Ubisoft announce new back-to-roots Heroes of Might & Magic game with the Iratus devs in charge

You're only as olden as you feel

Ubisoft have announced Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era, a fresh instalment in the exceedingly olden turn-based strategy RPG series, which began life under New World Computing in 1984. The new game will “return to the world of Enroth and the origins of the legendary saga”, inviting “both veterans and new players” to go on a quest to Jadame, “a mysterious continent in turmoil”. Expect new factions, biomes and creatures, together with such M&M standbys as castle management, army clashes, hex-based maps, and, who knows, maybe some heroes.

The game includes a new solo campaign, the option to wage one-off clashes on single maps, and a map generator capable of “limitless” scenarios. I can fall over in “limitless” ways, Ubisoft, and I don’t go around writing press releases about it. Hmmm, maybe I should?

There’s also co-op and competitive multiplayer – each mode has its own matchmaking system, ratings and leaderboards – plus a map and campaign editor. It’s all glossily adorned with a revamped visual style that “harks back to the vibrant and magical beginnings of the saga”. The AI has also been overhauled, and you can expect difficulty settings designed for both those steeped in Might & Magic and peasant newcomers like me, who are barely Mighty or Magical at all.

New mechanics include active abilities for heroes and creatures, plus a faction-based perk system, Faction Laws, for more granular sculpting of playstyles. The currently announced factions are the old school Knights of Temple, the teeming bloodsuckers and braineaters of Necropolis, the hipster faeriefolk of Sylvan, the surly dark elves and other subterranean stinkers of Dungeon, and the horrible demon bugs of Hive. There’s at least one more faction waiting to be revealed.

The Hive are this iteration’s big bads. “On Jadame, a continent in turmoil, rival factions must forge an uneasy and fragile alliance to face the Hive - a swarm of insectoids corrupted by a demon lord hell bent on subjugating the world,” comments the press release.

Image credit: Ubisoft

This will be the first Heroes Of Might & Magic game to launch through early access. It runs on the Unity engine and is being developed by Unfrozen, creators of Iratus: Lord of the Dead, which was one of Sin’s Unknown Pleasures back in 2019.

Frivolous closing note: I find "Olden Era" quite funny inasmuch as they could have subtitled it "Old Era", but that would have just made the game sound old, even though "old" is modern usage, while "olden" is an archaism. Language is a delightful beast. Perhaps this is the next conversational fallback position for people who insist that they're "middle-aged", even after they turn 60? I'm not old, you cheeky whippersnappers, I'm olden! If you're over 60, feel free to split that hair when you're next talking to a grandchild or medical professional.