The Path of "Heroes": new Heroes of Might and Magic will be released with a Russian translation

The eighth part of "Heroes of Might and Magic" will receive a full translation into Russian. The previous installment in this series was released ten years ago, so gamers are waiting for Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era with increased interest. The release is scheduled for summer 2025. Izvestia has tested the closed beta version of the new product and explains why the imminent release of this project is a big event for the video game industry.

Why do they love "Heroes" in Russia?

The Heroes of Might and Magic series of turn—based strategies has been popular in Russia for the last 30 years, since the release of the second part in 1996. The "Heroes" finally consolidated their cult status in 1999 with the release of HoMM III: The Restoration of Erathia. However, experimentation with genres, developers, and game mechanics led to the failure of new releases, and after Might & Magic Heroes VII in 2015, ten years of lull began.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen

The development of Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era began unofficially in Russia, then it was moved to Cyprus. A team of enthusiasts assembled a demo version, showed it to Ubisoft, a major European publisher, and received the green light to create the eighth installment of the series. But in order to avoid negative associations with the two previous parts, which failed miserably, they decided to get rid of the number in the title.

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Unfrozen Studio is responsible for the production of the game, which is based in Limassol, but consists mostly of developers from the CIS. Their previous game Iratus: Lord of the Dead was released in 2019 and gained popular love — on the Steam platform, the user rating is 85% positive reviews.

The studio has three key principles with which it creates its projects. The first principle is loyalty to the spirit of the old school. That is why Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era is so similar to the super-hit third part of HoMM, which is still alive in Russia thanks to the efforts of enthusiasts in the form of a global modification of Horn of the Abyss.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen

The second principle is to create challenges for the players. This means that Olden Era is hardly suitable for the so-called "casual" audience, that is, gamers who are not ready for difficulties during virtual adventures. Judging by the closed beta version, Olden Era has received some simplifications in the gameplay, but it has not become a game for everyone.

The third and final principle of Unfrozen is to respect your audience. These developers are well aware of who their audience is and why these people will buy a new part of HoMM. Therefore, the feeling of nostalgia captures gamers from the very first seconds of immersion in a new part. It is scheduled to be released in the summer of 2025.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen ​

Olden Era will introduce fans to the new, unexplored continent of Judam for the first time. At the same time, the global action still takes place on the planet Enroth, ensuring continuity with the old issues of the series - the same planet was used in the first three issues of the strategy.

How experts evaluate the new product

Expectations from the Olden Era are cautious, but extremely positive. For many years, it seemed that the game series had died after unsuccessful parts 6 and 7, so the announcement of the release of a new part became a sensation for fans, says Dmitry "Magyar" Ivanchikov, the creator of the HoMM 5 lobby.

— The developers have all the tools to make it truly popular. The previous parts were developed primarily for PvE content, and the community of different parts has been trying for years to complete the basic functionality for comfortable PvP games. The situation is different with Olden Era, the game comes out with already created functionality to support online games. It has already announced both the rating system and the session mode of the arenas, and most importantly, the developers have the necessary tools for proper balance and support, the expert is convinced.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen

He recalled that Heroes of Might and Magic remains a unique case of popularity for the CIS, when the game is in demand among Russians more than anywhere else in the world. This is especially noticeable in the example of Horn of the Abyss, where the community itself created the tools and refined the game for the "player versus player" mode, after which the 1999 version began to collect tournaments with huge prize money and thousands of views on the Twitch platform even a quarter of a century after its release.

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The core of the fan base is a conservative audience, and this will lead to Unfrozen facing criticism due to its dissimilarity from the fan-favorite parts, since Olden Era is still an independent product, not a remake. Already, negativity is falling on the Cyprus studio due to the visual style of the project, which resembles mobile games. The new Beehive faction, also known as the Swarm, which is based on insect-like demons, was also criticized, said IT expert Sergey Pomortsev.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen ​

Vadim TGame Zaikin, the leader of the "Heroes" fan community in the CIS, notes that it was extremely logical for the Unfrozen developers to take the best out of the third and fifth installments of the series.

— Turn-based strategies are very difficult to promote and are not very popular with a new audience. The developers of HoMM: Old Era face a difficult task: to combine something interesting for fans of the series and something interesting for a new audience in their game. Whether it will be interesting to a new audience directly depends on the quality of the product, the amount of advertising, and the ratings from fans. If at least among them the game gathers good reviews and is actively replenished with new players, then it will have an audience that was not previously familiar with Heroes of Might and Magic," Vadim Zaikin summed up.

Screenshot from the game Heroes of Might and Magic: Old Era

Photo: Unfrozen ​

Initially, Olden Era will be released in the so—called early access - the project will appear in the summer of 2025 with limited functionality, the authors promise to develop it and support it with content for many years. Unfrozen developers periodically recruit new beta test participants, and residents of the Russian Federation can request access without restrictions.