Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era
Unfrozen · Strategy, RPG, Simulation
Overview
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the official prequel hailing back to the origins of the genre-defining, critically acclaimed series of turn-based strategy games. Raise grand armies and wield devastating spells to overcome your foes in both solo and multiplayer.
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This newest entry in the renowned Heroes of Might and Magic series brings strategic empire building, epic turn-based tactical battles, and in-depth RPG mechanics to a world of fantastical beasts, formidable spellcasters, and fierce champions. Explore a vibrant world full of secrets and dangers as you play through an epic narrative campaign that heralds impending doom, or conquer both procedurally generated and hand-crafted maps, building magnificent cities and raising massive armies of mythical creatures to vanquish your foes.
Made for series veterans and newcomers alike, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is built on the familiar foundations of some of the most critically acclaimed strategy games of all time, introducing multiple classic and new game modes whether playing solo or with friends online.
Choose from six powerful factions to lead in a fantastical world where stalwart heroes command armies of mighty warriors and magical creatures in battle. From the armored knights of the Temple and the elemental spirits of the Grove, to the fire-breathing dragons of the Dungeon and the animated corpses of the Necropolis, each of the factions wields its own unique selection of units and heroes on the battlefield.
Each faction in Olden Era has a great variety of unique units with which to forge your own playstyle and match your tactical preferences. Will you choose to lead armies of deadly but fragile vampires and liches, able to sap the enemy’s strength with every strike and drain life to raise fallen warriors? Or do you prefer more robust combatants like the noble griffins and their ability to counterattack multiple times, or honorable knights that lead devastating charges? Use varied active and passive abilities to teleport troops further than their movement range would typically allow, summon additional forces to the field, hamper your opponent’s ability to cast spells or use abilities of their own, or otherwise turn the tide of battle.
Build the appropriate structures in your cities to recruit and upgrade your units into more formidable variants, or seek out dwellings across the strategic map to bring creatures from other factions into your armies, unlocking new opportunities and synergies to overcome your foes.
Recruit powerful heroes to lead your armies, each exerting their own effects on your empire and its warriors as they grow more experienced over time. Where one might help their army move more quickly across the world, another may increase the initiative of all units within their army, favour the recruitment of a particular unit, or generate essential resources to bolster your economy. With over a hundred unique heroes each bringing their own starting armies, skills, and spells with them, there are a great variety of strategies to employ.
Whether fighting for supremacy on procedurally generated worlds or playing on handcrafted maps built by the developers or community members on the in-game map editor, Heroes of Might and Magic will always take you to an unknown world awaiting exploration. Send forth your armies to pull back the veil and reveal great opportunities and dark threats, racing against your enemies to capture points of interest and secure the foundations of a strong economy. Navigate the treacherous terrain and varied biomes as you do, and seek out the mountain passes, chokepoints, and alternate pathways guarded by fearsome creatures and deadly armies.
Start with a single town where you can construct buildings, recruit and upgrade units, and hire additional heroes. Then venture forth and seek out structures in the world beyond that can generate vital resources, provide you with arcane power, or aid in your defense. With limited movement points per turn, every fork in the road becomes a strategic decision – will you rush to a well and replenish a hero’s mana, betting that the enemy lies in wait just beyond what your eyes can see? Or perhaps the glittering of a treasure hoard and its offer of great reward is more pressing?
Valuable landmarks will often be guarded by powerful armies, and the first to overcome this force will reap rewards that can hold the secret to success. With valuable artifacts ranging from weapons and armour to magical rings and trinkets, heroes carrying the right equipment can strengthen what first appears to be a weak army, or otherwise unlock surprising combinations and synergies.
Capture additional towns to gain access to reinforcements closer to the ever-shifting frontlines of war, and secure your grip with garrisons stationed at their walls. Develop each town in different ways to gain access to the specific needs of a certain front as you face off against your enemies.
