Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era hotseat makes me feel like it’s 2003 again – and this time, my big brother is going down
The only letdown about Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era’s hotseat multiplayer mode is the fact that we can’t team up. My brother looks at me plaintively as he clicks about the lobby screen, trying in vain to change his hero’s little color marker to the same rich shade of purple as mine. I remind him that this is just the beginning for Unfrozen’s gorgeous new strategy-RPG; it’s in Early Access right now, with the passionate developer using player feedback to chart its course, so hotseat team-up is probably coming later. He huffs at me, unconvinced, and starts the game. Yet, as soon as he hears those melodious violins ushering in a new day in Jadame, he’s absolutely locked in.
My big brother has always been something of a purist. Our days playing Heroes 3 in the early ’00s together were a formative part of our close bond as siblings. Those memories are as clear in his mind as they are in mine, and the main reason he got excited to play Olden Era with me was because I mentioned how the developer draws most of its inspiration from our favorite entry in the series. This might not be the same game we played together as kids, but one look at his awestruck expression confirms what I’ve been saying about Olden Era for months now: it’s doing everything we remember Heroes 3 doing, only somehow… better?
Quest for the best
The fact that Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era manages to strike such a nostalgic tone with us both is proof that it’s doing something incredibly right. This is a series built not only on the foundations of an iconically moreish turn-based strategy system, but from memory itself.
From the music to the point-and-click routine of upgrading bases, recruiting adventurers, and purchasing creature stacks, there’s a comfortable familiarity about Olden Era. That’s not surprising for me (I’ve been playing the demo since it launched in mid-2025) but this is my brother’s very first time sitting down to play.
Unsurprisingly, he’s a natural. He doesn’t have questions for me as much as he does comments and praise; he adores Hive’s aesthetic, he tells me, and asks me to show him the creepy crawly I’d mentioned earlier that gobbles up fallen creatures to give itself powerful stat boosts mid-combat. He takes to Jadame like he’s been exploring the demo for months, and it almost makes me emotional.
But for all its identifiable context clues and muscle memory-related nostalgia points, Olden Era does sport some newness. I realize this when I start to explain Law Points to my brother, as well as the new Astrology system for upgrading and purchasing new spells. There’s also the Focus meter in battle, which is something I am still getting to grips with myself. “But that’s part of the fun of it,” I tell him. “Sometimes I can’t remember which bits are new to the game and which are returning.”
My favorite novelty by far is the refined leveling system. My brother is equally intrigued when, upon gaining enough XP to level up, he has a set of new traits or attributes to choose from. I explain that some of them with special icons beside their names in the list have synergy with certain others, a sneaky build-creating hint that helps plan ahead for more unique character attributes. I enthusiastically encourage him to choose the Hive-specific hero buff that lets you drop eggs on the battlefield that hatch into allied creature stacks later on, and he’s more than happy to oblige.
Creature comforts
We spend the next 25 minutes not playing the game but poring over it
Analyzing creatures has always been our favorite part of playing a Heroes game. My brother patted my back sympathetically when I passed on the sad news that, sadly, my beloved Behemoths of the Stronghold faction are not present in Olden Era.
But, excitingly, Dungeon and Necropolis are included in the present build, and are two of the best Olden Era factions. Personally, I’ve gone for my old faithful combo: Dungeon faction with as many troglodytes, medusae, and hydras as I can fit into my lineup. We spend the next 25 minutes not playing the game as much as poring over it, examining every pixel of the creature art. Despite my brother sharing some community opinions regarding the almost cartoonish look of Olden Era’s smoother, less gritty textures, that flicker of excitement in his eye tells me he’s not complaining but rather comparing. Happily, he doesn’t look disappointed.
Lounging together on the floor, laptop and mouse in front of us ready to hand over at the end of our turn, we are suddenly seven and nine years-old again. It’s a Saturday morning in 2003. Homework doesn’t exist, everyone else in the house is asleep, and we are playing Heroes 3 on the clunky desktop computer in the dimly-lit living room. Or maybe we are playing one of the best revivals of a classic strategy-RPG that’s ever existed some 23 years later, our partners rolling their eyes at us fondly from the sofa just behind. Either way, this is the most fun I’ve had in a hotseat multiplayer game since before I got my pen license at school, and I can’t wait to see how Unfrozen enhances that experience in Early Access. Hint: Behemoths, please.
Our list of the best turn-based RPGs includes a smattering of strategic options, if you’re looking for your latest fix…
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