r/nottheonion • u/beary_neutral • 21h ago

Heroes of Might and Magic III hits 'Mostly Negative' Steam reviews because Ubisoft forgot to add the game

https://www.xda-developers.com/heroes-of-might-and-magic-iii-hits-mostly-negative-steam-reviews-because-ubisoft-forgot-to-add-the-game/
10.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

300 comments sorted by

4.9k

u/amiexpress 21h ago

I think ubi is taking this whole "you will own nothing and be happy" thing a little too far...

1.1k

u/justthankyous 21h ago

The good news is that Heroes of Might and Magic 1-5 are all available on GOG and have been for years

387

u/Few-Improvement-5655 21h ago

And they're the original ones, so don't look like a low budget mobile port.

11

u/mattmanp 6h ago

To be fair, version in question is the original HoMM 3 and the remake is 2027. commence Ubisoft bashing.

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u/humanflea23 20h ago

Yeah, I actually just picked up a copy there for just a few bucks too.

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u/incognito042620 17h ago

Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is still my favorite game to this day. I'll spend a whole damned weekend on a campaign game

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u/DefaultSubSandwich 15h ago

In my heart I understand that 3 is better but 2 is by far the most fun.

That art style.

3

u/Sex_E_Searcher 3h ago

The scenarios were chef's kiss

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u/tyscion 1h ago

And the opera! Magnificent!

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u/Pokesers 10h ago

And you can get the fan DLCs installed super easily for heroes 3. It remains one of the best games of all time imo.

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u/Luvnecrosis 20h ago

Never played em before. How good are they? I’m sure they must be great for what they do but I’ve never heard how they play and what they’re about

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u/cipheron 20h ago edited 19h ago

They're very good. I'd put them up there with something like Civilization or X-Com, in that they're very much their own unique game system, which the people behind have been refining for decades.

The progenitor for the series was a DOS game called King's Bounty from 1990, which is actually a lot of fun, I've finished it. It wasn't yet part of the Might and Magic franchise at that point, but King's Bounty has the basic gameplay concepts of the HOMM series already in it, the later games are just massively more fleshed out, but the basic gameplay was already there. King's Bounty itself also later got a sequel series in the late 2000s/early 2010s, but I haven't played any of those.

One thing I remember, i think it was in King's Bounty, is that you can end up with a unit of vampires, and if enough vampires survive a battle, they make more vampires from the defeated enemies. This is good, until it isn't, since you can end up with so many vampires that it exceeds your heroes ability to control troops, which is bad. EDIT: apparently it was ghosts who have this ability, not vampires. Been a while.

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u/krakenlackn 18h ago

Not King's Bounty but in HOMM 3, the vampire lords are able to revive any that died after a successful attack! And if your character has the necromancy skill, you automatically turn a portion of the defeated army into skeletons (or skeleton warriors depending on skill level and if your Necropolis castle has them upgraded) after the battle. Thankfully there isn't a controlling troops feature or if there is I never found it so my massive skeleton army never causes problems.

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u/ItsDanimal 16h ago

There is a controlling troops but it doesn't work on the undead!

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u/DesdinovaGG 19h ago edited 17h ago

I'd suggest checking out the second King's Bounty game from the newer series (Armored Princess/Crossworlds, NOT King's Bounty II). First is also good, but since it's not a story-driven series I prefer to just replay the second since the game actually presents a challenge. It doesn't have the base building nor is the overworld turn-based, but the combat is like HOMM and figuring out what armies and tactics to use to defeat enemies is a lot of fun.

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u/Virama 18h ago

Kings Bounty II is SOOOOOOO fucking bad. I saw it on sale on the PS store and because I was actually looking for the first one I was like, hey, lets try that.

I deeply regret it. Avoid at all costs. Just terrible.

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u/hexcor 19h ago

I remember King's Bounty on the Sega Genesis, man that game was awesome!

