A few months ago I reviewed the nostalgia-filled dungeon crawler HeroQuest. This was a reprint of a long out-of-print game, however, the rules were not updated for the modern age. In short, it’s solid as a game system, but many of its flaws from when it was originally released are pretty glaring by today’s standards.
Enter Dungeon Saga: Origins. Published by Mantic Games, this light dungeon crawler will have you taking a team of four iconic heroes questing through a dungeon filled with undead monsters. Does this game take the heart of HeroQuest and update it to the modern age? Let’s find out.
Gameplay Overview:
Dungeon Saga: Origins is a scenario-based game where up to 4 players will control a team of 4 heroes (Barbarian, Wizard, Elf Ranger, Dwarf Fighter) and one other player will control the monsters as the overlord. If players would rather play cooperatively, there are rules for an automated overlord using a few extra rules and cards.
Whether playing with an overlord player or cooperatively, the rules are pretty much the same. The game starts with the hero players taking a turn. On a player’s turn they can move their hero up to their speed value, and then take an action. The main actions are attacking, searching a room, or casting a spell.
To attack, the hero/monster rolls dice equal to their combat value. They then compare the results to the target’s armor value. Any numbers equal to or lower than the armor value of the target are immediately discarded. Then the defender rolls dice equal to their combat value and the dice are matched up in opposing pairs: highest number to highest number. Any of the attacker’s dice that are higher than the defender’s (or unmatched) are hits. If a monster takes hits equal to their wound total, they are defeated. If a hero takes any hits, they lose one health (no matter the number of hits received).
When the players search a room, it will either reveal a secret door or have the player draw a card from the exploration deck. These contain both useful items: gold and potions, traps, or wandering monsters.
The overlord player/AI can also interrupt the player’s turns a few times a game, activating a monster to attack. This is based on drawing a card from the bottom of the discard pile and checking for an interrupt icon. If it’s there, they can spend an interrupt token to attack a hero.
After all heroes have had a turn, the overlord player/ai has all its monsters move and attack. If the heroes reach the end of the mission, they succeed, earn some gold and XP, and move on to the next mission. If any hero is knocked out twice, the heroes lose.
Game Experience:
While I don’t want to dwell on it too much, it’s really hard not to compare Dungeon Saga: Origins to HeroQuest. This game is clearly inspired by that classic game, even down to similar-themed heroes. However Dungeon Saga: Origins definitely updates the ruleset for the modern age by getting rid of the long outdated roll and move, and also making combat a lot more interesting.
Normally I hate opposed rolls for combat in these types of games. It just serves to draw the game out longer, leaving too much to chance. However, the system in Dungeon Saga: Origins is pretty fantastic and easily my favorite implementation of opposed rolls in a game. I love how any dice equal to or under the armor value are immediately discarded. And then making matched pairs, and extra dice hit help create a combat system that feels less reliant on lucky rolls (even if it’s not, I’m no math guy). It just feels a lot more satisfying to not have all your hits constantly blocked by lucky rolls.
While I didn’t get into it, Dungeon Saga: Origins also adds in a bit more depth to the combat. Facing is taken into account, so you can move into a monster’s rear arc for a bonus. You also gain bonuses for having more than one hero adjacent to a monster. So feel free to gang up on them. It can be a little trickier to remember to keep facing correctly, but for those hard monster battles, it’s a nice little boost.
One area where Dungeon Saga: Origins really smashes HeroQuest is with its app implementation. I lamented in my HeroQuest review about how the app is WAY too intrusive, almost making most of the components obsolete. Dungeon Saga: Origins’ app, however, goes the opposite route. It’s basically used to help with the fog of war. You click on a room to open it, which shows you what is inside (monsters, doors, terrain). And it tracks what rooms you’ve searched, telling you if you need to draw a search card or find a scenario-specific item. It’s about as unintrusive as you can get (and not needed if you are playing with a player overlord). But for just managing the fog of war, it’s a stellar implementation.
So far I’ve been really singing the praises of Dungeon Saga: Origins. And it’s a really good game. But there are a few areas that are somewhat lacking. The first is leveling up between missions. Buying new equipment is pretty expensive, so you are looking at getting 1 item every few missions. There are no skills or class abilities to unlock either. For the most part, what you start with is what you have, other than finding some legendary items, or buying equipment occasionally. While heroes can spend their XP on “Boons”, they are pretty expensive as well and are one-time use. Spending 4xp, which will take you a few missions to get, for a one-time boost of 2 movement points is pretty far from exciting.
The other issue I see with Dungeon Saga: Origins is with the heroes. The game comes with 4 heroes, and they are all solid. However, there doesn’t appear to be any way to get more. There are 3 expansions for Dungeon Saga: Origins, but they are just more monsters and quests (which is a good thing). Browsing their original Kickstarter page, it appears that all of the other heroes are locked behind the dreaded Kickstarter Exclusive badge. This means retail customers are locked to these four core heroes, and that’s it. That’s going to greatly limit the gameplay variety.
Final Thoughts:
As an entry-level dungeon crawler, Dungeon Saga: Origins is pretty great. Given the choice between this one and HeroQuest, I’d probably take Dungeon Saga: Origins thanks to the world’s better app and rules with more depth. However, HeroQuest still takes the lead on just the sheer variety of content available, especially with heroes, and you also have to give a nod to the decades of fan-made content for the game.
That being said, Dungeon Saga: Origins is a great option to introduce someone to the genre. The reading required is really minimal, so you could easily play this one with your young kids if they want to dip their toes into monster slaying. While it won’t be replacing Chronicles of Drunagor or Descent for die-hard dungeon crawlers, for newcomers, it’s pretty great.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – If HeroQuest were made today, this would probably be it.
Hits:
• Great use of opposed dice rolls
• Can be played either cooperatively or 1vs Many
• App is useful and unintrusive
• Easy to learn rules
Misses:
• Lack of heroes will limit replay value
• Leveling up is slow to non-existent
