We played Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. It's an evolution of proven ideas from previous installments
Last week, two members of the Unfrozen studio visited our HQ with a playable build of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era. We had the opportunity to test the heir to the cult „Heroes” in action!
1
To start, a couple of words about myself, since I haven't had the chance to write for you before. My first experience with the series was Heroes 3, my preferred castle is Bastion, and my favorite character is Jenova. For the player's peace of mind, I also played Heroes and HOMM 2, I like the aesthetics of H5 and fondly remember the quirky mechanics of Heroes 4, although it's the third installment that never leaves the disk of my rig. I only touched upon Heroes 6, and I draw a veil of silence over H7. I've never played in a competitive setting and occasionally enjoy intentionally falling into the trap of prioritizing the Capitol.
Menu
With such experience, I sat down to play, as there was no time to lose. I chose the "quick play" option without a hero limit, although an option with a limit to one was also available, and then the faction. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era allows you to play with six factions. These are the Temple, which are classic people, the Necropolis with undead, the Dungeon with everything dark and underground, Sylvan for nature lovers, Hive, full of demonic creatures, and the sixth, yet to be revealed faction. The level of difficulty was traditionally represented by chess pieces. The hero selection screen was impressive, featuring over 20 portraits neatly lined up, each with its own specialization. I felt like I was choosing a character in a fighting game. Just like in that genre, instead of deeply analyzing which sword or magic hero would be right for me, I simply pointed to someone with an interesting image and nickname. The large number of heroes suggests that everyone will find their Solmyr, Isra, or Gunnar here.
I hear silence
The build that we had the opportunity to test didn't have many sounds yet, so the screens of the cities were haunted by silence. There was also a lack of those short tunes that accompany us in "Heroes" when we want to attack the treasury or visit the mill. Audio design is an incredibly important element in games. If I say "new level" or "victory fanfare," you'll probably immediately hear the right sound in your head. We have to wait for the next builds and gameplay showcases.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
Tentacles
I wanted to test a novelty, which is a faction that hasn't yet been officially revealed. In terms of visuals, this faction has a winter-crystal style. Water and snake motifs are visible on the unit list, and the basic creature turns out to be friendly tentacle monsters. Do you remember the Hanar from Mass Effect? Something like this, but blue and more armored.
After constructing the appropriate buildings, I was able to upgrade the units with one of two improvements. The appearance changed, the statistics shifted, sometimes a special ability appeared, and most importantly - I could switch between upgraded versions at any time, without any time or resource costs. Various "quality of life" changes are a strong point of the game. For instance, during recruitment from the city screen, I could click the left mouse button to purchase available units and the right one to change the default variant being acquired. Finally, when I set everything up the way I wanted, I clicked the recruitment button for everything I could afford.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
Two words about the city's screen. It lacks the rigid and transparent static quality of the third installment and the grand Hollywood scale of "H5," though it leans more towards the former. When I moved the cursor, the view of the city tilted a few degrees to one side or the other, giving a sense of depth, but nothing more than that. On the left, I found several buttons: for building, recruiting, inn, and marketplace. While there is something organic about going to the market by clicking on the right building, I appreciate the accessibility of the shortcuts, especially when I'm new in town.
Map
Before setting off on the journey, I gathered a party by hiring another hero and borrowing his army, leaving him with a lone tentacle monster. Then, I set off to conquer. If you keep up with the game's development, you've likely noticed the visual effect of the map being burned as it's discovered. All that is uncharted stays gray, and as we journey on our horse, more and more of the game's world turns colorful. The devs announced that if someone prefers their fog of war as an infinite starry void like in Heroes of Might and Magic III or white clouds as in the fifth installment, they will be able to customize this effect to their liking. And speaking of UI, the hero icons are on the left, city icons on the right, and the resource bar is at the top of the screen. In the upper left corner, we have a panel of spells and laws.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
What's on the map itself, though? A real deluge of resources, objects, habitats and, generators. It might be a matter of playing on a small screen, but at the beginning I was getting an eyestrain. The day before, I was playing "H3" and saw everything clearly, but today I keep missing some resources or not taking the "wood mine." However, I think it's a matter of getting used to and relearning what is an object to be picked up and what is just a decorative element of the background. Anyone who has ever taught siblings or cousins to play "Heroes" probably remembers the feeling of embarrassment when they somehow managed to bypass the Fountain of Youth or the Garden of Revelation. In Olden Era, accessibility options came to my aid by enabling the visible enemy threat area and allowing me to hold down a key to highlight all interactive objects. Regardless of the installment you were raised on, you will probably need to take a moment to train your eyes so as not to miss anything.
Resources
The economy of the series, apart from taking over generators, has always been based on gathering. In games from the first to the fifth installment, there were seven resources: gold, wood, ore, crystals, mercury, gems, and sulfur. The sixth part of the series went in the direction of simplification and got rid of the last three, and "H7" besides renaming ordinary crystals to dragon ones, added three variants of steel. In Olden Era, we return to the concept of seven resources, but we replace sulfur with alchemical dust.