The battlefields of Olden Era put warriors and spellcasters to the test as humble footsoldiers stand shoulder-to-shoulder with and against hydras and phoenixes and minotaurs and more. Powerful magic courses overhead as heroes conjure the arcane to strike enemies down or reinvigorate allies, drawing from four different schools of magic to turn the tide of battle.
Turn-based tactical battles will test your strategic mastery as you seek out devastating synergies among the large variety of units at your disposal, the heroes that lead them, and the spells and artifacts they wield. The right combination can make even the lowly skeleton warrior a formidable opponent, and a shrewd tactician can find advantages in surprising ways. The battlefields of Olden Era encourage smart but aggressive play – ranged units are able to fire across the field, distances close quickly, and spells can strike from anywhere.
Earn Focus by causing and receiving damage, and spend it to use powerful and unique units abilities, unlocking options that range from more devastating attacks and increased defenses to higher initiative and mobility. From the Graverobber’s ability to summon Skeletons to the Locust’s ability to jump to a nearby corpse and devour it for buffs, each unit provides a litany of interesting options in combat. Will you spend this precious resource to heal weakened units with the help of your Hierophant, keeping them on the battlefield for just a few more crucial turns? Or perhaps your Arbitrator can teleport a powerful allied unit forward, surprising your opponent where they previously felt safe, shifting the tides quickly in your favor? Every decision you make is critical, and if the odds are overwhelming, you can always pay the price to flee the battlefield and fight another day.
Whether you seek a non-linear narrative campaign, skirmishes against the AI, or battles against friends and strangers alike across three different game modes, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era brings a fantastical world to life across its massive roster of factions and units, great variety of powerful spells and abilities, and endless options to pursue your unique playstyle.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT7,614 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players most often describe Olden Era through Heroes III. That game or its fan expansion Horn of the Abyss comes up in 42% of longer reviews, usually as praise that Olden Era keeps the old map exploration, town building and hex battles while borrowing from Heroes V and adding laws, twin unit upgrades, focus abilities and spell upgrades. Reviewers also credit the developers' fast patching, the Arena, Single Hero and Tournament modes, Paul Romero's music, hotseat play and a low price for how much content early access already holds.
Complaints start with the AI, which comes up in 12% of longer reviews. At launch players on Easy were crushed by enemy heroes with impossible armies in the second week; after patches the complaint shifted toward an AI that is passive on lower settings and only dangerous when it cheats. Other complaints are that single-player trails PvP, that maps are unclear and cluttered, that bugs cost progress, that co-op and teams were missing at launch, and that maps come only from templates. Opinion is divided on the art style and on the campaign's writing. The rating dipped through the summer, reaching 66.7% to 74.6% in the August weeks, and recovered toward 75% to 85% by late September and October as team play arrived.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A true successor to Heroes III, with the best of Heroes VHigh
Heroes III or Horn of the Abyss is named in 42% of longer reviews, more than any other topic. 15% talk about nostalgia or childhood, and 8% bring up Heroes V, usually to describe the game as a blend of the two. One player put it as "jumping into Olden Era feels like coming home." Others say the core loop is familiar but laws, alternate upgrades and the focus system make it feel new. A minority push back hard. Some say it lacks the soul or the depth of a fully modded Heroes III and that they went back to Horn of the Abyss, and one wrote "It's nothing like HoMM3, if this is your reason for purchasing, don't bother."
Responsive developers and fast patchesHigh
Praise for the studio listening to feedback and patching quickly appears in 12% of longer reviews, often citing several patches in the first days. One reviewer noted "They're listening to feedback and to suggestions and they've had 3 patches out in 72 hours." Some reviews say they changed their vote after a patch, such as "Easy bots seem to be fixed, thumbs down reverted to thumbs up." A couple of reviewers object that the studio acts mostly on feedback from PvP players and streamers.
