Ten years in the waiting: demo of new «Heroes» is out

The legendary turn-based strategy series Heroes of Might and Magic recently turned thirty — a solid age for any franchise. But the best days of «Heroes» are behind them. Gamers still hold the third installment in high esteem, with the fourth and fifth slightly behind in terms of popular love, while the seventh, released in 2015, proved so controversial that the rights holders at Ubisoft sheathed their swords and magic in a dusty chest for a long time. Yet the next release, titled Olden Era, has stirred fan interest. And there are several reasons for that.

The developers are putting the main emphasis on reviving classic mechanics. The new strategy will have more in common with the classic «third» than with the «seventh», although graphically it meets modern genre standards. But alongside familiar modes there will be innovations such as «Arena», and the traditional set of factions has been expanded by the sentient-insect «Hive» and «Rift», where elves live side by side with monsters. Long-time fans of the series will be pleased to hear that Paul Romero is still handling the music, and gamers from Russia will be happy about the promised Russian localization. And, of course, everyone can expect the well-known multiplayer.

For now, however, the team at studio Unfrozen is in no hurry to show the multiplayer modes. The free version offers only single missions in three formats: «Classic», «Arena» and «One Hero» (you cannot hire additional ones during the match). Four factions are also available to choose from: humans in the «Temple», «Necropolis», «Rift» and «Dungeon». When early access begins, the developers will present two more races and also tell more about the lands of Jadame, where the strategy takes place. The demo is available for free on its Steam page. It has no time limits — you can download and play as much as you want.