Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era wants to take the series back to the form and function of Heroes of Might and Magic 3, but its Early Access launch is still under construction. The game drops players onto a top-down overworld map, where heroes and towns are managed by both sides before armies are sent into tactical grid-based battles to hunt for plunder and power.
That structure is the point, and it is also the problem. The review says the feeling of discovery dries up pretty early on, even though there are dozens of available maps and the game uses randomness to shuffle the placement of certain points of interest each time a new game starts. It will even tell players straight up whether a fight is worth taking, which makes the map easier to read but also strips away some of the uncertainty that used to make the series memorable.
The scope still looks familiar to anyone who spent time with Heroes of Might and Magic 3 in 1999. Resources on the map include building materials, gold, troops and magic items, while the unique faction units run from tier one grunts to tier seven juggernauts. Temple brings back the Haven knights of old, complete with holy warriors and literal angels, while the demonic Inferno has been replaced by the insectoid Hive.
That is where Olden Era leans hardest on nostalgia. Its stated goal is to revive the earlier style of the franchise, and the design clearly reaches back to older entries for its rhythm and its armies. But the review’s sharpest comparison lands in a single line about Hive: what if Hell was somehow worse? That kind of joke lands because the factions are trying to do more than look familiar; they are trying to prove the series can still surprise people who already know its best tricks.
For now, though, the game is still in the middle of that comeback, not at the end of it. The Early Access build shows the shape of a return, but it also shows how much work remains before Olden Era can reclaim the sense of wonder that made the old games matter in the first place.