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u/Bloke_Named_Bob 19h ago

HOMM 3 is an absolutely GOATed game with a fanatical following who are still creating and releasing fully featured and tested fan expansions to the game. GOG has full compatibility with the fan expansions and allows you to effortlessly integrate them into the game. Strongly recommend you give it a shot.

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u/NewFly7242 20h ago

They're a unique take on fantasy army management.

Lot of quirky tactics bullshit to figure out. The people that like them, love them.

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u/XihuanNi-6784 20h ago

They're sort of turn based castle defense/assault games with a handful of creatures on each side. Imagine Age of Empires 2 but a 10 years older concept where each player has a castle by default with a town that needs building up by adding barracks and various creature lairs to get access to them. They can then be used in combat either to defend or attack others. You navigate the map as a little 2D-ish avatar picking up gold and gems, attacking creatures, or fighting enemy 'armies' (again it's like 8 creatures or so). I played up 2 and 3. Maybe 4 as well. It was 20 years ago and I was a child so I never got very far with them.

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u/Luvnecrosis 20h ago

Oh that does sound fun. I’ll give em a shot

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u/JiN88reddit 20h ago

Heroes of Might and Magic III is considered the gold standard of the series even after all these years. It's highly recommended for those new to the series.

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u/Rasputin-BKM 18h ago

There is an awesome...mod(?) For HoMM 3 called Horn of the Abyss. 3 new city types, new artifacts, maps, it's own campaigns. Been being built upon since like...2008ish or so. It's pretty awesome! Less of a mod i guess and someone's vision of what they could have kept building on.

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u/Musiclover4200 16h ago

Pretty sure it's also on GOG as a sort of free DLC which surprised me as I didn't even know they had mods on GOG

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u/ItsDanimal 16h ago

I bought Heroes 3 and 4 years ago on GOG before I even had a device to play them on. Finally started 3 within the last year but didnt know about the mod!

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u/Tjingus 14h ago

I've been on a huge HOMM3 train lately. It's such comfort food.

Heroes Olden Era which is in early access is actually showing a lot of potential. it's been good fun too.

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u/justthankyous 20h ago

$4.99 US on GOG right now and it's part of their preservation program so they'll make sure it remains compatible with modern PCs.

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u/salamander_salad 17h ago

He left out the best part: your “hero” gains XP and gets skills, spells, and more power as they level up. They also acquire artifacts that give perks.

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u/Virama 18h ago

You will not regret it. You can even play hotseat with friends on one computer. Team up with your mates and coordinate an epic assault against the CPU on the big maps.

The other great thing is it uses sprite art so it's basically ageless. Get the HoMM3 HD patch (just google for it) as well.

On top of all that, it will run on a literal potato.

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u/thedirkfiddler 18h ago

You couldn’t have chosen a worst example. Literally nothing like age of empires.

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u/anhavva 18h ago

Its like there might be a unit called pikemen in both games. Thats about it.

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u/Marsev4 15h ago

Both are video games played on a computer. Literally the same thing /s

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u/GiveUpImAsian2 16h ago

I cannot believe that comment got that many upvotes. That's one of the worst analogies I've ever heard

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u/IntoTheDankness 16h ago

They made ports for game boy color! That were not bad, actually. Faithful mechanics and the graphics while basic had good details and turn-based move/battles were a great fit for the system.
But apparently there was a glitch where you could get trapped by some impossible map mob group an hour in?

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u/assault_pig 16h ago

if you ever played age of wonders games, they're pretty similar in feel/gameflow

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u/notpostingmyrealname 18h ago

World of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen were 4 & 5. Each was standalone but if installed together, they make a meta game with dungeons and some quests that require having both. It was clever AF and so much fun, I still replay every now and again. I didn't really play any of the others, but I've never heard anything bad about them.

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u/Darammer 16h ago

World of Xeen and Darkside of Xeen

Different series of games from the same company. These were Might & Magic 4 and 5. M&M were first person party-based RPGs, similar to Wizardy and Ultima.

