1) If I had to choose a 'genre' of games which I prefer, then I'm a Eurogamer.
2) I love wooden pieces and cardboard tiles - IMHO plastic just looks cheap by comparison. ( Lajos sums it up well in this GeekList, when he says: "Cardboard > Wood > Rotten dead shellfish > Plastic")
3) I'm a thrifter - so I sometimes buy games because they're cheap, not because I'm likely to play them.
4) I really have no reason to enjoy HeroQuest. After all, It's Talisman Lite and anyone who read my review of Talisman 4th Edition will know my opinion of that game!
Anyhoo...
Last weekend I heard about a local car-boot sale (I'm not sure what the US equivalent of this is - let's just say these sales can be a thrifter's paradise.) As they normally only happen during the British Summer (when the rain is slightly warmer), I jumped at this opportunity for a thrifting fix...
There wasn't very much there in the way of games. Then I spotted HeroQuest tucked away on one trader's table. I didn't want to leave empty-handed, it was a game (albeit Ameritrash), the board was in good condition and it was only £5.00. I bought it...
Driving home, I rehearsed the conversation I would be holding with my wife. Put simply, she's not as much of a gamer as I am. She has the strange belief that other things are more important than gaming and
My wife's first comment on seeing the HeroQuest box:
"Oh wow! Can we play it after dinner?" (She never volunteers to play a game)
"..."
"Can I play as Morcar? Pleeeeze..."
"..."
(It took me a while to realise that Morcar is the name of the evil wizard.)"It's a shame you haven't got the expansions and Advanced HeroQuest too..."
"..."
"I love this game - I haven't played it in years - oh wow..."
(I got my voice back.)
"What have you done with my real wife???"
Needless to say, after dinner, we set up the game. This review is to let people know how I felt about the game.
What's in the box?
This can be the bane of any thrifter - what's supposed to be in the box rarely equates to what you actually have. I'll just list the discrepancies from what should have been there.
I only got 3 rather than 4 special combat dice - that's still enough to play the game.
There were only 2 closed doors instead of the 5 listed. Eric Keuchel's tile file will soon fix that.
The 35 Citadel miniatures... This was the real worry, I hadn't had time to check for completeness when I picked the game up and miniatures are frequently the missing bits. They were all there! This is also the first part of HeroQuest where thrifting had a bad side-effect. The quality of the paint job!
Okay, I've seen worse than this, and it gives me a project for this winter!
There was actually an extra miniature in the box too:
Other than these minor issues, the game was complete and in good condition. It even had a plentiful supply of unused character sheets and a couple of pencils!
The game itself:
My wife took over the set-up (another first) and handed me the character reference cards, sheets and figures. She then insisted that I had to work through Mentor's tutorials from the rule book! (Normally I'd skip these and just get on with the game.)
The tutorials, whilst being too basic for a seasoned gamer like me, were very well thought out. They introduce the various mechanics gradually and in a fully interactive way. I'm a great believer in learning a game by playing it. The HeroQuest tutorials use this method and they were surprisingly fun to do.
Training over, my band of heroes set off on their first quest. We used the basic quests supplied with the game and played through the first three of them...
As a Eurogamer, certain questions were screaming at me as we played: "Where were the wooden cubes? Why were the mechanics loosely pasted to a theme, when every good game loosely pastes a theme to the mechanics? Where were the Meeples? What do you mean roll and move?" I ignored these (usually valid) questions and thoroughly enjoyed the game!
What I enjoyed:
Your heroes develop from quest to quest. They have names and even develop personalities (although that may have been the claret we were drinking!)
As you continue, you get a feeling of role playing. This even affected my non-gamer wife - her orcs were yelling battle cries as they charged my characters!
Seeing the evolution of games at work: HeroQuest uses a fixed board. By positioning 'blocked square' tiles and doors, some areas become inaccessible. This effectively changes the layout for each scenario. This concept was developed for Advanced Heroquest, which uses a modular board. This design style has changed little and has resulted in games like Doom: The Boardgame and Descent: Journeys in the Dark.
Depth of game... Seriously, this game has more depth than all the different editions of Talisman put together (admittedly, this is not difficult). In HeroQuest, your strategies do make a difference to the gameplay.
Most importantly, my wife likes the game. She used to play this when she was younger. Better still, her parents still have their copy - together with all the expansions and Advanced HeroQuest! (Their game collection would be the envy of many geeks - and they're not even gamers!!!)
What I disliked:
I really want to say lots of bad things about this game. I feel it is my duty as a Eurogamer. But... I can't find anything really bad to say! Here are the things I can comment on:
The quality of the pieces - but I have paint and brushes and free-time so this will improve.
Value for money - If I had paid ebay prices for a copy of this game, in similar condition, I would be disappointed. By thrifting it, I believe I got a good deal.
As a result of this game, my non-gamer wife has heard about Doom: The Boardgame and Descent: Journeys in the Dark and expressed an interest in playing those games too! Whilst I appreciate her increased interest in gaming, she could at least direct it towards Eurogames - after all, we went to Carcassonne on honeymoon!
Conclusion:
My thrifting has betrayed me... I used to be a happy Eurogamer, confident that vast boxes backed with gaudy plastic miniatures would not spoil the neat lines of my gaming shelves. Now I'm looking forward to 'borrowing' my in-laws' copies of the HeroQuest expansions.
(We 'borrowed' their copy of Starfarers of Catan three years ago - it's now part of my collection! - I will return it if asked - honest!)All in all, HeroQuest is great fun to play and puts other Ameritrash games to shame. (Advanced HeroQuest is the exception.) If you're out thrifting and see a copy, buy it - you won't be disappointed.
Posted Mon Dec 3, 2007 2:00 pm
for you -- for seeing both sides of the gaming fence 
