Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Review

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2026 is shaping up to be an incredible year for strategy game fans. It’s already seen a wealth of high-quality releases, including standout titles like MENACE, a top turn-based strategy game of the last five years, and Slay the Spire 2, also known as Task Force Admiral, which many are calling the best naval wargame ever made. With Star Wars: Zero Company and Dawn of War 4 on the horizon, and the return of Heroes of Might & Magic with Olden Era, the rest of the year looks just as promising.

Okay, so Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is finally out, and I’m wondering what it’s all about – and if it’s actually any good. Let’s dive in and find out together, shall we?

Okay, so I need to be upfront: I’ve actually never played Heroes of Might & Magic III before starting this. I thought about learning it before diving in, but honestly, I just didn’t have the time. But I did spend a lot of time with Heroes on Game Boy, and those memories have stuck with me for almost 20 years. It was wild finally getting to play Olden Era back in September 2025 – it brought everything flooding back!

  • Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
  • Developer: Unfrozen
  • Publisher: Hooded Horse
  • Release Date: 30 April, 2026
  • Reviewer: Nuno Marques (PC)
  • Target Audience: Turn-Based Strategy players; RPG players; Heroes of Might and Magic fans

Okay, so if you’re wondering what Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is all about, it’s a turn-based strategy game, and it’s actually a prequel to the whole Heroes storyline. Basically, you wander around a map, fighting creatures to grab resources, items, and take over cities. You can then build up those cities, and hire units in towns or find them as you explore. When you get into a battle, it’s turn-based on a hex grid, and it’s cool because you can have stacks of units – sometimes just a few, sometimes hundreds! Both sides can cast spells and use abilities to try and win. Honestly, it’s a surprisingly simple game, and in the best way possible. It reminded me so much of playing on my Game Boy – I didn’t even bother with the tutorial, it just felt natural!

The Early Access version of Olden Era includes six distinct factions, each with unique characteristics but also some common elements – which I’ll discuss later in this review. You can play through a tutorial, the first part of the campaign, or try out several pre-designed scenarios. It offers various single and multiplayer modes like Classic, Single Hero, and Arena. There’s even a hotseat mode for playing with friends locally, and a map editor for creating your own levels. For a game still in Early Access, Olden Era is remarkably complete, offering dozens of hours of content to explore, even just to try everything out once. It’s hard to find any fault with it in that respect.

The game features several distinct factions. The Temple is a classic human army with soldiers, archers, priests, knights, griffons, and paladins. The Necropolis commands undead forces like skeletons, beasts, and vampires. The Grove draws power from nature with forest spirits, trees, and druids. The Hive is a relentless swarm of insect-like creatures. The Schism is a bizarre and unsettling force, inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Finally, the Dungeon is a formidable underground faction boasting powerful units like minotaurs, assassins, hydras, and dragons.

Olden Era features distinct factions, each with a different way to play. These differences are highlighted by 18 unique heroes per faction, each possessing their own strengths, bonuses, and playstyles – some excel at magic, others at defense, and some are better at gathering resources. Essentially, each hero feels like a unique sub-faction within the larger one. While they might seem similar at first, the real depth comes from experimenting with different army compositions and spells, making Olden Era a game that’s simple to pick up but offers a lot of strategic complexity.

There are plenty of factions and heroes to play, offering a lot of replay value. I’ve only focused on a few – the Temple, Schism, and Dungeon – and I feel like I’ve barely begun to understand what each one can do.

What really makes games like Heroes of Might & Magic engaging is having interesting units – it’s what keeps players coming back and trying new things. The ability to upgrade units is great, and the Olden Era’s choice of two upgrades for each unit is a particularly nice feature, offering different stats and abilities. My biggest wish is that the game had more neutral creatures – those you encounter while exploring and in battles, rather than hiring from cities. There are a few now, but I’d love to see a lot more variety. They add a welcome change of pace and are always fun to find. I hope the developers continue to add them! Imagine encountering a unique dragon, a rare elemental, or a giant guarding a powerful item for your hero – or even being able to recruit them to your party! That would really entice players to explore. Right now, I often end up fighting the same old Halflings and Ghouls instead of more exciting creatures like Dragons and Dragonslayers.

I also think the game could use more classic fantasy creatures. I’m hoping the developers add things like goblins, orcs, demons, gremlins, centaurs, and different types of elementals – I just feel like those are essential for a good fantasy game!