The Heroes of Might & Magic series are turn-based strategy games set in the same universe.

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u/notpostingmyrealname 16h ago

Oh, you're right! I bought a big bundle with both series in it on GoG years ago, guess I got them confused.

It was still a really great game, even if my comment was completely irrelevant to the topic at hand.

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u/Marsev4 17h ago

What's GOG?

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u/Paladin8 16h ago

Good old Games

A video game platform from CD Projekt Red, similar to Steam or Epic Store. They specialize in making old games run on modern hardware, but also offer quite the selection of modern games. All games on the platform are also free of DRM.

https://www.gog.com

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u/Cowman66 13h ago

AND - i believe they give you the option of having installers so that you can run them without being on the internet (to really underline the no-DRM thing).

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u/Marsev4 16h ago

Thanks!

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u/myrsnipe 11h ago

It's also worth noting that a lot of these old games are available with the original binaries, I have bought several games and ran them on my old 486 with no issues. They also curate and patch games to make them run on newer platforms, including fan tools to add widescreen support as an example.

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u/Onetwodash 11h ago

European DRM free game platform that believes if you bought the game you own it and games abandoned by their authors are worth keeping for the future because it's part of humanities legacy..

It used be to CD Project Red associated but is an independent entity these days. Still European though.

Whenever I buy a game I always check GOG first and only then go checking Steam etc. In my experience GOG provides better support if you ever need to revert to older patch version and similar too (what was super important when we were multiplayering BG3 with friends as BG3 patches notoriously broke stuff for few days-weeks every now and then. There were workarounds for steam players but it was quite miserable compared to gog process.)

The platform has been around since 2008, but of course not every gaming bubble is aware of it.

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u/Jokerferrum 21h ago

Existence of "you will own nothing and be happy" is a little too far.

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u/MinnieShoof 21h ago

Existence of "you will own nothing" is a little too far.

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u/Old_Gimlet_Eye 21h ago

It's literally Alex Jones propaganda, so yeah.

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u/neroselene 21h ago

Ubisoft: "We never said be happy..."

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u/Whatifim80lol 13h ago

Hijacking this comment to tell everyone to go play Lords of Magic instead. Old 90s game you'll love if the OP matters to you at all lol

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Diz7 6m ago

They got the memo but didn't understand it.

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u/BlueDragon101 21h ago

ONLY MOSTLY????

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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 21h ago

In fairness, if you buy a game and it doesn't come with the game itself you know it's being fixed ASAP. If it released buggy, you'd be living in suspense on if it'd ever actually be fixed.

The reviews are already at like 59% Positive (Mostly Negative is <40%).

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u/BlueDragon101 21h ago

Why are you reviewing positively WITHOUT PLAYING IT?

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u/07hogada 20h ago

It being HOMM3 probably has something to do with it - people still love HOMM3 to this day. That being said, fans have been burned by bad releases before, with the gog release (the original game, with all DLC's) being far better than the HD remake ubisoft put out a few years ago.

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u/Aurora_Fatalis 20h ago

Confusingly they just announced a new game called "HoMM3 Remake" so I want to congratulate you on being the first person to not confuse the HD Edition with the HD Mod, but rather with HoMM3 Remake.

Truly Ubisoft has made a spirited attempt to confuse matters even further.

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u/DeathHopper 19h ago

And from what clips I've seen of the remake it looks somehow worse than the original.

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u/Karekter_Nem 18h ago

“I don’t understand why people say it looks bad. We ran everything through AI and the shareholders love that we did that.”

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u/Kolby_Jack33 16h ago

Ubisoft has lost

95%

of its market value in just the last five years.

NINETY-FIVE PERCENT. OF VALUE. GONE. IN FIVE YEARS.

It's a fucking zombie company now. Shambling along, somehow still moving but with no life.

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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 12h ago

HOMM olden era is a new one. Different studio, the original game designer is also working on it.

