History Heroes A Race in Time Review

DISCLOSURE -THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.

Reviewed by Sheridan Brown

We love spending time with our grandchildren, and we always like to have something special planned when they visit. So, when I was given the chance to review History Heroes A Race in Time, I was especially thrilled. Our oldest grandson (10) is a self-confessed history geek – and I knew he would love a board game where he had a chance to showcase his historical knowledge. We also secretly hoped that the game would stretch his knowledge beyond his ‘favourite’ historical eras and topics.

There are two ways of playing the game. In the simple version, players answer questions to enable them to move their characters around the board, through four different historical eras (Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern). The question cards each have six questions ranging in difficulty – meaning that players can risk a tougher question for winning six moves forward – or they can play it safe and go for easier questions with fewer moves. Event cards (used if a player lands on an event square) may offer help or hindrance to a player’s race. In the extended version, players can also collect History Heroes cards to make a super-group able to solve a secret objective revealed at the end of the game.

The game arrived very quickly and in plenty of time for our grandson’s visit. It was very well parcelled-up, with mostly recyclable packaging; very impressive. Included in the parcel was a useful catalogue, giving details of lots of other products in the range. The game box was lovely and colourful – with an image of the playing board and game cards on the top, and a brief rundown of how the game should be played. There were also clear details around the ideal age range (8+) and ideal number of players (2-10). The box was sturdy and of good quality and I felt like it would stand up to the rigours of regular play.

Inside the box, we found:
• Folded playing board
• Poster/crib sheet – listing all the characters included in the game
• 4 sets of History Heroes cards (one set for each historical era)
• 4 sets of corresponding Event Cards
• 1 set of Objective cards
• 8 cardboard character pieces and stands
• Rules/How to Play leaflet

We were joined for the first playing of the game by a couple of friends who are really into board games, along with their daughter. Rather than familiarising ourselves with the rules before we started, we used the Rules/How to Play leaflet to work out what we should be doing as we went along. In retrospect, we should have taken the time to do this earlier, as we all got a little confused in understanding the different expectations of the simple and extended versions of the game. By the time we worked it out, the youngsters were getting a bit restless. But as the game became more familiar, things did begin to move more quickly.

As we set up the game, we all agreed that the board and various sets of cards were good quality and they felt very nice in our hands. Like the box itself, they felt like they had many hours of play in them, before getting tatty. We did, however, think that the board might have been bigger. Whilst it was colourful and attractive, the illustrations felt a little squished together – and gameplay felt a little tight. I wonder if quad-fold board might have offered more space for character pieces and the various sets of cards that were in play.

We started off by playing the game as individuals and, adult and child alike, we were all very grateful to have the poster/crib sheet to give us clues to help us answer the questions. After a few rounds we decided to adopt a team approach and this was a great help. We could confer on answers and help the youngsters with the reading. Whilst our grandson is a strong reader and coped very well with some of the more challenging names and places, our friends’ daughter struggled at times, and I could see she felt embarrassed. Whilst the question cards are attractively illustrated, the text for the questions is quite small; someone with dyslexia might need a bit of help or extra reading time. I would suggest if you are playing with under twelves, it might be best to play in teams for the first few times through – until they get familiar with the vocabulary.

Overall, we had a lot of fun playing in ‘team-mode’ – and the race to the finish was very exciting – and tactics certainly came into play! We didn’t try out the extended version on this occasion – but this leaves us something new to do when we play again.

Even though I love history myself – I still found the game included lots of obscure historical facts that were new to me! And I was really pleased to see that people and places from all corners of the world had been included (not just ‘Western’ history). Our grandson also enjoyed the game – he certainly proved his historical knowledge is great. But, as we had hoped, there were lots of new historical nuggets he was able to take away. He’s already said he wants to find out more about Atilla the Hun!!

Rating: 3.5/5

RRP: £29.95

Available to buy from www.historyheroes.co.uk