Sword
Of course, not all riches were easily accessible, and many of Jadame's treasures were guarded by opponents. When I hovered the cursor over the enemy unit, I received information about the difficulty level of the fight, expressed by skulls and a caption: one skull - easy, five skulls - deadly. I launched the attack on the troglodytes, the pre-battle window provided detailed information about the number and type of creatures, and also showed a simulation of the battle outcome, highlighting how many of my units and the enemy's would perish. Similar to the Total War series games, I had the opportunity to accept the result, retreat or fight the battle myself. The simulation predicted the loss of two tentacle monsters, so like a good general, I shouted, "Follow me!" and went into battle.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
The battle on the hexagonal battlefield turned out to be exactly what we could expect from a game in this series. We are positioned on the left, the opponent is on the right, and some hexes on the map are filled with obstacles such as branches and stones. In the upper part, an initiative bar that helps in planning actions, in the lower part a spellbook and a focus bar. As time passes during the clash, the bar charges and provides points, up to three, which we use to activate special abilities of units. One of them allowed me to teleport an opponent up to four spaces away, another was a hero's attack, and the Liches from Necropolis could, for instance, resurrect fallen allies. These abilities are expected to cost between zero and three points, but it is currently impossible to tell whether using them will be like launching an "ult," which, at a critical moment, will tip the scales of victory in our favor, or if we will simply gain additional tactical capabilities.
In the end, only one tentacle creature was defeated instead of two. That's all when it comes to AI taking over the world.
Magic
The game will offer options for those who favor more refined ways of resolving conflicts instead of using steel, or who simply think a fireball is a solution to everything. Magic has a separate interface styled after constellations, divided into five levels of advancement, although not as crazy as the Atlas in Path of Exile. At the beginning, we have a few basic first-level spells, like magic arrows or healing, but nothing stops us from unlocking more, such as the ever-useful acceleration - we just need to spend some resources, particularly alchemical dust. In the same way, we can also improve spells. The next step is to visit the city with the mage's guild and purchase a book so that the spells can be added to our hero's repertoire. Similarly, to explore the successive circles of spells written in the stars, it's necessary to build the next levels of the guild.
At first, the system seems complicated, because we are dealing not only with different levels of spells, but also with their upgrade levels. All self-taught wizards will appreciate the ability to choose the spells they are interested in instead of receiving random and sometimes less useful ones. For those who still want more, scrolls found in the game world will come to the rescue, adding the appropriate trick to our book. At the moment, magic seems powerful, because - as we know - in turn-based gameplay, putting an enemy unit to sleep even for a moment can be very useful.
Minmaxing
Many troglodytes and other creatures fell in my path, and the rewards, besides the possibility of gathering resources, were levels of experience. Leveling up involved selecting one of three skills. Some of them were marked with a blue or red icon, showing what is needed to advance our character's class, resulting in extra perks. The system from Heroes of Might and Magic IV comes to mind here, where combinations of chosen skills created our class, which could change during gameplay. Unfortunately, it has been narrowed down to only two subclasses here. During my playthrough, I didn't manage to advance high enough to feel how much such a solution would affect the game.
It starts to get interesting when we develop a skill to an advanced and expert level. Each one is assigned five modifiers, with three available at the first level and two at the second. We can choose one of them each time. For example, by developing morale to an advanced level, I could choose an option that gives my units an extra two health points. From the note beside it, I found out that if I have a skill called "armorer" at the same time, the bonus will be doubled.
Our editorial colleague Mike surrounded by our guests from the Unfrozen studio. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
Such a solution can be a paradise for those who enjoy creating builds, but it also carries the risk of confining us to specific frameworks. I wouldn't mind an optional character respec system in the game, considering how much enjoyment I got from experimenting in Baldur’s Gate 3, where I could reselect everything for a very small fee. Heroes of Might and Magic will definitely cope without this solution, and in the first days following the release, the gaming community will surely have already settled all dilemmas and identified the most powerful combinations.
What about the equipment? I mentioned the scrolls with spells, but naturally, we will also get a whole range of armor, weapons, and trinkets, which will affect our statistics. Similarly to spells, we can use alchemical dust to upgrade our item once. Let's follow the path to investing in individual prosperity. While playing the game, I discovered a ring or another amulet that boosted the units' endurance points by two, and the upgrade doubled that bonus. Combine this with the previously mentioned combination of morale and armor. The bonuses were adding up, so my first-level tentacle monsters with a default endurance of 10 already had 18 HP. The old-school RPG player in me wants to speak up, and I'm glad that, at first glance, the game offers plenty of opportunities for growth in strength.
Monocracy
Olden Era is by all means a strategy game, so as befits this genre, it has its own tree called the Faction Laws. As our heroes gain experience, we will earn law points and increase the overall level of the faction. Furthermore, the town hall-style building will generate not only daily gold but also law points. Moving to the interface designed like an open book, on one side we will discover economic options, such as a one-time resource bonus or enabling our cities to produce one unit of wood and ore each turn. On the other side, we have battle options such as buffing the attack and defense of units if they are fighting on their natural terrain.
Again Mike during the game; the photo of my turn isn't there. Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, Unfrozen, 2025.
The system reminded me of similarities between technologies and cultural systems in games like Civilization - we collect points and, from time to time, improve something. Improvements have been grouped into five tiers, and as you would expect, you must first purchase some enhancements in the lower tiers to unlock the higher ones, which become more costly and powerful. It's worth going into the available options, although I'm afraid that instead of authentic gameplay diversification, we will follow the safe and proven branch of the tree every time.
Maybe?
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era heavily draws from the legacy of previous installments, not afraid to introduce new mechanics and solutions. Chooses a safe path of evolution rather than revolution, relying on proven solutions characteristic of its genre, which we may not have had the opportunity to experience in the series so far, and which don't contradict with the gameplay.
Each of you probably has your favorite installment of this series. Does Olden Era have a chance to become someone's favorite "Heroes"? Without a shadow of a doubt, although there is also a risk that the new options may turn out to be too complicated. Time will show how the game's development will look, but I enjoyed playing and the bad streak of the series will apparently be broken. Enough to say that after half an hour, I started to hear comments from my colleagues that I was absorbed and focused like never before.
What can I do - I just wanted one more turn.
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