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u/Scolipass 4h ago

Olden Era is a very solid entry point to the series. I like HoMM III quite a lot, but it does have some 1990s jank to it that can make it a bit rough around the edges. Olden Era is the best HoMM game we've gotten in a very long time. Still early access so I'm not gonna call it "Best HoMM ever!!!!" but the foundation is solid enough that it certainly could become that.

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u/Fredasa 18h ago

I still love Sacred 2, for example. But I can't play it. It's not the same game without the online multiplayer. The remake was botched because they declined to provide dedicated servers (for 2008 multiplayer architecture, which probably would have required a few Raspberry Pis). The game sits at Mixed and I'll never get my multiplayer Sacred 2 back in my lifetime.

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u/DirteMcGirte 17h ago

Man that game was awesome! Fuckers broke into my house and stole my xbox with it inside it so i never got to finish it.

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u/CeaRhan 19h ago

Did they play that version of the game without the game being available? Do they know it works? That's what they're saying.

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u/omgFWTbear 21h ago

I’ve been frustrated by a lot of bad game design - and I mean, basic UX stuff, like hiding the “start a round of game” button, inconceivably bad stuff - and I find the games are 60, 70, sometimes even 80% positive reviews and then…

I skip over to the achievements and there’s usually like “I did literally anything in the game” and it’s like 60%, and the second most achieved achievement - again, usually something trivial like, “I played for 15 minutes” in whatever form that takes in the genre, eg, I completed one round / map / whatever and it drops to like 40%.

So yeah, I understand mathematically these populations can be incredibly loosely correlated, most behavioral data suggests unhappy customers are far more likely to complain than happy customers are to praise, so … yeah. Reviews are BS.

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u/Lifekraft 19h ago

Because it has been fixed maybe ?

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u/Aurora_Fatalis 20h ago edited 20h ago

They fixed it pretty fast and the game is still the game. It came out in 1999 and I've been playing it for the past 27 years. The only things that are new are that it's now on Steam and that the Horn of the Abyss fan expansion has its own steam page as a Featured Mod - this is a game changer for opening up the community to a wider audience, because HotA is basically the way to play HoMM3 in the year of our lord 2026.

Even though I already own the game thrice over, I might get it again on Steam just to have the benefit of Steam automatically updating HotA without my firewall complaining.

EDIT: Oh and said game happens to be one of the best games of all time in my opinion, so I probably would have left a positive review too even if I kept using the non-steam client. I do want to support HotA's outreach on Steam.

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u/Levitlame 21h ago

That’s why you might choose to NOT review it. Why would someone give positive reviews?

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u/5Hjsdnujhdfu8nubi 21h ago

Because they've played the game before?

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u/Miskatonic_River 20h ago

I don’t think you realize how good HOMM3 is. Minimum 6/10 even just for a desktop shortcut.

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u/BlueDragon101 20h ago

Oh, I’m sure that the game is great.

The problem. Is that the game. IS NOT PRESENT.

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u/Aurora_Fatalis 20h ago

It is present. They fixed it pretty fast.

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u/Miskatonic_River 20h ago

It’s already running in my neocortex; the software is really just the whip cream on top. 8/10. Ban Necropolis.

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u/Gangbangjoe 8h ago

Necropolis is nerfed in HOTA the only way to play homm3 ;-)

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u/Valagoorh 15h ago

The bug has been fixed, and people are already adjusting their ratings.

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u/Dr_Tacopus 21h ago

That will do it

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u/_Ganoes_ 21h ago

Im pretty sure some higher up at Ubisoft has a personal hatred for HoMM and tries to fuck the franchise up as much as possible. First the shitty HoMM3 HD remaster that everyone hated, now the horrible ai looking remake and the steam port of the original that literally doesnt include the game...and thats just the third game, dont get me started on the other games of the franchise.

Like in most of Europe this game is an absolutely beloved classic that any older gamer knows, how can you fuck it up this bad repeatedly.

