When comparing HeroQuest vs Cosmic Encounter, the Slant community recommends Cosmic Encounter for most people. In the question“What are the best board games?” Cosmic Encounter is ranked 9th while HeroQuest is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Cosmic Encounter is:
The basic rules of the game are background noise. The alien powers, both individually and as they interact with each other, determine the dynamic of each game you play, and each dynamic is radically different. For example, you can try different races and alien powers each time you play, and the way to mix and match them is almost limitless. This makes every game feel different than the one before it.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to grasp
The game is teachable to players in a matter of minutes due to the simple rules. It’s also simple enough for children, as the game is made for ages 10 and over.
After the gamemaster has introduced the players to the scenario and readied the board, the game starts with the player to the left of the gamemaster. During the player’s turn the player can perform two actions – move and either attack, cast a spell, search for traps and secret entrances, or search for treasure. On the gamemaster’s turn the gamemaster can attack the heroes with the currently visible monsters.
Movement is done by rolling two regular dice, which show the amount of squares the player can move in their turn. Combat is done by the player and the gamemaster rolling special dice with 3 skull sides, 2 hero shield sides and 1 monster shield side. The number of dice rolled in combat is determined by the statistics of the monster or the hero, specified in the character cards. Each skull is a hit and each shield can block one skull. When “body count” reaches zero, the character is removed from the game.
Pro Easy to set up
Since most of the actual dungeon construction is done by the gamemaster as the game progresses and more rooms are revealed, all you need to do before the game can properly start is bring out the board, let the players choose their heroes and introduce the quest.
Pro Interactive figurines
It's not just a story, you're uncovering a dungeon as the dungeonmaster allows your character to see and discover new areas.
Pro Beautiful visual design
While the game board is not particularly big, it’s quite colorful and aesthetic. The game also manages to catch the eye due to the figurines and the small furniture.
The game features a big variety of remarkably detailed miniature figures - orcs, skeletons, zombies, goblins, etc. All the figures are originally single-colored, the heroes are bright red, whereas the various monsters come in white, dark blue, dark green and light blue.
The box also packs some beautiful and detailed pieces of colored cardboard furniture that add a lot of aesthetic value to the game by filling up the emptier places on the playing space.
Pro Great for parties
HeroQuest is a perfect activity for a small gettogether. The game is meant for 2-5 players, a quest takes up to 90 minutes.
Not only is it simple to learn and easy to set up, but it requires good teamwork and communication between players. There’s also always room for roleplay, which can lead to some humorous and memorable moments. Moreover, the playing surface is not too big, so there should be plenty of room for snacks and drinks on the table.
Pro Customizable
HeroQuest encourages creativity. The quest book has a blank scenario, so players can design and play their own quests. Moreover, since the miniature figures are single-colored, many people choose to color them, creating some beautiful pieces.
On top of that, the 3D furniture in the game doesn’t serve a different purpose other than the aesthetic one, so you can craft your own pieces or use small furniture from different games.
If you lack ideas, then the HeroQuest fan site Ye Olde Inn has some great fan-made content – quests, cards, printable furniture, etc.
Pro Active community
Despite being a game released in 1989, it still has a decently active online community both on reddit and on the fan site Ye Olde Inn. The sites feature all the fan content you’d expect – custom creations, stories and pictures of game nights, discussions, and games happening in your area.
Pro Every game is unique
The basic rules of the game are background noise. The alien powers, both individually and as they interact with each other, determine the dynamic of each game you play, and each dynamic is radically different. For example, you can try different races and alien powers each time you play, and the way to mix and match them is almost limitless. This makes every game feel different than the one before it.
Pro The social component of the game requires you to strategize with other players
It's almost impossible to win on your own. When attacking or defending, you will get the chance to ask for allies on your turn, or assist others when they are engaged. Allies can help you win the attack or defense, but they will also gain benefits if successful. It is a team-based game, although each player is out for themselves in the end.
One of the neatest parts of the game are the negotiate cards - instead of laying down an attack card you can try to negotiate. If you both play negotiate cards, you have 1 minute to come to an agreement which can include creating new colonies, trading cards, or virtually anything. If the players don't come to agreeable terms within a minute, they both suffer a hefty penalty (4 of their ships are sent to the warp).
