Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the official prequel hailing back to the origins of the genre-defining, critically acclaimed series of turn-based strategy games. Recruit heroes, conquer fantastic lands, and overcome your foes in this single player demo.
For those unaware, there is also Heroes of Science and Fiction, which is essentially homm 3 with a fresh scifi coat of paint and lots of qol stuff. It’s in early access but man it catches the vibe so well.
Edit: didn’t realize it was from hooded horse. Never in my life I thought I would see Ubisoft license out an IP they own to a non Ubisoft team. I feel stupid for this and I’m sorry.
Well I feel stupid. I’m pretty oblivious to homm and don’t really follow it. My bad for not looking too deep into it. Reason I assumed it was a Ubisoft game is because I saw somewhere on YouTube Ubisoft promoting the 30th anniversary. And Ubisoft is the current IP holder of homm. I never in my life thought Ubisoft would license out an IP they own to a non Ubisoft team.
No, you’re fine, I totally understand the mistake. I AM a pretty big HoMM fan and I was unaware that they had licensed out the IP as well, so I can’t blame you for not knowing.
I realize when you search Steam there’s a lot of successful iterations of the classic Fire Emblem formula. Makes me wonder if any teams have done the same for HOMM3. I remember there was the fanmade expansion for it, it seems viable to invent a story/system from scratch.
EDIT: I should read other comments before commenting.
I mean, not advertised as a demo but any beta you get access to as a preorder bonus and it is close to release, I consider more of a paid demo. Has become less common now though.
The Zone of the Enders series is most remembered for ZoE1 being the game everyone bought to play the MGS2 demo.
And the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games on the PS1 tended to have the demo for the latest of the other unlocked with a button sequence on the main menu.
I want to say Final Fantasy also did that nonsense with one or more of their numbered installments?
And all of that forgets that, in the days prior to the internet (or, the internet arriving on consoles), it was very popular to subscribe to a magazine to get a monthly demo disc.
ZoE1 had moments of genius broken up by horrendous gameplay. It was very obvious they were trying to do classic “I don’t want to fight in this war. I just want to protect innocents” Gundam but also needed to have gameplay and challenges which just led to massive ludonarrative dissonance and REALLY annoying rating systems. The game itself was “fine” but suffered horribly from the re-release that added achievements to getting S ranks. Also the ending is some of the biggest blue balls in all of gaming.
Whereaas ZoE2 was a more modern (for the time) mecha in that you are a jaded and grizzled ex-soldier (Dingo Egret!) who knows he has lost his humanity long ago but is trying to regain it by being a protector instead of a killer. So you get to rock Jehuty in all its glory as you feel like The White Devil himself as you single-handedly win what feel like musou scale battles.
The PC (probably also PS4?) re-release also had a VR mode that I tried once that was really cool but also fairly “weird”. Not so much disorienting as just very clearly not a game designed for first person views outside of codec calls.
For those wondering about those blue balls. Obvious spoilers for ZoE1 and 2… and Jedi Survivor and Infamous 1+2 apparently.
spoiler
ZoE1 is all about Nohman (?) and his gang terrorizing a space colony in their hunt for the Orbital Frame Jehuty. You find out they have one of their own, Anubis, and it is the sister of Jehuty. I want to say it actively damages Jehuty’s systems to be near it and it is just on a completely different level when you finally clash with it. So… the ending sequence is all about running away from Anubis and the colony you just spent the entire game trying to save. As an anime?
That shit would be FIRE. As a game? Jedi Survivor got away with it because Rogue One did all the work of reminding us how fucking terrifying Darth Vader is if you aren’t his son he actively does not want to hurt. That was more or less our first encounter with Anubis and it is just so anticlimactic.
Which is why ZoE2 is an entire game about unlocking the potential of Jehuty so that you can fight Anubis. And when you do… it is so frigging good. Shades of Younger Toguro as you simultaneously use every single trick while also realizing that now you are the unstoppable godlike force.
It was probably closer to ten years later than not, but I feel like Infamous 1+2 did a MUCH better job of it. 1 ends BEFORE you fight The Beast but is all about making sure you understand just how outclassed you are and why the events of the first game happened. 2 starts with The Beast and it beats the ever loving shit out of you and makes you realize that all the horror and suffering was for nothing before spending an entire game preparing you to actually stop the threat… until the sequel where Troy Baker is in brownface.
So many incredible memories with that game! My friend and I used to play really long hot seat games culminating in a big battle at the end. So much fun.
So, not a remake, but a throwback. The thing that really stood out to me was how bland the music was though. The HoMM series has such incredible music in every entry (maybe not in 6, haven’t played it), but these songs sound super generic.
Still, the games are great and it’s awesome there’s a new entry.
I agree that there is something bland about the aesthetics of the game. From a distance (or in a thumbnail), it looks very good and faithful to the art style of the original games, just with some extra bells and whistles. However, upon closer examination there is something about the design language which feels like I’m looking at a mobile game ad. It could be that I associate HoMM with a hyper specific micro genre of fantasy art. My views are very HoMM 2 coded, and that game feels its art was ripped from the book jackets of Del Rey and Tor published paperbacks circa 1987. I love the look, especially the hero portraits.