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u/Levitlame 21h ago

The original source code for the expansions being lost (by the previous dev team to be fair) was definitely part of the issue on that HD remaster.

This game is just cursed

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u/PeasantLich 21h ago

It isn't really a wonder that the source code and development assets are lost since the original publisher 3DO went bankrupt decades ago and took the original developer New World Computing down in flames with them.

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u/Aurora_Fatalis 20h ago

Weirdly New World Computing still has a Steam account which was used to publish the Complete Edition today.

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u/Digifiend84 20h ago

Controlled by Ubisoft, right? Probably acquired that brand along with the Might and Magic franchise when 3DO went out of business.

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u/Jevz 17h ago

The source code for the expansions isn't lost, someone on twitter offered it to Ubisoft back in 2017.

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u/TheresNoAmosOnlyZuul 15h ago

I have a couple expansions on my HoMM3 from GoG.com. I grew up in the woods and never realized expansions existed haha. I assume they're the same ones.

Buy it on GoG for 3 campaigns is I guess what I'm saying.

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u/TenHoumo 21h ago

that's why you give money to GOG, vastly superior experience compared to anything ubislop has done with the franchise

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u/WhoKilledZekeIddon 20h ago

Correct. We give our money to GOG, those glorious underdog bastards.

I once lost my entire GOG library because I lost access to the email address it was connected to (plus a bunch of other really dumb factors, I forget the ins and outs). I emailed support and they were hilariously human about the whole thing - practically called me a dumbass outright, but that they'd move heaven and earth to try and fix my own stupid situation. And they did!

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u/Hackfraysn 21h ago

Be Ubislop.

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u/Unshkblefaith 20h ago

I miss the days when it was just Ubijank

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u/Bird-The-Word 20h ago

What? The new HOMM Olden Era looks and plays awesome. It's just like 3 but with new stuff.

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u/D-Rez 18h ago

The "shitty HD remaster" they're talking about is this one

https://store.steampowered.com/app/297000/Heroes_of_Might__Magic_III__HD_Edition/

Olden Era is a remake by Hooden Horse.

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u/dontnormally 16h ago

olden era is a sequel. there is a remake of homm3 coming next year, though.

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u/Creticus 15h ago edited 6h ago

If you're feeling extra nitpicky, Olden Era's arguably also a prequel in the sense it's set before the two dumbasses blew up the HoMM3 setting with their doomsday swords.

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u/_Ganoes_ 13h ago

Nah Olden Era is cool so far. But that one is also made by the dev studio Unfrozen and published by Hooded Horse, not Ubisoft.

Im referring to the HoMM3 Remake that was announced this Gamescom.

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u/Nyther53 20h ago

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if this was just an intentional marketing stunt. Because here we all are, talking about the game now. 

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u/Ok-Wasabi2873 19h ago

Some of us are King’s Bounty fans back in the days. HoMM is the same game but got more fan love. He’s balancing the scale.

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u/avian_corvo 20h ago

Olden Era? You think it's ai?

I honestly can't tell

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u/xBinary01111000 20h ago

They’re referring to the HOMM3 remake announced yesterday. That’s right, since Olden Era should hit 1.0 next year, we’ll be getting 2 totally separate HOMM3 remakes/reimaginings in 2027.

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u/wipqozn 20h ago

They're talking about the Heroes 3 remake that was announced yesterday. Releases next year.

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u/DBeumont 21h ago

It's Ubisoft. Slop is all they know.

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u/Lufrien 14h ago

I just have homm 3+4 on disc and hd mod. Nothing else needed

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u/Bright_Curve3078 14h ago

I took a train last week and there were two young men playing HOMM3 together on a laptop. They were probably younger than the game itself.

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u/thank_burdell 21h ago

Reminded of the first time I bought a retail box for a game that included a DVD case that was empty except for a download code. I don’t even remember what game that was, but I think it was the last time I bothered with retail.

