Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era

Overview

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is a new entry in Heroes of Might and Magic, the turn-based strategy series whose license is held by Ubisoft.^[7] Unfrozen describes it as the official prequel of the series and as a full new installment rather than a spin-off.^[4] The name has two meanings, according to the studio: a return to the classic world of Enroth, and play built on the mechanics of Heroes of Might and Magic II and III.^[4] Players lead heroes across an adventure map, develop towns, recruit armies and fight turn-based battles on a hexagonal grid.^[5][29] As of November 7, 2026, the game sells for $39.99 on Steam, runs only on Windows, and has no paid downloadable content.^[1] Unfrozen's own Early Access notes say the price may rise as content is added during Early Access.^[1]

0:49 How a game of Olden Era works IGN's reviewer explains the basic setup over footage of the game: heroes and towns on a map full of buildings and monuments, armies sent out to collect treasure and power, and battles on a grid against the guards in the way.

Development

Unfrozen, founded in 2016, had previously released Iratus: Lord of the Dead, which it says sold more than 500,000 copies.^[5] Calling themselves fans of the series, its developers made a demo in 2020 and pitched a new Heroes game to Ubisoft, which approved the project in 2021.^[5] Ubisoft and Unfrozen revealed Olden Era at Gamescom on August 22, 2024, with Early Access planned for the first half of 2025, the series' 30th anniversary year.^[2][3] On June 13, 2025, Unfrozen moved Early Access to later in 2025 to work through player feedback, and on October 9, 2025 it moved the window again to 2026 while releasing a free demo.^[6][8] Hooded Horse, the publisher of Manor Lords and Against the Storm, joined as a publishing partner on July 1, 2025, with Ubisoft remaining involved as the holder of the license.^[7] The score is by the series composer Paul Anthony Romero and by Cris Velasco, with orchestrations by Mateusz Alberski and Heroes Orchestra.^[10] On January 29, 2026, Unfrozen announced that Jon Van Caneghem, creator of Might and Magic and founder of New World Computing, had joined as a creative advisor, his first part in the series since Heroes of Might and Magic IV.^[9]

1:14 Jon Van Caneghem joins as advisor Unfrozen's announcement video presents the creator of Might and Magic and founder of New World Computing joining the studio as a creative advisor on Olden Era.

Setting and story

Olden Era returns to Enroth, the world of the first three Heroes games, and moves the series to Jadame, a continent it had never explored in a main Heroes game.^[2] Unfrozen places the story centuries before the events of the role-playing game Might and Magic VIII, which it says gave the team freedom to invent Jadame's early history.^[32] The campaign follows rival factions facing a new demonic power, and its villain faction is the Hive, built from the primitive wasp tribes of Might and Magic VIII and turned into a cult of an unnamed demonic master.^[27] Unfrozen chose this route because it could not bring back Heroes III's Inferno faction without breaking the established timeline of Enroth.^[27] Early Access contains the first act of the campaign, and Unfrozen has said that further acts will arrive with the full release.^[13] Its roadmap lists campaign Acts 2 and 3, with a completed story, as part of the 1.0 release.^[17]

Gameplay

Unfrozen describes its design approach as evolution rather than revolution: it began from the systems of Heroes II, III and V and tried to deepen them while keeping their core.^[5] Heroes gain levels and learn skills in the classic way, but each skill has five subskills: a hero picks one of the first three at the advanced level and one of the last two at the expert level, and can hold eight skills in total.^[24] Magic is split into four schools, Daylight, Nightshade, Primal and Arcane; any hero can learn the first two tiers of spells, while higher tiers require the matching school's skill.^[23] Unfrozen claims Olden Era has more spells than any earlier Heroes game.^[23] The main new system is Faction Laws, a technology tree for each faction: fighting guards earns Law points, enough points become a Seal, and Seals enact laws that strengthen creature tiers, the economy or heroes.^[22] One Temple law, for example, lets a town build twice in a day.^[22]

0:54 The Faction Laws tree Unfrozen's Early Access launch trailer shows a faction's law tree, a parchment of shield icons arranged in tiers, and then the star chart that unlocks global spells.

Factions

Early Access shipped with six factions: Temple, Dungeon, Schism, Grove, Necropolis and Hive.^[13] Unfrozen counts Temple, Necropolis and Dungeon as familiar factions and Hive, Grove and Schism as new ones.^[25] Grove, which Unfrozen also called Sylvan, is a faction of fey guardians and elementals, shown in a teaser on April 11, 2025.^[34][25] Schism, revealed as a secret sixth faction on August 21, 2025, was described as built around unavoidable damage and control of enemy abilities.^[26] The Hive is designed to reward armies made mostly of its own creatures, growing stronger the more insect unit types fight together.^[27] Unfrozen said in August 2025 that it was considering more factions through possible downloadable content.^[25] As of November 7, 2026, no seventh faction has been announced and the Steam store lists no downloadable content.^[1][17]

0:11 The Schism town Unfrozen's full reveal of the Schism faction opens on its town, an icy city built around a tall crystal spire under a pink sky.