So, this new look doesn’t really do anything for me. I’m not knowledgeable enough to suggest that AI was used to design some of these assets, but that’s the impression the art gives me, which I’m sure was not their intent.
Been waiting for this to release for a while now. I am occasionally still playing Homm3 Complete and have tried Songs of Conquest , which is a decent newer alternative, but I don’t think it comes close to Homm.
Had the same experience with Songs of Conquest. Beautiful game, but something felt off that I can’t put my finger on. The game felt really snowball-y, where your chances to win depend strongly on what resources you control early on, and the magic system (while interesting) felt really imbalanced. Nothing really managed to recreate the HoMM feeling for me.
There is also Hero’s Hour, a fresh(relatively) indie take on the HoMM series. One major difference that might be polarising is that every unit is displayed rather than being a single stack, and combat happens live rather than in turns. But you can set it super slow and pause too if need be.
I generally hate RTS, but I really enjoyed it. It’s got a fair bit of content. And so many factions that are all quite different from each other.
I have a fairly decent computer(4070s and a 7800x3d), it took about 100’000 units in active combat to start slowing it down. So no worries about how big HoMM armies can get and if it could run them all live. It can. Most of those units had to be summons, as it would take a pretty high levelled hero to have the stats necessary to field more than 10k units.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
looks mobile, is done by a russian company that only did a copy of darkest dungeon
Eh…Homm2 was better.
For those unaware, there is also Heroes of Science and Fiction, which is essentially homm 3 with a fresh scifi coat of paint and lots of qol stuff. It’s in early access but man it catches the vibe so well.
Songs of Conquest is another one of the same genre.
Can confirm. SoC is great. For a slightly different spin (auto battler) there’s also Hero hour
We’re in a rare run of good form where there are currently multiple gear Homm2/3 clones/spiritual successors that are all great in their own way.
To top it off, og Homm3 still gets decent “updates” in the form of high quality mods that are still being worked on.
You gotta share the link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2147380/Heroes_of_Science_and_Fiction/
Oh man it looks great
I got it on Steam on sale.
It’s great fun.
Totally recommend.
Its a Ubisoft game… What’s the catch?
Edit: didn’t realize it was from hooded horse. Never in my life I thought I would see Ubisoft license out an IP they own to a non Ubisoft team. I feel stupid for this and I’m sorry.
They changed only 2 days ago before release so people no boycott it. Probably Hooded Horse is just middle man.
But, it’s not? Unless you’re aware of something I’m not, this game is published by Hooded Horse, and developed by Team Unfrozen.
Well I feel stupid. I’m pretty oblivious to homm and don’t really follow it. My bad for not looking too deep into it. Reason I assumed it was a Ubisoft game is because I saw somewhere on YouTube Ubisoft promoting the 30th anniversary. And Ubisoft is the current IP holder of homm. I never in my life thought Ubisoft would license out an IP they own to a non Ubisoft team.
No, you’re fine, I totally understand the mistake. I AM a pretty big HoMM fan and I was unaware that they had licensed out the IP as well, so I can’t blame you for not knowing.
Pretty sure they did that with all Homm games? Their first, HommV was done by nival interactive.
The homm IP I’m pretty sure was acquired. Yeah Ubisoft didn’t make homm, but they bought the IP long ago
Yeah, I mean they bought the ip, but they haven’t actually developed any homm games, just produced it via other development companies.
Unless I’m misunderstanding something
Yes.
I realize when you search Steam there’s a lot of successful iterations of the classic Fire Emblem formula. Makes me wonder if any teams have done the same for HOMM3. I remember there was the fanmade expansion for it, it seems viable to invent a story/system from scratch.
EDIT: I should read other comments before commenting.
Oh shit. Free demo too. I’ll see if it has the same magic for my kid that it did for me
The day they start charging for playing a demo…
I mean, not advertised as a demo but any beta you get access to as a preorder bonus and it is close to release, I consider more of a paid demo. Has become less common now though.
The Zone of the Enders series is most remembered for ZoE1 being the game everyone bought to play the MGS2 demo.
And the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games on the PS1 tended to have the demo for the latest of the other unlocked with a button sequence on the main menu.
I want to say Final Fantasy also did that nonsense with one or more of their numbered installments?
And all of that forgets that, in the days prior to the internet (or, the internet arriving on consoles), it was very popular to subscribe to a magazine to get a monthly demo disc.
Haha I absolutely bought ZoE1 to get the mgs2 demo.
I then forced myself to play ZoE.
I remember telling everyone I liked it. But at my age, I can’t remember if I actually did.
ZoE1 had moments of genius broken up by horrendous gameplay. It was very obvious they were trying to do classic “I don’t want to fight in this war. I just want to protect innocents” Gundam but also needed to have gameplay and challenges which just led to massive ludonarrative dissonance and REALLY annoying rating systems. The game itself was “fine” but suffered horribly from the re-release that added achievements to getting S ranks. Also the ending is some of the biggest blue balls in all of gaming.
