Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Hopes To Defrost Classic Strategy

The Heroes of Might & Magic franchise has featured its fair share of shambling undead, but this time around, it’s the series itself in search of resurrection. Following 2015’s lackluster (and confusingly title-altered) Might & Magic Heroes 7, the turn-based strategy series has lain dormant, seemingly left to molder. That is, until now.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era hopes to reignite passion for a series many thought lost. And it’s doing so by delving into its own history. At the helm of this unexpected revival is Unfrozen, a developer which prides itself on a love of old-school gaming. In a hands-off preview at Gamescom, Restart was introduced to both the game and the team’s goals in restoring the once-beloved series.

For those out of the loop: The Might & Magic games see players send heroes out from their faction bases to explore an overworld map shrouded in the fog of war. Collecting resources and recruiting forces, they’re able to build up and upgrade armies that tangle with rivals in tactical, hexagonal-grid battles.

If the name itself didn’t make it apparent, Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is, in many ways, looking to the past. The setting takes place before the events of the first game, returning to the world of Enroth which started it all. But more so than that, a retro brush has been swept across the entire landscape.

The world is viewed through a fixed perspective, with vibrant characters and buildings popping against it with a chunky, almost miniature-esque quality. The map is split distinctly, with desert, forest, and icy biomes butting up against one another. It’s an aesthetic tailor-made to set nostalgia engines humming in the brains of those who enjoyed the era of games like Warcraft 3 or Heroes of Might & Magic 5.

Old school is, almost literally, the name of the game, then. But Unfrozen was keen to show that while the Olden Era wants to hark back to the series’ glory days, it is definitely planning to marshal its own unique forces. The core Heroes of Might & Magic formula remains: exploration, base construction, upgrades, and battles. But in each aspect, Unfrozen has introduced new ideas.

Some additions are aimed at making the strategy series more approachable to newcomers. Autobattle results, for example, are shown prior to committing to the combat (though experienced players can dive in to obtain an optimal result). Others help define elements the team saw open to refinement. Powerful forces like heroes now bring activatable abilities into the tactical battle grid, units can be upgraded between two paths, and faction perks aim to give your starting faction choice a more lasting impact in longer matches.

In addition to a non-linear campaign that takes place across multiple missions containing forking, factional paths, Olden Era will introduce several new modes catering to different timeframes. Classic matches offer full-scale battles on generated or fixed maps, typically lasting 2-4 hours. Single Hero matches add more risk, slimming that down to a tighter hour. Finally, Arena matches see players drafting hero equipment and armies before jumping directly into battles as swift as 20 minutes.

Unfrozen has ambitious community goals, too. A full map editor is planned for the game’s Early Access launch, with a Template Editor in the works that will allow players to tailor how the game generates randomized maps. These tools, Unfrozen says, have been added based on the unconventional creations that the Heroes of Might & Magic community has crafted in the past. That interest in the existing community appears to be infused throughout, with the team even stating that certain AI behaviors have been trained on unexpected tactics the community generated in past entries.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era is planned to enter Steam Early Access in the first half of 2025. The launch, Unfrozen claims, will be feature complete. Six factions – including a new group called the Hive – will be available from the off. The push to an eventual full release will instead be used to fine-tune balance and other factors. The Heroes of Might & Magic series has had nearly 10 years for ice to gather over its tomb, but from our early look, we’re hopeful that Olden Era and Unfrozen’s passion will be exactly what’s needed to thaw this once stalwart strategy series.