Olden Era offers all the game modes you’d expect from a Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM) experience. You can play through the first part of the campaign, try the traditional Classic mode with multiple heroes, or enjoy my personal favorite, Single Hero mode. The review version also includes 8 separate scenarios. If you’re looking for quick battles, the Arena lets you customize a hero, equip them, choose spells, build an army, and jump right into combat. I found myself mostly playing Classic or Single Hero, not because the campaign was bad, but because I tend to get engrossed in a game once I start it. I plan to play the full campaign when the game is complete. Overall, I’m really impressed with the amount of content available – it’s packed with things to do and definitely worth highlighting again.

Having lots of things to do isn’t fun if the core game isn’t enjoyable, but Olden Era gets it right. It perfectly captures the addictive gameplay loop of classic hero-management games that kept me hooked for hours. I especially love exploring, and Olden Era excels at that. Each map is full of things to discover, and I always had something to do. (Except maybe when I was waiting for my troops to recover after miscalculating a battle!) Beyond exploration, you can constantly build up your cities, create laws, and research new magic. Finding gear and leveling up your heroes is a key part of the experience, unlocking new skills and abilities. All of this combines to create that classic “just one more turn” feeling, and Olden Era delivers it thanks to its blend of exploration and constant progress.

While the game is enjoyable, the gameplay can become a little repetitive during longer sessions. You’ll start facing the same enemy types and challenges repeatedly, and what once felt difficult quickly becomes easy once you have a strong army. It’s understandable that games don’t stay challenging forever, but I’d appreciate more variety in enemy encounters to keep things interesting throughout the campaign. Otherwise, I don’t have any major complaints.

Olden Era’s battles play out like many classic strategy games: units move across a hexagonal map, taking turns based on their speed. A round ends when all units have acted, and then repeats until one side wins. I personally enjoy the exploration aspect of Olden Era more than the combat, as I already play a lot of games with turn-based fighting. However, I think most players will find the combat the most engaging. Each unit feels unique, with different strengths – some excel at charging into battle, others at long-range attacks, and some control the battlefield or deal area damage. Units have varied abilities, like teleporting or adapting their attacks based on the situation. The combat is a real highlight, especially with powerful hero abilities and spells. The game features a huge variety of spells, covering everything from healing and direct damage to buffs, debuffs, summoning, and battlefield control. You’ll find almost any spell you can imagine! A key mechanic is the ‘focus’ meter, which fills up as you deal and receive damage, and is needed to activate stronger unit and hero abilities.

The combat system is a well-designed classic – challenging but not overly complex. Most fights are quick, usually finishing in 5 to 10 minutes. There’s also a lot of room for experimentation and improvement if you want to really dive in and perfect your strategy.

Let’s discuss how the game looks and feels. The art style seems to be a divisive topic, with some players loving the bright, colorful graphics and others wishing for a more traditional, less mobile-game-like appearance. I’m somewhere in the middle. I think the visuals work really well during exploration – the vibrant colors and detailed environments make everything clear and create a fantastic, whimsical atmosphere. However, I’m not completely sold on the art style during battles. While it’s not bad, I sometimes struggle to quickly tell units apart. Everything feels a little too polished and smooth, giving them a slightly rubbery look. I personally prefer a more detailed and gritty style, especially for a fantasy setting like this, which reminds me of the classic fantasy art from the late 80s and 90s. Perhaps that’s why it doesn’t fully resonate with me. Ultimately, though, the art style doesn’t ruin my enjoyment of the game, nor does it significantly enhance it.

The game’s interface was really rough last year – tooltips were missing and the text was hard to read. Thankfully, the latest version I tested has completely fixed those issues, which is great! The sound and music are decent, but not particularly memorable. On the plus side, the game runs flawlessly – I haven’t experienced any crashes and it maintains a smooth 120 frames per second.

Despite some critiques, I really enjoy how easy to pick up and play Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is, and its charming, retro style. The game instantly brought back forgotten memories, and it’s clear that’s exactly what it aims to do – recapture the feeling of classic Heroes of Might & Magic games, and it does so wonderfully.

Final Score 8.5/10

I’m really impressed with Olden Era and optimistic about its future – it’s as visually striking as the gameplay is promising. This new installment in the Heroes of Might & Magic series shows that classic formulas can still succeed if updated for modern audiences, and the impressive 1.5 million wishlists prove players are eager to try it. I give Olden Era a score of 8.5/10.

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2026-04-28 17:48