Arena, Single Hero, Tournament and hotseat modesHigh
Arena (a quick draft-and-fight mode), Single Hero maps and the Tournament win condition are praised for making matches shorter and multiplayer more approachable; 10% of longer reviews discuss the game modes. "Tournament mode is the best innovation this instalment has given!" Couples, families and old friends value hotseat on one PC, with one reviewer calling "hotseating like in the old days is something I didn't expect in 2026". Complaints here are about matchmaking: Single Hero queues can drop players into a long Capital Hold match, and turn timers can be abused.
Paul Romero's music and the classic sound effectsHigh
The music comes up in 10% of longer reviews, mostly warmly. Returning players notice the Heroes III sound effects and the Heroes V-style themes, and the return of composer Paul Romero is a selling point on its own: "THEY GOT PAUL ANTHONY ROMERO BACK TO DO THE MUSIC". A smaller group (64 longer reviews use critical wording) finds the soundtrack ambient and forgettable next to the town themes of Heroes II and III, for example "the music is underwhelming compared to what came in the past".
New systems that add depth: laws, twin upgrades, focus, spell upgradesMedium
Faction laws, two swappable upgrade paths per unit, focus points that power unit and hero abilities, subskills on each skill level, and upgradeable spells and artifacts give each faction several ways to play, according to the 10% of longer reviews that discuss the new mechanics. One weak spot reviewers name is the hero subclass, which needs five specific skills out of eight slots: "it's extremely difficult to unlock the elite class." Some also find the focus abilities too slow to charge to matter.
Strong value for an early access priceMedium
Price comes up in 6% of longer reviews, mostly to say the launch price is fair or cheap for what is included, with lines like "Highly recommended at a really reasonable price." Reviewers point to six full factions, a first campaign act, dozens of map templates, a map editor and online play. A few felt the content was thin for the money and suggested waiting for a sale.
The "one more turn" pullMedium
Losing track of time or staying up past midnight is described in 6% of longer reviews. "The one more turn loop is strong with this one."
Runs well on modest hardware, with no Ubisoft launcherLow
Smooth performance on old laptops, integrated graphics, Linux and Steam Deck gets mentioned in 3% of longer reviews, along with not needing a third-party account or launcher: "Runs quite well even on the non-gaming rig, like my laptop with integrated graphics." Another wrote "No Ubisoft Launcher is the icing on the cake". A handful report heavy RAM use, long loading screens or high GPU temperatures.
Where players are split
Art style and unit designHigh
The look is discussed in 24% of longer reviews, and critical and admiring wording appear in almost equal numbers (200 reviews use words like cartoonish, mobile or ugly; 193 call it beautiful or gorgeous). Fans praise the colourful adventure map, the animated town screens and the zoom: "the graphics, backgrounds, and color palettes used are simply gorgeous." Critics call the units and hero portraits cartoonish, mobile-like or reminiscent of MOBAs and Warcraft: "Terrible art style... fortnite/mobile game/ uninspired washed art style." Several who disliked it at first say it grew on them, and a recurring middle position praises the map and towns but not the unit and portrait art.
The campaign and its writingHigh
Reviewers note that early access includes only the first act of the campaign, which comes up in 22% of longer reviews, and they split on it. Some enjoyed the branching mission choices, faction reputation and side quests: "I was also pleasantly surprised by the campaign, which has an interesting story, includes side quests, and is genuinely fun." Others find the dialogue childish, jokey or excessive, as in "Please stop letting the unpaid intern write the dialogue/flavor text." Difficulty spikes, especially in the Saving the Knight mission, stat bonuses that do not carry between missions, and one-hero missions also draw complaints.
Depth versus complexityMedium
Supporters among the 9% of longer reviews that talk about complexity or depth see the layered systems as the game's strength, saying "the developers have done a tremendous job weaving all these upgrades into the base game experience seamlessly." Others, including some veterans, find too many overlapping systems that are poorly explained. One otherwise happy reviewer complained that every creature and hero has a long list of abilities: "Lots of Systems that add little."
