H.E.R.O. the card game review
‘Heroes come in many forms’
What do a SkyBase, Franz and Going Nuclear have in common?
Let’s find out in this review of H.E.R.O the card game!
H.E.R.O is made by Anthem Creations in Elon, North Carolina.
The owner, Wesley Cone, is a nice and creative mind who is really passionate about his game!
The game is in its last phases of testing, and we will be reviewing Prototype 10 of H.E.R.O the card game.
The scene & design
‘In a not too distant future, apocalyptic scenarios are not so farfetched. With the world on the brink of utter destruction, a new breed of hero is rising up.’
‘H.E.R.O. is the training ground. It is an arena in which you are a Warrior of Old recruiting freshblood, training them, enhancing their abilities, and teaching them to fight for that which is good.’
Wesley knows how to capture a scene, that’s for sure!
The design of the cards is plain, and straight forward. At least for now, Wesley says that new artwork is on it’s way!
The back of all cards have the same design, which depict a hero (that’s you!) standing near a big city.
The text on every card is clearly readable with a matching font that completes the picture. This is especially visible on all ability cards.
All other cards have a normal look that show their attack & defense points, title and special skill.
All together the scene is great, I love the apocalyptic feeling.
The front design of the cards are pretty plain, but the back design balances it out nicely.
The gameplay
Let’s play!
Wait, first read the rules, or even better: watch the instruction video!
Before starting the game, I would recommend to watch this video. You can always read the rules afterwards. They are 4 pages(plus definitions) with a lot of info, and it’s a pretty tough read. Adding colors and pictures would help a lot. In the meantime Wesley already updated the rules which makes them easier to understand.
Now we’re ready to play!
First, we need to know why the name of the game is H.E.R.O instead of hero?
Easy! It’s an acronym that stands for the choices you as a player have every turn:
H – Healing
E – Enhancement
R – Recruitment
O – Offense
Time to shuffle some cards!
You will receive one hero card who will be your first line of defense.
Next, players get a personal enhancement deck which contains multiple + attack and + defense cards. These are, as you can guess, used to enhance your mighty hero(es)!
Finally, all ability cards are played face up, and players pick one ability each until none are left.
This way you can decide and influence your own game!
Ready, set, fight!
Still remember what H.E.R.O. stands for?
If not, don’t worry; every player has one ‘cheat card’. On one side, it summarizes a players turn (H.E.R.O), and on the other side, it shows how to divide all cards before the game starts. It’s easy to use, and who doesn’t like to cheat!
The goal of the game is to defeat your enemy’s SkyBase while defending yours.
Now, here’s where you need to come up with a master plan to defeat your enemy.
Every turn you need to decide what you are going to do, and think at least 2 steps ahead. This is tricky, especially when playing the game the first time. So choose wisely!
It makes it even worse if you’re building a nice deck of heroes (with some help of hero Franz) to wipe out your enemy’s SkyBase. And just as you think you’ve won, the ability Going Nuclear gets played.
This card is similar to a ‘Black Hole’ card in Yu-Gi-Oh; it destroys everything in the playing field (except SkyBases). This ability made me lose the match!
How Ferry Nice is this game?
H.E.R.O. has some great potential; this is not your standard deck builder and requires a lot of thinking.
Although the design and rules need some tweaking, which will surely be done in later versions, we enjoyed playing H.E.R.O.!
We’ve played the two player version; if you buy another deck, you can play up to two players per additional deck!
Players: 2+ (depends on how many decks you own)
Playing time: lightning game 30 minutes, short game 1 hr., standard game 1,5 hrs.
If you want to be a hero, click here for the website or here for their Facebook!
If you want your game reviewed, contact us at ferry@ferrynicegames.nl
We only have a few review spots left, don’t hesitate and maybe your game can be featured this month!