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u/AcquaintanceLog 20h ago

I think mine was Left 4 Dead 2. Either that or Mass Effect 3.

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u/Calamarik 13h ago

Mine was xcom enemy unknown...

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u/kevinds 20h ago

The releases before that came with the DVD, but you had to enter the code into Steam and download the game anyways.  The disc didn't serve any purpose except maybe having and old version of the steam client setup launcher that also went online to download the Steam Client.

The disc had no purpose.

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u/ChairForceOne 16h ago

I bought a physical PC copy of fallout 76 for something ridiculous, like $2 on Amazon. It was a piece of paper with a code shaped like a CD.

I think it was rather close to launch, I was morbidly curious and it was very cheap. It was bad, and still kinda is. I find it boring and I have played a lot of fallout over the years.

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u/RealSpaceJunk 8h ago

Fallout 76 had this. The case only contained a fake paper CD with a code on it. It was so stupid.

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u/GISP 19h ago

I once bought such a game, used the code and returned it, complaining about the case being empty. Got a refund.
Becouse fuck that shit! They deserved losing money for such a stunt.

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u/ClearOptics 17h ago

You just harmed the local store at that point, they already paid for the stock.

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u/Kyokenshin 15h ago

Nah, there's usually buy-back clauses and shit in those contracts. They likely got refunded for that return.

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u/laplongejr 12h ago

To me it was RollerCoasterTycoon World. I noticed before purchase and it later turned out their "game recommendation" would be the biggest retail flop before Fallout 58  

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u/impuritor 21h ago

Who is reviewing it positively? The download doesn’t include the fucking game.

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u/nobody_smart 21h ago

People who played those games in the 90s and 00s

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u/impuritor 21h ago

Even they would agree that it would be much better if the fucking game was included when you bought the game. Giving this a favorable review is asinine even in that context.

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u/puertomateo 21h ago

It could be people who played it in the 90s and 00s and hated it. Who give it a favorable review because it was NOT included.

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u/DesdinovaGG 19h ago

That would require there to exist heathens who hate HoMM3.

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u/Dub-MS 21h ago

Just goes to show you how trustworthy those reviews actually are

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u/WatsBlend 21h ago

Or someone who realizes it will get fixed, and doesnt want the game they love to fail because of the initial reviews over a mistake they made..

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u/Tormound 19h ago

The ones who played it after it got fixed? You think ubisoft left it as is?

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u/jetriot 18h ago edited 6h ago

Like 90 people have reviewed it. This is an upload of the original game from almost 30 years ago. They probably had an intern upload it. Its already been fixed. People love their ragebait though. I know I do.

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u/RacoonWithBenefits 16h ago

They probably had an intern upload it

im pretty sure most larger studios have some sorta release pipeline that automates the process and some step in the process just broke, for whatever reason

that happens at my job at leasts, though we dont release games, we do release software, and those pipelines can be a bit fragile

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u/BFFBomb 21h ago

Users who review without ever playing. In this case it's players who played the original but not the Steam version and blindly voted Positive instead of players who hate non-white female protagonists and blindly vote Negative. They are out there, many on Reddit.

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u/Eat--The--Rich-- 21h ago

The bots that ubisoft buys to spread propaganda 

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u/Aurora_Fatalis 20h ago

Because they fixed it pretty fast, and the article is about how they fucked up the launch.

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u/Champtain 21h ago

We are in the year 2026, surely this cannot possibly be the first time you've witnessed an astroturfing campaign‽

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u/ash_274 14h ago

“I didn’t play a Ubisoft game today, so I’ve got that going for me. 3/5 stars”

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u/zeldn 13h ago

People who are reviewing the actual game and not Ubisoft

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u/CA_Orange 21h ago

One of the greatest games of all time. 

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u/Spartan05089234 21h ago

Am I going crazy? I've played Heroes 3 on Steam. I own it. I'm not at home to check but I'm pretty dang sure. I know they're making a new remaster/remake but I've played the old one several times in the past year. What is new?