Pro Potential for very satisfying, creative plays
With so many unique combinations of alien powers and the fact you can form unstable alliances with other players, there's so many ways to get creative. For example, knowing when and where to pick your battles. Perhaps two other players just had an epic battle and now they're down a few ships - it would be the perfect time to swoop in and try to colonize their planets when they're weakened. Perhaps you have a special power that will give you an edge in a certain fight against another player. By paying attention to what's going on around you at all times, skillful tacticians will find all kinds of extremely clever or amusing plays to be possible.
Pro Great illustrations on the cards
Illustrations on Alien Power cards are beautifully rendered and imaginative. Each one features full color, hand drawn creatures that are distinctly unique and look like something out of a sci-fi movie.
Pro You have some influence over the theme of each game
At the beginning of each game, players are given 3-4 alien powers to choose from, usually taken at random. However, if you were trying to put together a specific theme - for example, a war between certain aliens races, or a battle using only certain powers - you can manually select the set of powers available to each player. This allows you to generate personalized games that have specific story to them or heavily revolve around a particular strategy or resource.
Pro This is an exercise in social dynamics as much as a board game
Working with or against other players, forming unstable alliances, and negotiating with other players creates some situations which will test your real world social skills.
Pro Excellent expansions
There are six expansions which not only add a minimum of 20 new alien races with new powers each, but they also brings unique gameplay mechanics to the table. For example, Cosmic Conflict adds space quake hazards, and Cosmic Alliance adds new rules for teams and expands the game to 7 players.
Pro Not as complicated as it might sound
After you play one or two games, the basic mechanics become trivial to work with. Additionally, you only have to worry about learning as many alien powers as you have players in the game, so your personal knowledge and experience with the powers can grow slowly over time. Most alien powers take a minute or two to really understand, then the fun begins of finding creative or unique ways to develop strategies around them.
Cons
Con May be hard to get
It's a somewhat older tabletop RPG, with a decent number of expansions. You may end up paying a high price on ebay or other sites to get yourself a copy.
It’s also worth noting that you can’t always be sure about the physical quality of the game. The 3D furniture is made from cardboard and if the copy you’re buying has been used then it’s a bit of a risk.
Con Rules overly simple
Gets dull after some hours, good for children though
Con Requires a good gamemaster
If the gamemaster doesn’t know what he’s doing then the game will be more frustrating and take much longer than usual, and it’s already a long game. The gamemaster is the only player with access to what the quest is supposed to look like and is solely responsible for creating the dungeon as the game goes on – spawning monsters, revealing objects, etc., so the players need to trust that the gamemaster isn’t cheating.
Con Doesn’t scale well
The game is at its best when played in a full group of 4 heroes and a gamemaster. Otherwise the odds are more on the gamemaster’s side and it’s a lot more difficult to complete the quest. To counter this, it’s recommend for a player to control more than one hero, but that also adds unnecessary difficulty.
Con A lot of first-time setup
When you first open the box the amount of work can seem overwhelming. You have to de-peg your pieces and assemble all the furniture, which is quite tedious and inconvenient due to the relatively small size. Furthermore, your first games might take a longer while until the gamemaster gets the hang of the process.
Con Can cause arguments
Due to the nature of the game, which has you working with others and then turning against them in the same breath, it can create some situations where people are going to feel used or mistreated. This can result in a lot of fighting or arguments, especially when playing with easily offended people.
Con Unbalanced
In situations where all players gang up on just one single player.
Con Some alien powers are difficult to parse
Some of the cards have walls of text that look intimidating at first, and may take a slow read and group discussion to really figure out. Thankfully, the alien powers are divided into three sets based on "difficulty" which translates roughly to "difficulty to understand, and how much it disrupts basic gameplay." Green (easy) cards are usually simple enough that a child of 12 or so can understand them.
Con Might be hard to teach
This is one of those games that has to be played to be fully understood. As such, it can be hard to teach someone. It will take new players a few rounds to start understanding.