Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era

I went in braced for disappointment. The Heroes of Might and Magic name has been dragged through enough mediocre sequels that skepticism felt earned. Three sessions later I was watching the sun come up, having completely lost track of time managing Necropolis armies and agonizing over Law Seal choices. Olden Era is the real thing: a turn-based strategy RPG set in the world of Enroth, centuries before the events of the original series, on the previously uncharted continent of Jadame. The campaign's first act follows Gunnar, a Minotaur Overlord, as he investigates a spreading supernatural fire that is driving Jadame's inhabitants to madness, all while rival factions scramble for survival against the Hive, a swarm of demonic insectoid invaders serving the Dragonfly King. The writing has more personality than you might expect from this genre, and the scenario design gives the story room to breathe without padding it with filler objectives. The core loop will feel immediately familiar to anyone who grew up with Heroes III: move heroes across a richly detailed adventure map using limited daily movement points, capture resource mines, build up your town structures, recruit creature stacks, and then clash in hex-grid tactical battles where positioning and spell timing matter more than raw numbers. What Olden Era adds on top of that foundation is genuinely interesting. Six distinct factions launch with the Early Access build, each with its own native terrain, identity, and mechanical twist. Necropolis heroes raise fallen enemy units as new stacks after battles. The Schism faction's Abyssal Communion system scales your army size based on a Communion meter that rises with victories and falls each day, rewarding aggressive play. Grove uses a mushroom teleporter network to link owned towns across the map, a quietly powerful mobility tool on large maps. The Dungeon's units each carry two attack types, built for versatility and subterfuge. Every faction has 18 heroes divided between Might and Magic archetypes, and each hero can work toward unlocking one of two subclasses by leveling five specific secondary skills to Expert rank. That subclass payoff, when it hits, is a genuine late-game swing. Getting there is a legitimate build puzzle, not a checklist. Three systems are brand new to the formula and worth knowing before you start. Focus Points power unit special abilities in combat and need to be actively generated through positioning and action sequencing. Alchemical Dust, a resource obtained primarily by scrapping unwanted artifacts, handles spell upgrades and dwelling improvements. Law Points accumulate from your town's main structure and level-ups, then convert into Law Seals used to unlock faction-specific bonuses across a research tree. The Law system is the one area where criticism sticks: reviewers and players alike have flagged it as a layer of busywork that feels redundant alongside the already-dense upgrade economy. It is not broken, just underbaked, and exactly the kind of thing Early Access feedback should fix. On the subject of rough edges: the AI is ferocious, possibly beyond what the difficulty labeling implies. Players on supposedly easy settings have reported the AI arriving mid-map with fully upgraded Tier 7 stacks before a Capitol is even built. The UI makes some key information harder to access than it should be, particularly around morale, spell effectiveness, and unit special traits. New players will spend real time learning through painful trial and error. The campaign covers only its first act right now, co-op team play is not yet officially supported, and there is no controller input. These are real limitations for a released product, and you should go in with eyes open about what Early Access means here. What is already present, though, is remarkable for the stage of development. Five play modes beyond the campaign (Arena, Classic, Single Hero, Scenarios, and Challenges), online multiplayer up to eight players, hotseat local play, and a map editor are all live. The art direction is confident, with faction aesthetics that feel genuinely distinct, and the tactical battles read clearly even when stacks grow large. The bones here are stronger than anything the series has produced in over two decades, and developer Unfrozen is actively patching based on community input. If you have been waiting for a strategy RPG that takes hero progression, faction asymmetry, and build depth seriously, and you can tolerate some Early Access roughness, this is the one that deserves your attention right now.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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