Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era Announced for 2025

The top HN post talks about the importance of removing stuff, and based on this press release Olden Era takes the opposite "kitchen sink" approach. More heroes, more factions, more abilities, more spells, more character tree options, more more more. What makes HOMM2 and HOMM3 so unbelievably good is that the developers said no to so many things and instead spent their time on perfecting the game mechanics of the original DOS game.

It's still early, and the game might turn out great. I think the visuals look promising. But even if Olden Era flops good things might come of it. This genre of game was left for dead ages ago, and a revival of the genre is a good thing for sure. There are two generations of gamers who have never played the originals from the previous millennium, even though the games have held up incredibly well. Revived interest in these games might also encourage indie developers to take a stab at it.

And if you can't wait:

Open-source engine for Heroes of Might and Magic III :

https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi?tab=readme-ov-file

https://vcmi.eu/

For fans of the heroes of might and magic I highly recommend trying "The horn of the abyss".

It is a community developed HOMAM3 extension pack, that is being enhanced and has, IMO, many new features while being fully compatible with the game spirit. And they fixed a ton of UI pain points. Coming with a very powerful map editor means that there are community created maps (up to "giant size" -- two steps larger than extra large) that take weeks of challenging play time to conquer.

Pair that with a full HOMAM3 version from "good old games" for about $10 and you will have an unlimited play, no registration, no licensing classic, valid forever. My 2c.

If you can't wait that long, Songs of Conquest is already out and does a good job scratching the same itch.

I hope they actually provide a working multiplayer, unlike HOMAM7, where the multiplayer is completely broken, and therefore fake. With HOMAM7 you buy a game thinking you will be able to play with friends, but beware, the game desyncs the moment when you could in any way interact with another player on the map. I will not forgive Ubisoft for pulling that one. I even reported this issue, but the technical support was very lacking and they acted as if this was surprising. Some back and forth with them led nowhere.

Since then I am very cautious when it comes to any new Heroes games. If Ubisoft has its hands in it, I would recommend everyone to first check whether what they deliver is actually working. Do not buy until proven to work. Otherwise they might pull a fraud you.

That's 10 years since the last installment and 30 years after the original game. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_of_Might_and_Magic

> All campaign missions have nonlinear events that allow hero choices, like encouraging a cowardly knight to fight alongside you or letting him flee," says Golubeva. "These choices will have consequences down the line. But the grander non-linearity comes from choosing the missions themselves - some of them are mutually exclusive. Do you support Sylvans or Temple in a conflict? Your choice will change the map of Jadame, the standing of factions, and fates of certain characters."

Ugh. Shut up Ubisoft. No, you’re not going to have meaningful non linear choices in a game like this.

I have a jaded sort of opinion that games like HOMM 2/3 and civ 2 and aoe 2 were really popular at the time because multiplayer was mostly about low skill LAN matches with your friends. On some level the presence of online multiplayer, discussion boards that layout meta ideas, and more common balance patches make strategy games much less fun. Because most people don’t really want to play them proficiently. They want to roll the dice and experiment and try and get an advantage and then give up and restart before finishing 2/3 of the game when the other player starts to snowball.

What a coincidence, i just got back in HoMM yesterday. It started when I stumbled upon a video of the world championship — didnt know that was even a thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu8PdY2JnnI

Warms my old gamer heart. Heroes of Might & Magic III got me info RTS in a big way.

One of the best games I played back in the day. However, I'm not "hyped" by this news. I'm way too afraid Ubisoft will favor nice gfx instead of a polished gameplay.

I hope to be wrong, and I'll probably give it a chance, but I definitely have no expectations regarding the games.

Will it work without an uplay account?

Will we finally see the introduction of the Forge[0]?

[0] http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3ab/forgetown.sht...

Unfrozen Studio was founded in 2016 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

To my taste, it looks worse than HoMM3 and has a distinct mobile game vibe.

I think I played this on a Pocket PC/PDA way back when!