Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Early Access Review – A Formula Unchanged

I haven’t played a Heroes of Might and Magic title since the third installment in the series. I do have fond memories of the early days of the series, however, so when Olden Era came to my attention, I couldn’t wait to play it.

I did find a little bit of a mixed bag, but it’s mostly positive, so if you’d like to judge whether Olden Era is worth your time, keep reading.

HoMM is Most Certainly Back

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a turn-based 4X strategy game. You start off on a map with a hero and minimal units, and you need to raise an army and fight the enemy. To gain enough strength, however, you’ll need to look for and conquer all manner of interesting landmarks that appear on the beautiful 2.5D map.

If you’ve ever played Age of Wonders (especially 3 and 4), the concept is the same, only set in the Heroes of Might and Magic universe. It’s also similar to the old HoMM games, but weirdly more AoW.

Olden Era is highly addictive, with a smooth and fun gameplay loop. The animations, the artwork, and the gameplay are all incredibly pleasing, and fans of the series will feel right at home. But not all is well. Being an Early Access release, there are bound to be some quirks.

Frustrations You Will Need to Deal With

First and foremost, you will die. This is not an easy game, which can be frustrating to some, but it’s part of the genre. Without proper save management, however, you’ll likely be starting over a good few times in the campaign missions. There is an autosave system, but it’s not great. Quick saves are useful, but again, quick saving right before an unavoidable and unwinnable fight is a sure way to start the whole mission over.

The campaign is fun, but very short. The game is in early access, so it does need time to flesh out the story, but I can’t help but feel the core focus here is the multiplayer (which I haven’t tried, mind you), while the campaign feels like more of an afterthought.

Other than that, however, we have in HoMM: Olden Era a very strong entry into the 4X space.

The custom games have felt like a bit of a slog to me. I spend a long time building armies, hiring heroes, and exploring the world, only to find that the AI seems to have put all its eggs in one basket (or, rather, all its units with one hero), and completely wipes the floor with my diverse team of heroes.

This is fine, as we must simply adapt and do something similar, but when you’re playing one of the hotseat maps or even the normal maps, it feels like you can only have one army, and move in one direction, and either defend or attack, but not both.

It makes Olden Era feel a little one-dimensional here, but it’s also hard to think of ways around this. Troop limits come to mind, but that brings a whole new set of issues. For now, we’ll just have to keep trying to find a stronger strategy than one-hero-world-domination.

I’m sure far better players than I will find something pretty quickly after launch.

A Vibrant, Interesting World

When you first enter Olden Era, you’ll be greeted with a fun, colorful world that feels rewarding to explore. There are plenty of different types of buildings and events, especially for an early access title.

Combat has enough variation and luck-based elements to not feel stale quickly, though you’ll want to find and increase the unit movement speed pretty early on. Big, defensive fights can feel especially long at the default speed.

There’s not too much replayability, except for some choices in the campaign that you can take differently. These are more moral choices and such, and don’t influence the gameplay itself too wildly. The issues facing the custom game modes, mentioned above, kill the replayability for me, and I’ll likely only be back once more story content is available.

If you’re one to enjoy multiplayer, however, you might get far more out of it. Early reports do indicate some issues with the multiplayer systems, though, so time is needed to iron things out. I have total faith that the development team will iron out much of this in good time.

Verdict

Overall, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a solid 4X game that’ll keep you entertained for 10+ hours, easily. Fans of the genre or series might get far more out of it, and for me, it’s certainly worth the money at this point.

It’s still only in early access, and I, for one, am excited to see where they take it. The bones are there for it to be a truly great game and a standout entry in the HoMM universe.

7.5

HoMM: Olden Era Review

Olden Era is a fine game that will entertain players for hours. It gets a lot of the basics right, doesn't try too hard, and offers a vibrant, interesting world to explore.

Pros

• Interesting world
• Addictive gameplay loop
• Solid campaign story

Cons

• Can feel a bit long-winded at times
• One fight can end your game and force a restart

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.