The team behind Olden Era has revealed a new Arena mode, designed to bring fast, dynamic battles to the forefront of gameplay. Responding to community feedback, this mode skips traditional elements like castle building, resource gathering, and map exploration. Instead, players jump straight into the action, drafting their heroes, troops, artifacts, and spells in a quick five-minute setup before diving into a decisive battle. Inspired by the Hot Seat Duel Mode from HoMM 5, Olden Era’s Arena takes the concept further with full customization and balance improvements. Players can draft from a selection of heroes, level up skills, and pick artifacts, all while ensuring fairness through carefully balanced systems. Whether battling AI or other players, the mode is designed to provide exciting, bite-sized gameplay sessions that are perfect for newcomers and veterans alike. Arena also introduces competitive features, including a separate rating system and matchmaking, adding a fresh challenge for seasoned players. It’s a fast, accessible way to enjoy the game, whether you’re short on time or want to sharpen your skills in quick, intense battles. More details on Arena’s competitive ladder system will be shared in an upcoming devlog.
My favourite Heroes game is Heroes of Might & Magic III and I'm glad that Olden Era is trying to recreate visuals, both on adventure map and in battle. The details on the map are amazing, they look like a painting. Objects to interact with are prominent and you can't miss them, but at the same time they feel as part of the landscape and not too bright to attract attention. Opening fog of war is no longer boring, it looks like paper cover is burning away as you uncover new territories. Last but not least: the tilt-shift effect that makes objects on the adventure map look like miniatures.
Unfrozen shared some details about game modes that will be available in Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. Developers want to make it every type of player to find what they are looking for. First game mode to mention is the Campaign. Unlike previous HoMM games there'll be only one campaign, but it will cover all available factions. Campaign is expected to be non-linear. When the game will be released in early access, campaign will only have the first act. Second mode is Random maps. Players will be able able to generate infinite number of unique maps to play against AI opponents. Random map generator and opponent AI already functions. Another game mode is Custom maps. There'll be few maps available when game goes live, but players will have access to a map editor to create their own maps and share them with the community. Multiplayer is another way of playing Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. It will be released with 3 fully functional multiplayer modes: Classic, "Single Hero" and Arena. Multiplayer is developed in cooperation with professional players and is expected to fulfil the demand of competitive community. And last but not least - the good old Hot Seat is also expected to be available. You don't expect this kind of thing from modern PC games anymore. Probably the first game I will play in Early Access.
Another classic series returns - Heroes of Might and Magic! Yes, there were plenty HoMM games and last one was released 9 years ago. Unfortunately, the last decent one was HoMM V from 2006 and the the most popular that's been played and maintained by community is still Heroes of Might & Magic III from 1999 and its multiple community forks. This time Ubisoft seems to be aimed at core HoMM community, because new HoMM called Olden Era not only set in the world of HoMM 1-3, but look almost exactly like if HoMM III was implemented today. It's just all that Heroes fans think we want: more Heroes III 😆
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