The beloved turn-based strategy series Heroes of Might and Magic underwent a name change six games in, with the final two installments officially known as Might and Magic: Heroes 6 and 7 just to shake up the order of your library. Ubisoft However, they relented and reverted to the HoMM naming convention for the next game in the series, the recently announced prequel Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.
It is being developed by Unfrozen, the studio behind Iratus: The Lord of the DeadThat game demonstrated its ability to recreate Darkest Dungeon with a twist, so the studio seems like a decent choice to recreate HoMM 3, which is what Olden Era is most reminiscent of at first glance.
One thing that’s different about Olden Era is the release strategy. It’s coming out in early access to give the community time to get feedback (of which I’m sure there will be plenty) and to balance the game. While it promises to have a single-player story campaign set on the Jadame continent of Enroth before the events of the first game in the series, the focus is on multiplayer, with a classic multi-hero mode and a single-hero mode for shorter games. If you want an even shorter game, there will be a mode called arena that’s a bit like draft in Magic: The Gathering, only instead of picking cards from booster packs, you’re picking a hero, units, upgrades, and artifacts from a random selection.
Olden Era will have six playable factions with more to be added as DLC, plus a map editor. Local multiplayer hasn't been mentioned yet, but I hope it will be included as board games were my way into the series back in the day. The release date is currently set for Q2 2025 and you can add it to your wishlist at Steam.