Combat

Battles return to the hexagonal grid of the classic games, but most creatures have active abilities meant to make choices in combat deeper.^[5] Those abilities are paid for with Focus Charges, a shared combat resource that some faction laws and hero skills make cheaper or more plentiful.^[22] At launch, a stack's damage was scaled by the ratio of 20 plus the attacker's Attack to 20 plus the defender's Defense.^[20] Unfrozen argued that this formula made each extra point of Attack worth less and less as heroes grew stronger, and tested a replacement on a public beta from October 15, 2026.^[20] The new formula reached the main game on October 29, 2026 in version 0.82.06, which Unfrozen called the biggest balance update since Early Access began.^[19] The same update reworked skills, artifacts and alternative creature upgrades for every faction, made the computer opponent on the adventure map noticeably stronger, and added two neutral creatures.^[19] A hotfix on November 4, 2026, version 0.82.08, limited how often computer heroes use adventure-map spells on the lower difficulties.^[21]

Modes and multiplayer

Olden Era offers three ways to play a map: Classic, with several heroes and towns; Single Hero, in which losing the one hero ends the game; and Arena, a quick draft that ends in a single battle.^[11] All three can be played alone or online, with matchmaking, ranked play and leaderboards for each.^[11] Early Access also included a tutorial, premade scenarios, puzzle challenges, a random map generator, hotseat play on one computer and a pre-release map editor.^[13] The roadmap patch of September 30, 2026 added Alliances, a team mode for co-op against the computer or team against team.^[18] Allies always take their turns at the same time, can trade and request resources, pass armies and artifacts between their heroes, and both win when one of them meets the map's victory condition.^[18] Unfrozen called resource trading between allies new to the series.^[18] The same patch added an advanced random map generator built mainly for play against the computer.^[18] In August 2026, Unfrozen added The Mysterious Island, a large single-player map rebuilt by Papyjama, author of a popular Heroes III map of the same name.^[31]

2:02 Alliances: turns at the same time In Unfrozen's video on the roadmap patch, the presenter explains that allies play their turns simultaneously for the whole match, can trade and request resources, swap armies and artifacts, and both win when either meets the map's win conditions.

Early Access and roadmap

Unfrozen announced on April 1, 2026 that Early Access would begin on April 30, 2026, more than ten years after the previous Heroes game.^[11] Before launch the game passed 1.5 million wishlists on Steam, which Unfrozen said put it among the ten most wishlisted games there.^[13] It launched on Steam and the Microsoft Store and in PC Game Pass from the first day, with a 25% discount for its first two weeks on Steam.^[12][13] Patches followed often; Patch #6 on May 13, 2026 added a Moderate difficulty between Normal and Hard.^[30] The roadmap Unfrozen published on May 28, 2026 has four stages: team play and generator options in the third quarter of 2026, which arrived on September 30; a matchmaking rework, an elite class rework, an observer mode with replays and a rebalance of alternative upgrades in the fourth quarter; then an underground map layer, a Thieves' Guild, new tier 8 neutral creatures and level 5 spells before 1.0.^[17][18] The fourth stage, 1.0, adds campaign Acts 2 and 3, a roguelike mode for play against the computer, and map sharing.^[17] Unfrozen's Steam notes say it plans to stay in Early Access for about a year, but that this could change.^[1]

Reception and sales

Olden Era sold more than 250,000 copies on Steam in its first 24 hours, which Unfrozen said was enough to cover its development costs in a single day.^[14] It passed 500,000 copies in under 72 hours, when Unfrozen reported nearly 60,000 people playing at once according to SteamDB.^[15] By May 28, 2026, it had sold more than one million copies on Steam.^[16] These figures cover Steam only and leave out PC Game Pass players.^[14][16] As of November 7, 2026, OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 83 from six critic reviews and rates the game Strong.^[28][33] IGN's Jarrett Green scored the Early Access version 7 out of 10.^[33] His review praised the combat as the center of the game and called the core as solid as the series has ever been, while criticizing randomness in hero skills, towns that differ too little between factions, and a campaign he liked least of the modes.^[29] On Steam, English-language user reviews were Very Positive, 85% of 6,935, on November 7, 2026, and reviews from the previous 30 days were Mostly Positive at 77%.^[1]

10:34 IGN's verdict IGN's reviewer sums up: not a remake, but faithful to how he remembers Heroes II and III, with combat as the star of the show, towns and heroes that need more identity, and a core as solid as the series has ever been.

Developer

Unfrozen^[1]

Publishers

Hooded Horse with Ubisoft, which holds the series license^[7]

Series

Heroes of Might and Magic, an official prequel^[4]

Early Access

April 30, 2026, on Steam, the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass^[12][13]

1.0 release

Not announced; Unfrozen plans about a year of Early Access^[1][17]

Platform

Windows^[1]

Price

$39.99 on Steam^[1]

Factions

Temple, Dungeon, Schism, Grove, Necropolis, Hive^[13]

Copies sold

Over 1,000,000 on Steam by May 28, 2026^[16]

1. 2020 Unfrozen makes a demo and pitches a new Heroes game to Ubisoft.^[5]
2. 2021 Ubisoft approves the project.^[5]
3. 2024-08-22 Olden Era is revealed at Gamescom, with Early Access planned for the first half of 2025.^[2][3]
4. 2025-06-13 Early Access is moved to later in 2025.^[6]
5. 2025-07-01 Hooded Horse joins as publisher alongside Ubisoft.^[7]
6. 2025-08-21 Schism is revealed as the sixth faction.^[26]
7. 2025-10-09 A free demo is released and Early Access moves to 2026.^[8]
8. 2026-01-29 Jon Van Caneghem joins Unfrozen as a creative advisor.^[9]
9. 2026-04-30 Early Access begins on Steam, the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass.^[12][13]
10. 2026-05-28 Sales pass one million copies on Steam and the Early Access roadmap is published.^[16][17]
11. 2026-09-30 The roadmap patch adds Alliances and an advanced random map generator.^[18]
12. 2026-10-29 Version 0.82.06 brings a new damage formula and a stronger computer opponent.^[19]