What HeroQuest?

This is the 2021 version of Heroquest from Hasbro Pulse, sent to us by them, but this review is not sponsored. We also have the Mage in the Mirror and Rise of the Dread Moon expansion wea re briefly covering!

Big note:

Zargon is told to remake dungeons if the heroes lose, and in the expansion rulebooks, it says that Zargon is the ultimate authority for rules. As such, HeroQuest is meant to be approached very casually and loosely, and is not your traditional 1 vs. all asymmetric game. Zargon is meant to create the best experience for everyone.

This review is going to be a little bit different than our usual campaign games.

How much HeroQuest?

We’ve played 14 HeroQuest quests collectively across the years, if we throw in all the expansions here with our previous enjoyment of the 1989 Heroquest (which had the same exact rules). 3 scenarios of Magein the mirror, and 1 printout scenario of Rise of the Dread Moon were played. We also played with the new app which will be reviewed.

Need to learn how to play? Or want more reasoning for our points? Our review video’s got you!

Component PROS

• Minis are incredibly fantastic in build and design

  • Heroes, furniture, and monsters all look great

  • Little rats and skulls to place around furniture

  • Doors are proper molds instead of 89’s cardboard

• Included inserts in each box fits everything well

• Art is same 90’s style but has some facelifts for heroes and monsters

• Dice are engraved now and hard plastic

• Zargon screen is same as before in being durable and informative

Learning PROS - SO easy to start playing for a 1 vs. all game

• Zargon has so much information readily shown in front of him, he just moves monsters and attacks

  • Flavor text takes care of the world setup

• Heroes can just grab a hero, move by rolling dice, attack by rolling dice

  • Great player aids

• Setup is so easy because make dungeon as play, takes maybe 1 min for a full group to start

GAMEPLAY PROS — Dungeons

• Dungeon board is a bunch of empty rooms that is infinitely customizable for how simple it is

  • New furniture, secret doors, monsters, traps behind every door

  • Players open up the world by walking around and exploring, dungeons feel unique and new

• Infinite possibilities if make own quests

• Quest design has some variance

  • e.g. Hunt down evil Orc Warlords or Gargoyles

  • e.g. Find prisoners and escort to safety

  • e.g. Mess with starting equipment

Gameplay PROS — Spells & Asymmetry

• Team has 12 spells need to carefully manage with nice variety

  • e.g. putting monsters to sleep for debuff

  • e.g. huge ranged attack with genie

  • e.g. buff ally to WALK through walls and scout ahead (crazy cheese move)

• Wizard has 9 spells, elf has 3, need to position accordingly

• Barbarian is physically the strongest, Dwarf needs to utilize free trap disarm

Gameplay Pros - Efficient World Building

• Treasure possible in every room

  • e.g. strange potions, healing plants, gold

• Rare artifacts for crazy abilities feel like would be hidden in dungeon

  • e.g. Wand of magic to cast 2 different spells on a turn

  • e.g. Elven Boots for elf to run faster

  • e.g. Armor so light doesn’t slow down movement

Gameplay Pros - Etc. Teamwork

• Comes together very well to quickly feel like you’re in a dungeon with friends

  • Need to put heroes’ strengths together in how to navigate dungeon

• Between scenarios decide what equipment to get from the armory deck, can pool together money

Rules/Clarity Cons

• Explanation of ‘anytime’ for some items not explained

• Resolving treasures is confusing, with “return card to bottom of the deck” versus not returning

• Potions jank to write down, not enough space, should have been explained better

• Equipment needed to be reworded into armory

• Expansion cards not marked

Gameplay Cons - Randomness not handled well for 2023 standards

• Rolling to move on 2D6 is range of 2-12

  • We house ruled it to move flat 8

• Combat is only rolling the same D6, no re-roll possibility

• Need at least 3-4 players for more chances of rolling

• Suggest giving heroes re-rolls based off of mind points (not for wizard though)

• Treasure deck being 30-40% bad event cards is buzzkill

  • Wandering monster can just kill heroes and destroy pacing of dungeon

  • Discouraging heroes from looting is not good for dungeon crawler

    Gameplay Cons - Rules as Written very clunky

• Rolling to move

  • Should just teleport heroes sometimes (like video game fast travel)

• Searching for traps and secret doors should be 1 action

• Heroes should be able to go in any order they want

• Heroes can confine enemies to choke-points for repetitive combat victory

• Zargon turns are dry

  • Just move monsters and attack

  • Cannot open doors, spawn more units, or do any goal

  • Dread spells are in later scenarios, more exception rather than rule

Gameplay Cons - Mage in the Mirror Expansion approach

• Solo campaign for 1 elf for 3 altered dungeons is not good idea

  • No allies to help you attack

  • Miss any attack roll -> going to get bashed by monsters

• Unclear how to many items you should start campaign with, just says “for experienced players”

Gameplay Cons - App is not a good idea

• Not usable on a laptop, have to use tablet/phone

• Have to keep touching screen to move character which is fiddly

• Repeating dungeons gives you the same exact trap and monster spawns

• No undo button

• No way to easily restart a quest

• No log history

• Buggy regarding interactions and line of sight