Faction choices: Hive, Schism, Grove and the missing classicsMedium
The faction roster comes up in 9% of longer reviews. Necropolis, Dungeon and Temple get praise, and some enjoy the new Hive and Schism. Others miss Inferno, Tower, Stronghold and Fortress, dislike Hive as an Inferno replacement, and find its units hard to tell apart: "Hive (which was supposed to replace Inferno I guess) all look almost identical." Several call Grove's mix of fey, mushroom and elemental units incoherent. A few say they hope more factions arrive later in development.
The Necromancy reworkLow
Necropolis or Necromancy is mentioned in 4% of longer reviews. Some still find Necropolis strong, while others say the new rule set (a toggle, an energy pool, and raising only from the strongest stack) is confusing or barely shows what it raised after a battle: "BUT PLEASE FIX NECROMANCY."
What frustrates players
AI that is either brutal or brainlessHigh
In launch week, players on Easy or Normal met enemy heroes with tier 7 units and several times their own army by the second week, and 111 longer reviews accuse the AI of cheating. Overall, 12% of longer reviews discuss the AI's difficulty or behaviour. Some traced the launch problem to the "Multiplayer" AI being the default setting: "I realized I made an error in the UI and was picking the wrong difficulty for the AI and it was multiplayer." Early patches softened Easy and Normal, and later reviews more often describe the opposite problem, an AI that ignores fog of war, does not defend towns and falls apart after losing its main hero: "Once I win that siege battle, the AI falls apart and starts spawning multiple heroes with small armies that just roam around without any real threat." A negative review that otherwise calls the game a faithful return to the series puts both problems in one line: "The AI is either laughably easy, or cheating relentlessly." AI talk did not fade: it held at 10% to 12% of longer reviews from May to July and rose to 16% to 17% from August to October.
Map generation, templates and map varietyMedium
There is no fully random map generator in the Heroes III sense, say reviewers among the 11% of longer reviews that discuss maps and templates. Templates fix the victory condition and hero count, and generated maps fill zones with portals, weekly dwellings, towns and guarded "defeat the guard" buildings: "Maps are designed with almost no mines and an overload of towns and weekly-visit buildings". Some praise the variety of templates. Underground layers, water, ships, caravans and end-of-game statistics are frequent requests, for example "There is no underground or sea at all". One reviewer summed up the template issue as "Templates are fine as an option, but not as the only option."
Single-player feels secondary to PvPMedium
Single-player or PvE comes up in 10% of longer reviews. The complaint is that balance changes, map design and patch priorities serve competitive play while the PvE AI, campaign and handcrafted maps lag behind: "Too much focus on Competitive PVP right now, it feels like Singleplayer was an Afterthought for the Early Access Release." This grew over time. It came up in 6% of longer reviews in May, 15% in July, and 32% in August, three months after launch, before easing to 28% in September and 10% in October. One late request was "hopefully they can focus a bit more on Pve in the near future".
Balance between factions, skills and upgradesMedium
Complaints about balance appear in 9% of longer reviews. Named problems include Hive being weaker than other factions, Necropolis and Schism being strong, magic heroes outclassing might heroes, some upgrade paths always beating their alternative ("Some unit upgrades feel like they are always better than their counterpart"), and luck, morale and heroic strike swinging fights. Several of these reviewers treat balance as normal early access work.
Cluttered, hard-to-read adventure mapMedium
Resources, mines and entrances blend into the terrain, visited and unvisited buildings look alike, and some players rely on holding Alt or recolouring highlights in the settings; 8% of longer reviews say objects are hard to see. "The maps are so cluttered and hard to see." Town buildings, small text and similar-looking units in battle get the same criticism. Some who use the Alt highlight say it helps only partly.
Bugs, crashes and lost progressMedium
Bugs, crashes or freezes are described in 7% of longer reviews. They include an endless AI turn that freezes a match, multiplayer saves that fail to load, campaign blockers and crashes on launch or load: "Basically on some maps you will reach a point where the AIs turn will never end". Autosave being off by default outside the campaign turned several of these into hours of lost play, prompting "Having the autosave turned off by default is absolutely demented".
