Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era is a turn-based fantasy strategy game developed by Unfrozen and published by Hooded Horse. It combines hero exploration, kingdom management, and tactical battles in the magical world of Enroth. It’s out now in Early Access on Steam, so let’s check it out.
Lo, The Heroes of Yore Returneth
After years of decline and neglect under Ubisoft, the long-running Heroes of Might and Magic series is making a comeback for its 30th anniversary. The IP-hoarding dragon Ubisoft was wise enough to restore the game to its classic name and partner with strategy-focused publisher Hooded Horse, known for recent hits like Manor Lords, to help revive the franchise. Developers Unfrozen have done a fantastic job at recreating the old-school, turn-based, hexagon-layered fantasy game of yore.
Pick your favourite fantasy tribe and plunder gold and magical crystal mines whilst expanding your kingdom!
Gameplay
Rocky Beginnings
Newcomers to the franchise may find Heroes of Might and Magic‘s user interaction a bit dated, constantly forcing players to right-click certain things but left-click others. The game suffers from oddly specific menu interactions just to perform simple tasks. Examples are plenty, like dragging units between tiny portraits, constantly double-clicking on heroes, right-clicking on enemy units when you just want to study them before storming in like a headless chicken. Frustratingly, this happened to me twice.
The city building menu also takes a while to fully understand. Some basic units may only cost 40 gold pieces, but the total number of unit recruitment is capped. It is only after a full in-game week that cities can then recruit more units. This significantly slows down the process of raising an army of the undead.
My own personal frustration with the game came during my first hour of play when I couldn’t figure out how to return my hero to my castle. I couldn’t believe that such a straightforward action required help from a Steam Forum. Alas, the forum, as always, provided the answers to my grievances, and I was finally able to ride triumphantly back to my town by simply clicking on the gate located within the model of the city.
Let the Revels Commence!
Once I grasped the basics, after about two hours of gameplay, I felt ready to tackle some bigger fish, or should I say dragons. The game opens up into something fun and absorbing. The systems that at first felt clunky became more fluent. City building, unit recruitment, hero exploration, and, of course, glorious battle all work neatly together in harmony. Upgrading your city’s infrastructure and your hero’s spell book becomes essential to a successful campaign. Eventually, as your army grows stronger and your knowledge of magic spells expands, enemy armies and exotic monsters gradually become less intimidating.
This is when venturing out with your hero through portals, or simply riding on your undead horse, becomes fun. It is at this stage that gameplay evolves into what is essentially at the heart of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.
Choose thy Banner!
Picking a faction was surprisingly fun in and of itself. From undead necromancers to sparkly holy knights, to exotic fantasy creatures, and frozen snow elves, Heroes offers a wide variety of races. Aesthetically speaking, they all have their distinct identity, style, and architecture.
However, mechanically speaking, their differences are less pronounced. All tribes have the same progression system, basic foot soldiers and archers, before unlocking more advanced units with magical powers, cavalry, and lastly, monstrous heavy hitters. Even so, each clan is distinct enough in appearance and play style to make experimenting with each one of them worthwhile.
Graphics & Audio
Heroes doesn’t offer ground-breaking graphics, but it makes up for it with its old-school fantasy charm. Leaning more into nostalgia rather than graphic novelty may actually serve the game better than one might think. The art style works just fine, but it’s a bit too polished and approachable for my taste, almost generic. This contrasts with what the game wants to be, an unapologetically retro strategy game.
The soundtrack carries a pleasant medieval-fantasy charm that fits the game’s old-school atmosphere well, even if it never becomes particularly memorable. Meanwhile, the rest of the sound design remains largely functional. The casting of spells, the attacking, and groaning of units getting hit are all solid sounds during combat without drawing much attention to themselves, which, for a strategy title like this, is not necessarily a bad thing.
Longevity
Heroes offers tons of different game modes, from classic campaign to local skirmishes and even online play. Whilst testing all the different modes, I quickly realized the endless hours one could spend testing different races, strategies, maps, and more.
While playing in campaign mode, I was pleasantly surprised at how long the First Act was. The story felt intriguing whilst also introducing new players to the basics of combat and hero exploration. Additionally, the other game modes, like skirmishes and online multiplayer mode, can be played and replayed ad nauseam thanks to their strategic variety.
Considering the many, many game modes Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era offers, it is safe to say players will have hours on end of recruiting heroes, slaying monsters, and conquering new worlds.
Final Thoughts
Despite the endless hours of dragon slaying the game offers, I believe Heroes can get a tad repetitive. Explore the map with your hero while building a town. Lurk in dangerous dungeons for loot and defeat enemy clans. After that, it’s all rinse and repeat. The only things that make this game more challenging are raising the difficulty level and playing online. Admittedly, online play was tough. I didn’t manage to win a single game. But it really just came down to levelling up your hero and building your city faster than your opponents. Ultimately, the player who meets those requirements the fastest overwhelms the other with their massive army.
Speaking of strategy, or lack of, Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era feels like a streamlined version of other fantasy/sci-fi strategy games. The game lacks strategic depth and customization options compared to other genre classics like Age of Wonders 4, Stellaris, and Total War: Warhammer II. Its simplicity helps keep up a much faster pace during games. But that fast-paced play comes at the cost of limited options, near-zero diplomacy, and hugely simplified combat.
Despite what may seem a bit harsh review, Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era is an enjoyable and recommendable game. I will most definitely come back to its online mode to avenge my honour and get at least one victory.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this preview.
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