Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era fans have already spent over 200 hours in the free Steam demo because there's an "unlimited amount of replayability"

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Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era fans have already spent over 200 hours in the free Steam demo because there's an "unlimited amount of replayability" News By Anthony McGlynn published 24 November 2025

The strategy-RPG's free trial seems near bottomless alone

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(Image credit: Hooded Horse)

If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is shaping up to be the perfect entry point. Aside from how it captures many qualities from throughout the property, there’s a demo you can sink literally hundreds of hours into, if you fancy.

That's according to Denis Fedorov, the CEO of the game's developer, Unfrozen, who revealed to us that there are people who've clocked upwards of 200 hours just in the trial so far. "It's amazing, and that's because the random map generator gives you an incredible, probably unlimited amount of replayability," he tells GamesRadar+.

"You can spend tens of hundreds of hours playing on different templates and you don't get bored," he continues. "So our multiplayer is also built around this randomly generated map." When the RNG is so good, even the demo seems bottomless, is definitely a flex.

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It's the kind of thing that'll appeal to old fans while attracting newbies as well. This iteration of the strategy-RPG falls back on many elements that have kept it popular over the years, having you guide a custom-made hero, harking from one of six houses, across mystic land, recruiting an army of mythological monsters and growing in strength and stature.

Coming out 30 years after the first Heroes of Might and Magic game, Olden Era is the first installment in a decade, and the first to be published by Hooded Horse, marking something of a new era for the fantasy property. However long it takes for the next one to arrive, we can be safe in the knowledge there’ll still be map combos to discover.

"You cannot satisfy everyone": Heroes of Might and Magic leads are treating Early Access like a "full release," but "don't expect that everything works like a charm."

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Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.

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