Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era has reportedly sold more than 500,000 copies in less than three days, a huge result for a series that has been quietly drifting in the background for years.
The figure is even more striking because the game is still in Early Access. Players aren’t buying the finished product. They’re buying a work-in-progress.
Developed by Unfrozen and published by Hooded Horse, Olden Era is the latest entry in the long-running Ubisoft-owned franchise. It is being pitched as a true return to the classic formula that made Heroes of Might & Magic III one of the most beloved PC strategy games ever.
The current build is described as surprisingly polished for an Early Access title. Skirmish and random map play form the bulk of the experience, alongside an unfinished campaign that is the main reason the game hasn’t gone 1.0.
There is a “Classic” mode that strips out modernizing tweaks for purists. A single-hero mode and a more traditional multi-hero mode are both available. A Draft Arena mode lets two players or a player and AI skip the world map entirely, pick a hero with skills, items, and creatures, then jump straight into one tactical battle.
All the pillars are there: turn-based map exploration, resource gathering, town building, hero leveling, and stack-based hex combat. Unit upgrades branch into two paths, and Town Portal has been reworked around a new Astrology research system tied to towns.
Still missing are sailing, underground areas, possibly a couple of additional factions, and the rest of the campaign.
Bumps along the way
Not everything is smooth. AI difficulty has been a sticking point, with the skirmish AI fielding armies that feel oversized at default settings. Unfrozen has already pushed a patch tuning difficulty to be fairer.
Multiplayer is the rougher area, with bug reports serious enough that competitive players may want to wait. Solo and skirmish modes are where the game looks best right now.