Whereaas ZoE2 was a more modern (for the time) mecha in that you are a jaded and grizzled ex-soldier (Dingo Egret!) who knows he has lost his humanity long ago but is trying to regain it by being a protector instead of a killer. So you get to rock Jehuty in all its glory as you feel like The White Devil himself as you single-handedly win what feel like musou scale battles.
The PC (probably also PS4?) re-release also had a VR mode that I tried once that was really cool but also fairly “weird”. Not so much disorienting as just very clearly not a game designed for first person views outside of codec calls.
For those wondering about those blue balls. Obvious spoilers for ZoE1 and 2… and Jedi Survivor and Infamous 1+2 apparently.
spoiler
ZoE1 is all about Nohman (?) and his gang terrorizing a space colony in their hunt for the Orbital Frame Jehuty. You find out they have one of their own, Anubis, and it is the sister of Jehuty. I want to say it actively damages Jehuty’s systems to be near it and it is just on a completely different level when you finally clash with it. So… the ending sequence is all about running away from Anubis and the colony you just spent the entire game trying to save. As an anime?
That shit would be FIRE. As a game? Jedi Survivor got away with it because Rogue One did all the work of reminding us how fucking terrifying Darth Vader is if you aren’t his son he actively does not want to hurt. That was more or less our first encounter with Anubis and it is just so anticlimactic.
Which is why ZoE2 is an entire game about unlocking the potential of Jehuty so that you can fight Anubis. And when you do… it is so frigging good. Shades of Younger Toguro as you simultaneously use every single trick while also realizing that now you are the unstoppable godlike force.
It was probably closer to ten years later than not, but I feel like Infamous 1+2 did a MUCH better job of it. 1 ends BEFORE you fight The Beast but is all about making sure you understand just how outclassed you are and why the events of the first game happened. 2 starts with The Beast and it beats the ever loving shit out of you and makes you realize that all the horror and suffering was for nothing before spending an entire game preparing you to actually stop the threat… until the sequel where Troy Baker is in brownface.
I was randomly up at 4, shouldn’t have been on my phone at all. Word salad.
So many incredible memories with that game! My friend and I used to play really long hot seat games culminating in a big battle at the end. So much fun.
This is a dream come true. I just need someone to do this for Alpha Centauri and I can die happy.
So, not a remake, but a throwback. The thing that really stood out to me was how bland the music was though. The HoMM series has such incredible music in every entry (maybe not in 6, haven’t played it), but these songs sound super generic. Still, the games are great and it’s awesome there’s a new entry.
I agree that there is something bland about the aesthetics of the game. From a distance (or in a thumbnail), it looks very good and faithful to the art style of the original games, just with some extra bells and whistles. However, upon closer examination there is something about the design language which feels like I’m looking at a mobile game ad. It could be that I associate HoMM with a hyper specific micro genre of fantasy art. My views are very HoMM 2 coded, and that game feels its art was ripped from the book jackets of Del Rey and Tor published paperbacks circa 1987. I love the look, especially the hero portraits.
So, this new look doesn’t really do anything for me. I’m not knowledgeable enough to suggest that AI was used to design some of these assets, but that’s the impression the art gives me, which I’m sure was not their intent.
It’s fun new version. Fresh but familiar.
Been waiting for this to release for a while now. I am occasionally still playing Homm3 Complete and have tried Songs of Conquest , which is a decent newer alternative, but I don’t think it comes close to Homm.
Had the same experience with Songs of Conquest. Beautiful game, but something felt off that I can’t put my finger on. The game felt really snowball-y, where your chances to win depend strongly on what resources you control early on, and the magic system (while interesting) felt really imbalanced. Nothing really managed to recreate the HoMM feeling for me.
I remember spending a very long time trying to download a demo of that game over dialup, was absolutely worth it
No way! I loved II and III when I was at school. Absolutely giving this a blast tonight.
I never really got into Heroes of Might and Magic. Somehow the kind of strategy this is never really captured me.
There is also Hero’s Hour, a fresh(relatively) indie take on the HoMM series. One major difference that might be polarising is that every unit is displayed rather than being a single stack, and combat happens live rather than in turns. But you can set it super slow and pause too if need be.
I generally hate RTS, but I really enjoyed it. It’s got a fair bit of content. And so many factions that are all quite different from each other.
I have a fairly decent computer(4070s and a 7800x3d), it took about 100’000 units in active combat to start slowing it down. So no worries about how big HoMM armies can get and if it could run them all live. It can. Most of those units had to be summons, as it would take a pretty high levelled hero to have the stats necessary to field more than 10k units.
I loved Hero’s Hour, mostly because of it was built using Game Maker Studio, that scrappy drag and drop game making tool.
Man I really used to like HOMM3 back in the day, but the gameplay is just so dated right now.
Dude, the gameplay, especially with HotA aged very well.
As someone who’s has hundreds of hours on this and many 4x that came after it, agree to disagree
Fair enough. For me, the gameplay formula is a bit like chess. Very analytical and logical, and it just works perfectly.