Return of the Heroes

This is a review of Return of the Heroes

Summary is

Materials=4
Rules Presentation=4
Gameplay=6
Personal Tilt=8
Replayability=8
Usefulness=7

Return of the Heroes is about an average game, meaning that it's not better then average, but it's not worse than average. It has it's strengths and it's weaknesses.

Materials - I really hate cardboard in games. Perhaps some would call it an attitude of toy soldiers and plastic toys to play with, others like me would call it durability and representation. This game has some high quality materials, it also has some low quality materials. For those who LIKE cardboard playing pieces, such as chits, then they will probably like some of the game elements. As someone who wargames occasionally, I'll say the game beats out a paper map (which by the way would also get a 1 in a ranking from me in wargames, which is why normally I will never reveiw a hardcore wargame in a review meant for general gamer reading on Board game geek), but in comparison to some other games, especially games out of Europe, this one fall short in some areas.

First, the good is that there are a number of HIGH quality components. These consist of wooden blocks to represent stats, and wooden houses, clear red glass stones to represent life, and yellow round wood pieces to represent money. The cards in the game, are pressed cardboard. That means they are FAR more durable than even heavy cardstock playing cards. These are GOOD quality pieces, and normally would rank about a 10.

The bad however is the board. I prefer mounted boards because they tend to be a little bit more water resistant than paper maps, or other boards. RotH has a board which is normal cardboard, as far as I can tell (pressed cardboard that is), which is rearrangeable. This fits with the game, but makes the board even more easily destroyed. For anyone who's ever gamed with an idiot (not that I would call my friends idiots...until they do something like this...in which case hopefully they forgive me though I might never forgive them) that spills some sort of beverage on the table, and hence the board, they can understand this desire for durability. For those with kids, they can probably understand the desire even more. This board doesn't stand up to koolaid, it also doesn't stand up to whiskey. A few seconds is all it takes. We'll let that be all that's said on that.

Next, the playing pieces are also cardboard. NOT cardboard chits, but goodness to blessed cardboard. At least the stands they are one actually hold the figures up. I think cardboard chits are actually more durable, but only due to the square dimensions and such. I was not impressed with the playing pieces for the characters.

The dice are normal dice and useable.

It also has a high number of cardboard chits. These aren't as high quality as something you'd find out of phalanx or mayfair, but they do the job. For the way the game is designed, you really need the chits, and the work well. This is a game where you really actually need chits (as apart from some games which use chits out of tradition rather than any real practical use) in they way they are utilized. It also has a bag in which you put them for random drawings.

Overall, the game materials has some really superior qualities, some inferior qualities, and some items which work nicely. They balance out for the most part, but the durability of the board lowers the score from average to a little below average.

It scores a 4.

Rules Presentation - This game seems almost historic for people complaining about the rules. I didn't really see why they would complain. The rules are given in first person, as one of the game characters explaining the rules to you, but I understood what the basic rules were rather quickly.

The base rules however, are just that. You'll begin play and be able to play, but not much else. The game operates with a ton of chits with different symbols on them. There are FAR more than you can memorize, and they apply to everything from equipment, to quests, to monsters and people on the board. NOTHING is explained on the chits, they are all explained in a glossary in the rules.

This means that you are constantly looking back and forth from the rules to the gameboard to the rules. You are looking to see what exactly anything you come upon does. It greatly detracts from the game, and takes up a LOT of your time.

To make matters worse, almost nothing on the chits are labled. It's all in picture format. This means that you will be combing through the same lists in the rules time after time trying to find the right tiny picture since you have NO idea what it's called. (For example, you'll see the picture of a man with a beard. Then you have to look up amongst dozens of them to find out who he is, what he does, and how it applies to you).

This particular set up of the rules is annoying, makes the game annoying, and makes the rules presentation take a HUGE hit. This is a much larger hit than anything characters explaining a game in first person could do. I've seen rules written far worse, but on the otherhand, not many that are more annoying.

It scores a 4.

Gameplay - The game is a roleplaying boardgame. You take on the role of a character, and then travel around fighting monsters, taking on quests, and fullfilling your destiny in order to destroy the big bad guy.

The board can be set up randomly, with sixteen various pieces which you can set up into any way you desire. This will increase the replayability later.

As you start off, you draw a card which tells you what your master quest is. It involves various things that involve mostly go here and fetch this.

The problem is that most of the items are not on the board yet. There are token on the board (chits) for a few items, but overall, most of them are kept in a bag. Each time you turn over and fulfill a chit, you draw anothe random one out of the bag and put it on the board in a location other than where you are at.

The problem with this is that it is all up to luck when your quest items may turn up.

Meanwhile, you travel around the board, and encounter different things as you turn over chits.

You can fight monsters, which basically turns into rolling a certain score. You have several stats, with which you can use to fight a monster. You roll the dice once, if you suceed you get an experience cube in a relavant stat for defeating it, if you don't you take a wound and continue on your merry way.

You can get a quest, which normally involves a go and fetch item. It gets monotonous, because a majority of the chits revolve around quests, and each quest is almost exactly the same...go here do this...get the experience. Rinse, and repeat.

You also can meet with merchants and purchase items (which of course you have to look up to see what these items are and what they do in the rulebook) or meet trainers (who you hope will eventually be drawn for you to be able to go to).

The gameplay isn't outstanding, but it isn't terrible. It's just about average. A high average, but still...average.

It scores a 6.

Personal Tilt - I enjoy Roleplaying boardgames. Other than wargames, it's probably they gametype In invest in the most. Hence I'm apt to be highly favoring a game in that genre. It's a nice diversion from other games, and I enjoy playing this game. I'd prefer a game of Runebound to this game any day, but this game isn't bad in it's own light. It doesn't move as quickly as Runebound, but it's experience system and way it advances appeals highly to my sense of enjoyment.

It scores an 8.

Replayability - In a way, every time you play the game, the quests drawn are the same, but at the same time they are different. Quests are tied to certain spots on a board, but since the board will change every time you play (there are sixteen different board pieces, multiply that by factors of 16 to figure out how many different ways you can arrange the board) it changes in how you can approach or even get to a quest. Since chits are randomly drawn and the timing of different quests, monsters, and people will change every time you play. In addition, if you use random draws to determine your master quest at the beginning of the game, your entire goal can change from game to game, and the final big bad boss you fight, can also change.

It scores an 8.

Useability - There are high number of characters you can choose from, and due to the game changing quite a bit from play to play, it scores above average for useability on game nights.

It scores a 7.

The game scores about average overall, nothing that really stands out except replayability, and nothing that really is so terrible as to make the game horrendous, overall it's an average game.

It's final score is a 6.2


(Edit: For reference, link to explanation of my game ratings http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/2426690#2426690 )