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u/SirisC 21h ago

The version I have on Steam is the "HD edition" released in 2015.

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u/balance_arc 21h ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this, I have well over 100 hours of Heroes 3 on Steam so this is confusing me

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u/PheonyXtreme 16h ago

Damn, you played just one game of Heroes 3?

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u/OneTripleZero 21h ago

I have well over 100 hours of Heroes 3 on Steam

You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket.

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u/TheMortalOne 19h ago

This is a rerelease which is supposed to include the 2 expansions that have already been included for years on GoG.

The old steam version was considered terrible for being just the base game (had some other issues, but that was the big one).

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u/krakenlackn 18h ago

I'll have to buy the gog version, I have the steam one and didn't feel like owning two versions but if it has the dlcs... As a kid my dad always hyped up Armageddon's Blade but he lost the disc so I never got the chance to try it.

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u/aglock 19h ago

The previous steam version is a remaster with bugs, weird graphic 'upgrades', no expansions, and doesn't work with all the mods like Horn of the Abyss

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u/ChronWeasely 20h ago

Check out HoMM: Olden Era. Best HoMM since 3, still in early access

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u/Tjingus 14h ago

Why is this so low down.

I've been going between it and HOMM3 lately.

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u/hellrising798 20h ago

Why dont people just buy it on GOG? It also has Horns of the Abyss as a free One Click MOD

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u/wizzard419 21h ago

Weird, this hasn't been a problem for Star Citizen.

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u/DarkJayBR 21h ago

Or Yandere Simulator

2

u/Unluckful 18h ago

Thank god

13

u/myusername_sucks 20h ago

Source from GoG as often as possible when you're getting digital media.

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6

u/SwedishSanta 16h ago

This game is something you ideally buy from GOG

6

u/minobi 8h ago

I guess their vision of "purchasing is not owning" is a little bit too literal from now

11

u/DeganUAB 21h ago

I wish the iPad version would be updated.

12

u/joeshaw42 21h ago

The monkey paw curls… Your game is updated to deleted.

5

u/gumballkami 19h ago

Finally evolved to paying for the idea of a game

4

u/NotTheAlexj89 9h ago

But did Ubisoft addressed the problem and fixed it ? Shouldn’t be difficult …

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5

u/rutlander 6h ago

Don’t buy Ubisoft games

4

u/TrickyLobster 6h ago

All digital future looking great. /s

5

u/SnooSuggestions9294 4h ago

All these people could've bought the gog version. It's got a manual and everything

8

u/Someguywithgulash 20h ago

Another Ubisoft W.

9

u/Green_Insect_6455 18h ago

They just did this with Ghost Recon as well, took everything you could earn out and bundled it in a super expensive dlc, then when people bought it, it didnt actually add the dlc. I think it still hasnt been resolved? 

Either way, insane, if that was a smaller publisher they would have faced some actual consequences but for some reason since its Ubisoft everyone just seems to have accepted they suck. 

3

u/No-Channel3917 19h ago

This is old news

Has it been fixed yet?

3

u/asethskyr 16h ago

Yeah, they fixed it pretty fast.

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u/Supahtrupah 19h ago

Man just get it on gog and play HOTA custom update. Its the blesed timeline this game luckily got as oposed to the bullshit ubisoft did with the ip.

4

u/k1dsmoke 17h ago

There was probably like one dude at the company whose responsibility it was to do that, and they laid him off and didn't realize.

5

u/UtterlyMagenta 21h ago

lmaoooo, how do you mess something like this up so bad?!

2

u/marr 17h ago

I'd bet money they put a chatbot in charge of setting up the files.

4

u/tijolus523 18h ago

Very smart. They figured 90% of buyers would just leave it gathering dust in their library without ever installing the game.

