Dungeon Heroes Game Review

Dungeon Heroes is a dungeon crawl that can be taught to a new player in five minutes. It really is that simple to learn. It can also be just as easily won or lost in that same amount of time if the players are not careful. Unlike many dungeon crawlers you roll no dice, which I unexpectedly found to be a good spin.

The rules support a 2-player and a single player mode. The two player version pits the players against each other. One player is the Dungeon and the other plays the heroes, cleric, fighter, wizard, rogue. I should rephrase that. He plays a party of heroes that have very specific roles. That is actually where a lot of the strategy enters the game.

There are two phases on each turn, passive and aggressive. They occur in the listed order. On each turn the dungeon player places four tiles, monster, artifact, movement, trap, or treasure, face down in the dungeon chamber. Then the heroes player takes a turn using up to four actions. These actions are some combination of movement and hero special abilities. I will note here that the special ability of the warrior is to slay monsters. He is the only hero than can kill the foul creatures of the dungeon. There is currently one exception to the rule, heroes might find a one use artifact sword that allows them to slay a monster. That is the passive phase.

In the Aggressive phase flipped monster tiles are replaced with the appropriate monster meeple. Tiles are flipped by the wizard special ability or when a hero moves onto that square. At this point the monsters mat take on action.

The game continues in that cycle until the heroes are dead or they have claimed three treasures.

The main difference in the one player version is the setup. You place 36 tiles face down on the board prior to staring the game. That means the entire game board is filled with monsters, traps, tricks, and treasures that are not yet revealed. It is quite a challenge; my record so far dungeon 8 me 2. The random element of the solitary version takes the game strategy up several notches.

I have found Dungeon heroes to be a brutal game that brings an intense amount of strategy to the game table. The replayability of this game is absolutely amazing, it’s almost open ended.