BLUF: Art bad, game good, demo available.

With the Winter Sale now live, I'm sure many folks are looking at their wishlists and browsing for new games to pick up. I was doing the same last night, when I came across the store page for the forthcoming HoMM title. I must admit, my first impressions were hugely negative. HoMM2 is in contention for my favorite game of all time, and fans of the series will know that the early games had a rather, distinct, art style. The character portraits in particular are of a piece with the painterly, roccoco stylings of fantasy book jackets, such as those that decorated the initial printings of the Wheel of Time series. The style of The Olden Era is, well, decidedly, not, that. Charitably speaking, the style seems to be aping the post-Ubisoft acquisition, 3D entries moreso than the early games (odd, for a title which is openly courting nostalgia in its name). Less charitably, it looks like a mobile game. I don't quite know how to articulate the qualities which give that impression, but I'm sure that anyone looking at those screenshots will understand my intent.

Despite my trepidation regarding the game's presentation, I noted that there is a demo available and figured it was worth checking out. That was at 7:30 PM. Around 1:30 AM, I finally tore myself away from the "just one more turn" loop in which I had been locked all evening. The gameplay proved completely compelling in all the ways that made me fall in love with HoMM2, while adding loads of wrinkles and minor variations that could result in lots of replay value.

To be clear, I'm not an expert on the series or other SRPGs. For example, I am aware that HoMM3 is typically viewed as the apex of the series, but I can't speak on that, as I've never played it. With that in mind, veterans of the genre may be less enthused about the offerings in the demo than I, as I'm sure some of the new-to-me stuff was pillaged from other entries (like the law system, or the varying upgrade paths for units). All I can say is, wherever the ingredients were sourced from, I found they made quite the tasty soup.

Admittedly, the generic artwork never stopped annoying me. Quality-wise, I think it's mostly fine, and there are elements that I quite like, such as the upgraded versions of troops being totally different models, not just pallette swaps. Additionally, I actually think the game map looks quite nice, if, again, a touch generic. Sort of like if you let a DM who is proficient with Inkarnate go hog wild while building a map. At least it hearkens to the colorful, dense maps of the early games.

At any rate, I can thoroughly recommend the demo. They've got, I think, 4 factions ready to go, with another to be introduced when the game officially hits Early Access. Additionally, there are 5 different map templates of various sizes and play styles. For those that aren't familiar with the series' schtick, there is also a tutorial, but I decided to just dive in, so I can't speak to its quality.