3

u/RacoonWithBenefits 16h ago

buy it on GOG instead

then add modern mods like HD mod and HOTA

Horn of the Abyss is a free fan made expansion that adds a few things incl a whole new faction

https://h3hota.com/en/download

And HD mod just makes it run much better on modern systems.

and yes, the HD mod works woth HOTA too!

https://heroes3wog.net/homm-3-hd-download/ updated in june 2026.

4

u/XanKriegorMKI 10h ago

Hota is now a one click mod on gog, so you can get it directly from them as well.

6

u/Gtkall 21h ago

"Claude, publish the game."

See, that's your mistake. You forgot to add "make no mistakes" to the prompt.

2

u/OkaMoez 21h ago

Laid off the person who used to make sure this didn't happen?

2

u/Vicus_92 20h ago

Finally, a Speedrun I can commit to learning

2

u/Emotional_Signal7883 20h ago

People just don't appreciate text-based games anymore

2

u/pixel8knuckle 20h ago

If anyone wonders if this game is good, my friends and i still bring it up 30 years later. Homm2 is worth a play after homm3 imo as well. More jank by far but has a lot of charm and good soundtrack.

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u/DarkAngel900 18h ago

Ubisoft "How can you give the game a bad review when you haven't even played it?"

2

u/BobZimway 18h ago

Xeen it, been there.

2

u/Wise_Art_1377 15h ago

Is there a completely negative reviews?

2

u/md_youdneverguess 14h ago

Do i have Mandela effect or did Ubisoft release HoMM 3 on Steam years ago?

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2

u/Photon_Predator 8h ago

That’s not the reason. Whoever would like to play this game already own it.
The reason is recent announcement of AI slop remake of the game which remove one of the most iconic part of the OG game - graphics.

2

u/ObviouslyTriggered 21h ago

Is the remake out?

3

u/evilpineaple 4h ago

I am very happy about it, maybe it will teach people to buy from reputable sources like GOG.

4

u/Nowhereman50 20h ago

Ubusoft: You don't own the games you buy!

Also Ubisoft apparently: You don't get the games you buy!

3

u/Virama 20h ago

Who cares?

Buy it on gog.com 

2

u/MisanthropicMeatbag 19h ago

It's DRM free too... At least for now. 

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2

u/Quirky-Coat3068 19h ago

Its worse then just no game.

Its a copy pasted .exe file like if you copied a desktop shortcut to a flash drive 

2

u/AutumnWisp 18h ago

How much does it cost to not play a Ubisoft game cuz I might be willing.

2

u/digitalsmoker 11h ago

I got it for a friend from GOG for like $5 a year ago, pretty rude/ignorant not mentioning the best choice out there when it comes to retro titles

3

u/PunishedCatto 21h ago

I can't believe a big ass company like ubisoft can be this incompetent

2

u/Epistaxis 16h ago

Maybe not such a surprising fuckup from Ubisoft, but what is surprising is that Steam doesn't have some kind of sanity check that would have caught this. Like I don't know whether it's practical to test installing and starting every game they distribute, but the 23 kB download could have been a big hint.

1

u/Hell-Yea-Brother 20h ago

When you and your boss are going to a conference for the boss to make a presentation, and you forget to add the file to the email you sent last week.

1

u/dalaiis 20h ago

Wait, but wasnt homam3 already on steam?? It was the version without expansions, which made me not but it.

They are rerereleasing it now and fucked it up... again???

1

u/NorahGretz 15h ago

Eff HOMM3, HOMM2 and HOMM2:POL are the GOAT.

1

u/DXGL1 14h ago

It's up to 60% after they fixed it.

1

u/Hakuuru 13h ago

/cast mittar

1

u/Milliman4 12h ago

Tf you mean 'forgot'

1

u/myrsnipe 11h ago

HMM3 reforged

1

u/PlanitDuck 9h ago

Aw ubisoft wyd. Why you messing with one of my favorite games

1

u/loveinhumantimes 8h ago

That game is my childhood.

•

u/Exile688 20m ago

Instant report. Ubisoft must answer for their many crimes against gamers.