No co-op or teams at launchMedium
At launch players could not share a team with a friend against the AI, online or in hotseat, according to the 7% of longer reviews that discuss co-op, teams or alliances. One warned "If you want to play Co-op and on the same team with your friends then do not buy the game", and another was upset that a co-op tag shown before release was removed on release day. When team play and alliances arrived, discussion jumped to 16% of longer reviews in September, and some players changed their vote: "With the release of teamplay, I can finally recommend HoMM Olden Era!"
Clunky UI and missing explanationsLow
The interface draws complaints in 5% of longer reviews: missing tooltips on stats and abilities, too many clicks to upgrade or compare units, upgrade choices that reset, no restart-battle button, small text and no UI scaling. "The only downside is the lack of tooltips." Another player wrote "Too much clicking involved is basically my main issue."
Multiplayer connection problemsLow
Desyncs, disconnects that count as a loss, lobbies with four or more players that would not start, high ping across regions and opponents who stall turns are described in 3% of longer reviews. One adds: "The game doesn't let dropped players reconnect either".
Controller, Steam Deck, ultrawide and Mac supportLow
A small group asks for controller support, larger text for handhelds, proper 32:9 ultrawide support and a native Mac version. Several Steam Deck owners say the game runs well but needs a dedicated control scheme.
3. The player conversation
The conversation is warm and personal. Much of the praise comes from long-time fans glad the series is back, with childhood memories, hotseat nights with partners and family, and thanks to the developers. Negative reviews are usually specific: they name an AI army that should not exist, a lost save or a missing feature, and some say they will flip their vote once it is fixed. Some did exactly that after the early patches and again when teams arrived.
Who raises what differs by playtime. Reviewers with under 10 hours write a larger share of the art-style complaints than of longer reviews overall, so much of that debate is about first impressions. Players with 50 or more hours are overrepresented among those who call the AI too passive and who say single-player is neglected. Complaints that the AI is too strong follow the overall playtime mix more closely, and 43% of all AI-difficulty reviews were written in the first week after launch, when players on Easy met huge enemy armies.
The tone shifted after launch. Launch week was the most positive (89.8% of 2,491 reviews). From June the share became more volatile, dipping to 67.6% in the week of 8 June and to 66.7% to 74.6% across the August weeks, as veterans voiced frustration with PvE, the AI and balance. From late September, reviews crediting team play, alliances and a better random map generator pulled the share back up, to 82.6% in the week of 28 September and 75.5% to 85% in October, though later weeks have only a few dozen reviews each.
4. What the developers could do
- Make each AI difficulty fair and still dangerous. Reviewers describe both armies that outgrow any human economy and an AI that collapses after one lost battle, so both ends need work.
- Give single-player the same priority as PvP. Single-player and PvE talk peaked at 32% of longer reviews three months after launch, with players asking for a better AI, more handcrafted maps and campaign acts.
- Turn autosave on by default and fix the progress-losing bugs. The endless AI turn, failed multiplayer loads and crashes turned into hours of lost play because autosave was off.
- Offer a true random map generator alongside the templates. Players want to choose map size, players, hero limits and victory conditions themselves, and to see fewer portals, dwellings and guarded buildings per zone.
- Make the adventure map readable without extra settings. Resources, mines, entrances and visited buildings should stand out by default; players say they miss them even with the Alt highlight.
- Finish team play across online, hotseat and the campaign. Missing teams drove early negative reviews, and several reviewers switched to a positive vote once team play arrived.
- Rebalance factions and hero subclasses. Hive's weakness, might versus magic, and subclasses that need five of eight skill slots are balance points reviewers name.
- Add tooltips, fewer clicks and reconnects to multiplayer. Clearer explanations for stats, Necromancy and astrology, plus the option to rejoin a dropped match, would address the interface and connection complaints.






