I have played Heroes of Might & Magic my whole life; My mother placing me in her lap whilst she was a University student to show me and even let me click buttons on Heroes of Might & Magic II and III before I was even a year old. My entire childhood was binging Heroes II through V, with III and V being the stars which guided my preferences and perspectives on not just gaming - but media in general - throughout my life. I am 24 now, experiencing Olden Era for the first time.

I want to preface this by saying that I obviously might have bias as someone who holds this series so close to my heart, but I am confident in saying that this game is a return to form for the series, combining the best aspects of the best titles in the series (III and V) and delivering an experience more fundamental to the core Heroes experience compared to VI and VII.


In terms of gameplay, I feel the game does a good job in combining the strategic depth and comfortable pace from Heroes 3, as well as the more casual elements regarding customization and flavour from Heroes 5. Whether or not some aspects, like the balancing, are as good as prior games, is still not knowable to me even after almost 60 hours of play experiencing each faction currently available; Though, I wouldn't hold my breath, since Heroes 3 was a masterpiece and that kind of height is hard to reach with reason.

As such, if you are approaching this game thinking it to be just as good or even better than Heroes 3 or Heroes 5, I can only say to wait for the full release, and to just be cautious about it. However, in its current state, I think that the game is on good pace to get somewhere in that ballpark, though there are some pretty big balancing issues currently which should (and I think will) be fixed.

Getting back on point - Olden Era has very similar core combat and exploration to Heroes III. About the same amount of adventure map locations (if not a bit more) when compared to HotA, and the spells are generally quite similar. It borrows a lot from Heroes 5 at the same time, including a slight revamp of the trait system, keeping Initiative seperately from Speed, the ultimate faction skills / traits from investing in specific skills, and my most favourite feature of all time - alternative upgrades. The demo has 4 factions, the release will have 6, which is unfortunately lower than Heroes 5's 8 factions, 3's 9 factions and HotA's gargantuan 11. I wish we get at least one more faction post-release.

• Balancing: 6/10 (Subject to Change)
  
• (Strategic) Variety: 8.5/10 (StC)
  
• (Strategic) Depth: 7/10 (StC)
  
• Amount of Content: 6/10 (Will Change)
  
• Replayability: 8.5/10 (StC)

The style is probably the weakest point in my opinion. The UI is - honestly - kinda bad. Its size is fine, and I think it has almost everything it needs, but there are a few crucial things missing. My biggest complaint for now is that there is no "Walk" option, which was the button to click in Heroes 3 and 5 to continue walking on the plotted course of movement. This results in my plotted course being lost every time a new turn starts, resulting in me needing to remember what course I wanted to take from last turn, which can get disorienting and tedious come mid/late-game. To me, this is highly necessary.

Some things are poorly explained, though not unexplained - like some buildings (The amount of people who didn't realize that walls II and III function the same as the citadel and castle of old is worrying. Though, this isn't too bad.) or some unit abilities. (Various schism unit special abilities have a lot of text on them, much more than other Heroes games) These aren't too bad.

I think one of the most common complaints is the art direction of the game in general and the UI though. I don't necessarily agree or disagree with the general art direction, but I definitely think the UI should get a rework. A common complaint that I kind of agree with is that the UI at times looks like a mobile game. (I think this is especially apparent on the victory screen; First time I experienced a victory screen after a game, I genuinely felt disappointed, compared to the legendary Heroes 3 win screen or even Heroes 5's.) As for the general art direction feeling a bit too mobile game-y, I don't think this complaint has too much merit, but I can see where they are coming from. The looks feel a bit too stylized compared to the modest simplicty of Heroes 3, and a bit too neutered compared to the cool grit of Heroes 5. However, I don't think this is necessarily something that needs much (if any) work done, it mostly feels different than worse, which is slightly disappointing but not necessarily bad.

I think the biggest plus this game's style has though is the sort of mini-return of 3D towns. This is an absolute god-send and would be perfect - but it is only partially 3D. Towns are only rotateable on a relatively small angle, not in full 360 degrees like in Heroes 5, but it's still a very welcome return to such a beloved bit of flavour.

Also, the game knows how to not take itself too seriously. It went on a slightly different path compared to the more grounded nature of Heroes 3 and the more edgy direction of Heroes 5, but it does it well - what with the more eccentric-looking hero additions (some being very enigmatic, some being wholesome), and some units or flavour texts. (Like a lot of the Sylvan roster, especially that one cute flying neutral cat-like creature.)

Note, I REALLY wish more flavour is added though; Like the amazing visual and sound effects from Heroes 5, or the alternative mouse-over animations from Heroes 3, or something like the faction-specific trails heroes left when they got powerful in 5, even something like being able to make your own character from 6, et cetera.

• UI: 3.5/10 (Subject to Change)
  
• Art Direction: 6/10 (StC)
  
• Flavour: 7/10 (StC)

Despite being involved with Ubisoft, the project so far has been getting an extremely large amount of positive rep for having a dev team which not only listens and responds to the community, but also properly takes criticism and acts upon it. It is thanks to this that we got 3D towns and some slight art reworks in the first place, for example - and a lot of our question and worries are commonly addressed.

The devs are proving to be not only responsive and responsible, but also competent with their craft. With enough time and success, I think they are capable of great things.

On a personal level, I am really loving this game, and I'll probably play it a whole lot more despite being only a demo. It'll probably consume my life when it fully releases like it kinda did for the first few days of the demo.

• Devs: 9/10 (Subject to Change)
  
• Personal (Biased) Opinion: 9/10 (StC)

If you like turn-based strategies, give this game a shot. If you like crunchy games, give this game a shot. Fantasy fan? Give it a shot. Above all else, if you like Heroes of Might & Magic, you should definitely give this game the time of day. While currently not at the (frankly unrealistically) high standards of the past entries, the trajectory the devs have set this project on is a good one that I have faith in both as a very long-time Heroes fan and as a more serious gamer.


P.S.:

I love that there seem to be no plans for microtransactions. Don't change that.

Also, an actually expansive and large demo like the golden age of old? I highly respect this practice, it should be industry standard again.

Also also, Heroes community actually liking something new, holy fu-