Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Review: A New Life for an Aged Franchise

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era (HOMM) is back with some serious improvements to the formula and a lot going for it. This was my most anticipated game this year, and getting this chance to play the game was something I really looked forward to. I really enjoyed my time with the game, and it'll probably be my new solo game, even though I'm not super great at it.

It's been about ten years since we got a new Heroes of Might and Magic game, and this one is definitely coming out swinging for the fences. It's not perfect, heck, it's not even finished, but what's there right now is something that all kinds of strategy game fans can enjoy. A deep and complex game with well over 100 hours of gameplay available.

There are some things I didn't jibe with and some design mechanics that felt a bit limiting, but that could all just be something on my end not clicking. I was not expecting the game to have as many mechanics and intricacies as it does, and when I first started, I was a little overwhelmed. After some time, I began to understand the game a bit more, and things really opened up.

What is Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era?

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a Grand Strategy game that mixes a lot of the elements you know and love with a hero system where you recruit heroes from your faction in an effort to eliminate enemies or complete various objectives. Gather resources, capture objectives, level up, and collect gear as you move around the map, slowly unveiling all of it.

There are a ton of game modes, from challenge maps to a full campaign; everything you can think of is here. They've even got a hot seat mode just in case you want to play a game locally, but I mostly stuck to the campaign and regular game modes. You're almost spoiled for choice in this game with four main game modes to choose from: Arena, Classic, Single Hero, and Scenarios.

Each mode offers its own way to play. The main thing here is probably the campaign, which puts you in the shoes of Gunnar the Minotaur warrior as you investigate some disturbances at the request of the Triumvirate. It's a neat little story that offers a good way to learn the ropes.

The campaign only goes to the end of Act One, and that's a pretty good place to end for now, while things get worked on during Early Access. If you're just looking for some regular HOMM, there's plenty of that to go around. Games are pretty long, like most Grand Strategy games, but some of the missions can be done fairly quickly if you know what to do.

Deep and Complex Gameplay

While I never played the original games because I didn't have a way to, I found this gameplay to be unbelievably deep and complex. At first, I was very thrown off because it operated a bit differently from what I had imagined. That feeling didn't seem to go away as I played more, but I did eventually manage to overcome it.

Gathering units, exploring, getting resources, fighting neutral and enemy armies, and claiming objectives is a lot to keep track of, and it doesn't get any easier. You'll need to manage your resources carefully and make sure to provide some defense for your cities just in case enemies get overly confident.

All that complexity gives you a great opportunity for skill expression, at least if the RNG decides to agree with you. In one of the campaign missions, I managed to set my hero named Gunnar to accumulate two focus points every round. This meant I could pretty much always activate any troop abilities I wanted to, and that made combat much easier.

With that emphasis on heroes, you can craft your hero however you like. It was nice to have so much freedom, but the freedom did feel a little punishing as I progressed in the game. Some of that is certainly on me, but as the game advanced, I felt like fights would be a wipe one way or another.

Exploration, but Only Sort Of

I do understand that, up to a certain point, the map has to be sectioned out to work, but you're basically locked into an area by difficult fights and can't escape until you build your army. Watching the map unfold is one of my favorite parts of the game, so being locked into an area felt a little annoying. It made sense, but it still felt like an intentionally limiting thing to do.

Enemy players/AI don't really become an issue until a couple of months in, and it struck me as odd since in most Grand Strategy games, exploration plays a pretty big part. This also becomes an issue when playing the missions in the campaign, but in a very different capacity that felt even odder.

If you're playing with multiple heroes, you can get a bit more flexible in how you do things, but you still might run into problems when you can't expand beyond your region. This may just have been how it works in the map variants I chose, but this seems to be a built-in way to keep hero battles to a minimum early on.

It really bugged me because it just stops you in your tracks and forces you to do something different. For some people, this could be a fun challenge to overcome, but with how long a game can be, I'd rather have more free rein on the map. Outside of that, the exploration felt great as locations revealed themselves, and you sort of settled into a strategic plan ahead.

Some Great Additions to the Series

There have been a lot of new additions to the game, from Law Points and Focus Points to Faction Skills and Long Reach Attacks. I'm not going to talk about all of it, but I'll highlight some of the things I thought were really cool. Focus Points, for instance, were an awesome addition that made combat interesting and worthwhile.

You can have up to three Focus Points at a time, and these can be used to activate the combat abilities of units or use your hero abilities in combat. They're fairly easy to accrue, since you'll gain them as you do and take damage, and using them at the right times can be the difference between total defeat and complete victory.

Law Points add another layer of complexity to things as you accrue these daily to spend on upgrades to your game. Some improve your cities, others improve your heroes, but all of them can provide some much-needed bonuses to survive. They did help, but it's also another resource to manage as you choose between gaining Law Points and other resources on occasion.

All of these seem like improvements to the tried and true formula that was HOMM 3. I can't attest to that personally, but I can say that from a gameplay standpoint, they make the game more enjoyable. Grand Strategy games are supposed to be pretty complicated, but there came a time when I started to worry this game might be a little beyond me.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Complex?

I think things can get a little overly complicated, but I also believe that complexity can make for interesting gameplay, provided it's done well. The complexity in this game is done well and can make for some interesting build strategies, but I do still feel like it's missing something.

Whether it was simply broken or not present, I couldn't seem to get a glossary or anything of the like pulled up. A lot of things in the game just straight up don't tell you how they contribute and rely on word salad or vague descriptions to get the job done. This probably works if you're a HOMM expert, but for the newbs, it's a jumble of things.

I'd really like to see some highlighted words or a glossary you can pull up to make its way into the game at some point. It isn't a dealbreaker, but I don't think you should have to put in a ton of hours to know what everything means right from the jump. I constantly felt overwhelmed by the amount of information given.

If you can dig into that complexity, you'll find the game really opens up and gives you the tools to succeed on your own terms. I just think I'd like for this to happen a bit sooner. The game isn't so overly complex that you can't figure things out, but it certainly is one of the more complicated strategy games that I've played.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a superb entry into the series and brings the game back to what works. While the complex gameplay might not be for everyone, it offers a lot of freedom in how you go about making your playstyle for each scenario. The games are long, but there are also plenty of other modes to hone your skills, which is greatly appreciated. It's still in development, so there are a few kinks to work out, but whatever the future holds for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era will undoubtedly be incredible.