Ready your broadswords and prepare a fireball, because the rebooted HeroQuest board game has taken a surprisingly chunky discount for the new year.
You can currently get the classic dungeon-crawler for £47.99 at Zavvi instead of £107.99, and that's a massive £60 discount we haven't seen since early 2023. In addition, its board game expansions have been heavily discounted as well. In other words, you can build up your HeroQuest collection for a fraction of the price.
Although this is a reboot of the original game rather than a reprint, I'd argue that it still holds the same old-school charm as its predecessor. Which is just as well – that first entry was beloved, with OG HeroQuest being many a kid's introduction to the best board games decades ago. It's certainly one of the better classic board games out there, anyway.
Should you buy the HeroQuest board game?
Because I grew up with Warhammer tie-ins like HeroQuest and Talisman (though neither is connected with the wargame now, I should add), this brand of '80s/'90s fantasy is a fun blast from the past. It's all Conan-style barbarians in loincloths, gaudy wizards, and death-metal skeletons wrapped up in a story of good vs. evil. If you're of an age with me, that'll probably appeal to you… and may be enough to sell you on the concept immediately. It reminds me a lot of early D&D artwork, or those Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own books.
For everyone else, this is one of the grandfathers of the modern tabletop dungeon-crawler – the likes of Gloomhaven owe it a great debt. Besides scenarios that have you exploring dungeons and battling through hordes of snarling monsters to get at a villainous wizard, you'll be upgrading your character as you go with new treasure.
However, that's not why it's interesting. Rather, one player can take command of said evil wizard and his hordes as a sort-of Dungeon Master that you'd see in the best tabletop RPGs. While it's not mandatory (you can play with the app 'controlling' monsters instead), it does give HeroQuest a unique selling point.
For more suggestions, be sure to check out these board games for adults, board games for 2 players, and the best cooperative board games.
