HeroQuest: First Light turns the classic board game into something I could actually imagine kids playing today

GamesBoard GameHeroQuest: First Light turns the classic board game into something I could actually imagine kids playing todayWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Hasbro)

The wizard Mentor, his white hair illuminated by magical fire

Once upon a time, HeroQuest was the board game equivalent of a gateway drug, only instead of leading to meth it would lead you into the slightly less financially crippling life of a Warhammer player. Or maybe it would get you into Dungeons & Dragons. Either way, you’d end up a nerd with a collection of little guys you will definitely finish painting one of these days.

Unlike that original board game,Avalon Hill’s boutique revival of HeroQuestisn’t for an audience of kids who might grow up to be roleplayers. It’s for the adults those kids already grew up to be. A deluxe nostalgia box full of lushly detailed plastic orcs and goblins and dungeon furniture—which turned out to be easier to paint than I expected—it’s an expensive proposition aimed at middle-aged folks like me who played HeroQuest in the 1990s and still have fond memories of saying “I use my broadsword!” and “Fire of wrath!”

(Image credit: Future)

Four heroes face a dragon in a dungeon

HeroQuest: First Lightexists to get new kids into that roleplayer pipeline. While Avalon Hill has already rereleased a bunch of HeroQuest’s expansions and added some brand new ones, First Light is more like an alternate edition of the base game. It includes everything you need to play, board and dice and cards, at a lower price and in a smaller box you could actually imagine handing to a 12 year old without the weight immediately crushing them.

For starters the board is double-sided, with a different dungeon layout on the reverse which several of the new quests make use of. And while most of the monsters are cardboard standees, you do get new plastic sculpts of the four heroes and one new monster—a dragon rearing up on its hind legs, who acts as a recurring foe in the 10 new quests.

(Image credit: Hasbro)

Cards for dread magic spells and a fish-monster called an Abomination

The quests are a little more involved as well, with a lot of rooms having a paragraph of narration and sometimes a point of interaction beyond just some monsters to kill. Do you steal donations from the temple? Give a magic ring to the ghost who says it belongs to him? One quest involves a Lord of the Rings battle scene between two bad-guy armies, and the players get to take control of one set of monsters.

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(Image credit: Future)

Cardboard standees of an orc, a zombie, and a skeleton

The one downside to these additions is that instead of being in the rulebook they’re in the separate quest book, making them harder to reference in play. I spent a chunk of my first session leafing through the rules trying to find things that weren’t there, and even when I did find them, flicking back and forth between the page with the current map on it and referencing additions like the new rules for blessings and curses was a hassle.

Light my fire (of wrath)

(Image credit: Hasbro)

Cardboard standees and unpainted plastic miniatures on a game board

When I say it like that, it sounds like a bad thing. Maybe buy that kid a guitar instead and give them at least a chance of growing up to be cool.

HeroQuest: First Light will be available throughTargetfrom January 12 and via other retailers after that.

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