The only letdown about Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era's hotseat multiplayer mode is the fact that we can't team up. My brother looks at me plaintively as he clicks about the lobby screen, trying in vain to change his hero's little color marker to the same rich shade of purple as mine. I remind him that this is just the beginning for Unfrozen's gorgeous new strategy-RPG; it's in Early Access right now, with the passionate developer using player feedback to chart its course, so hotseat team-up is probably coming later. He huffs at me, unconvinced, and starts the game. Yet, as soon as he hears those melodious violins ushering in a new day in Jadame, he's absolutely locked in.
My big brother has always been something of a purist. Our days playing Heroes 3 in the early '00s together were a formative part of our close bond as siblings. Those memories are as clear in his mind as they are in mine, and the main reason he got excited to play Olden Era with me was because I mentioned how the developer draws most of its inspiration from our favorite entry in the series. This might not be the same game we played together as kids, but one look at his awestruck expression confirms what I've been saying about Olden Era for months now: it's doing everything we remember Heroes 3 doing, only somehow… better?
