
The Heroes of Might and Magic series is an old IP whose roots can be traced all the way back to the mid 90s. It’s a very traditional, almost tabletop-like turn-based strategy game where you control heroes and their armies in an expanding conquest against enemy players and neutral mobs.
But despite not having played many turn-based strategy games on the scale of Heroes of Might and Magic, I have played the third, fourth, and fifth game rather extensively (aside from the fourth)… man, that was so long ago, too. So, the question becomes: will Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era take me back to those days when all I had to think about was how much lunch money my parents will give me that day?
Oh, it will!
It Certainly Plays Like The Olden Era
Despite having some systems purpose-built to simplify gameplay, such as the auto-battle feature, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era (which I’ll refer to as Olden Era from now on) still feels very much like the old games — and I mean that in a good way.
First, the variety: this installment of Heroes of Might and Magic (HoMM) features six factions to choose from, though only four are playable in the demo—Temple, Necropolis, Dungeon, and Schism. These factions aren’t just different in name; each one has a distinct design philosophy that translates into unique gameplay options and strategic identities.
But how do you play the game, anyway? Well, HoMM is, at its core, a turn-based strategy game where you command heroes and their armies, capturing buildings, defeating neutral mobs, and collecting resources while upgrading your castle to supply you with stronger troops.
Along the way, your heroes level up, learn new skills, and grow in ways that align with their specialties. This makes each of them distinct, even among the nearly twenty heroes available across all races. Their preferred army compositions also vary based on their strengths.
For example, Typhona from the Dungeon faction favors Hydras—high-tier monsters that are not only expensive but also massive, slow, and incredibly dangerous thanks to their health, regeneration, and poisonous attacks. Meanwhile, Mouaren prefers the much squishier Infiltrators: weaker units that trade durability for sheer numbers and speed.
Even units are more than just numbers you throw at your enemies, hoping yours happens to be higher. See, in Olden Era, just like in some of the other HoMM games, every unit can be made stronger by upgrading them into alternative forms. These upgrades require specific structures in your keep and must be done while you’re in your base, but they always give you a choice—usually between a form that’s stronger in raw stats or one that’s more versatile.
While that alone would already appeal to any strategy enthusiast, note that you can freely switch between upgraded forms. In other words, you can adapt directly to the situation as long as you’re near a base—or just pick whichever looks cooler that day. The world’s your oyster.
Anyway, moving on: battles occur when you run into enemies, transporting both sides into a hex-based combat screen (think Wild Arms XF if you’re more of an RPG enjoyer). This setup makes positioning much smoother than in square-based grids and, thankfully, you won’t get blocked by random twigs as often. However, it also means fast-moving units have more paths to reach your backline, so positioning matters more than ever.
From there, you position your units and issue commands as you would in any turn-based strategy game. To spice things up, spells are back, and your heroes can cast any they’ve learned—as long as you’ve got the mana for it. Outside of that, your army units will be doing most of the heavy lifting. And, that’s great! Because I would honestly rather not go back to HoMM IV’s massively broken heroes that could solo dragons…
It Looks and Sounds Like It, Too, for Better or Worse
Now, a decade may have passed since the last HoMM title, but that doesn’t mean ten full years of innovation have blessed the game’s audiovisuals. In many ways, it’s a bit of a mixed bag right now—though to be fair, many of its issues can probably be chalked up to the fact that we’re, well, playing a demo.
Like, I swear some sound effects and pieces of music are either missing or bugging out at times. For example, the victory theme after clearing a battle just doesn’t play sometimes. There’s also this odd tendency for models to look slightly blurred… though that might just be due to the game’s color balance. It makes identifying objects on the map harder than it should be, since everything kind of blends into the background.
Well, sure—you can highlight them by pressing Alt, but still—
The biggest issue, though, is the lack of camera options. Especially in combat, you can no longer zoom in to get a closer look at your units, which is a shame since that feature used to do wonders for player engagement.
As for the artwork and model designs, well… they do look a bit generic. Then again, I’ve never really played HoMM for the art anyway—not for the most part, at least. The music is pretty good, though!
Now, because the game is still just a demo and lacks one of the most enjoyable parts of playing HoMM—I mean, PvP—it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions about it. That said, it’s already shaping up to be quite a breakable game; an aspect that, honestly, tends to influence the series’ popularity just as much—if not more—than the actually (or arguably) good gameplay.
Heck, you don’t even have access to two of the game’s six factions yet, and the single-player campaign isn’t available either.
But still, considering that a single run can easily eat up several hours of your life, I’d say it’s perfectly fine as it is right now. Honestly, I would’ve just kept playing if I wasn’t so concerned about maintaining some semblance of work-life balance. As for whether I recommend it? That’s pretty obvious:
Try it. Be part of the hype.
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Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Product Information
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| Title | HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC: OLDEN ERA |
|---|---|
| Release Date | 2026 (Early Access) |
| Developer | Unfrozen |
| Publisher | Hooded Horse, Ubisoft |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Strategy, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1-4 |
| ESRB Rating | PEGI 16 |
| Official Website | Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Official Website |
