Heroica has been released on Lego and been provided for us to preview/review by the publisher.

Believe it or not we are still playing it. Here are some extracts of what we made of it in chronological order:

"Heroica invites you to quest through deserts, forests, caves and castles in search of treasure, with Lego's most detailed board game yet. Best described as an introduction to role-playing games, Heroica has all the fun of Lego and adventuring without the complex rules that often seem daunting..."
- Board Gamer (Thu, 08 Dec 2011)

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Heroica Lego Release

30/11/2011 15:01

Heroica comes to the living room to provide some intricate Lego building, a detailed board game and great potential for expansion.

Heroica has me more excited than many of the recent wave of excellent Lego board games (Ed: What more than , come on!). It promises to deliver a simplified table-top role-playing experience for younger gamers. The kits construct a range of dungeon-crawling environments, in which players can play a game in which they must travel together to beat an enemy or reach a treasure.

In the name of family fun, it looks like there is a nice balance of working as a team, but also gaining the upper hand to be first to the treasure -- which is surely the basic tenet of any role-playing game? Different rules and game objectives provide lots of different ways to enjoy Heroica, including some in which one player controls the monsters to try and stop the other players.

Each player has a unique character with such familiar role-playing identities as Barbarian, Wizard or Rogue. These have an individual long range ability which can be used on certain rolls of the dice. As well as this there are potions to be found and optional weapons which can be purchased to give characters an edge.

There are four different kits which can be bought. Each of these can be played as stand-alone games or joined together to form even bigger adventures. Castle Fortaan can be viewed as the main starter kit, with rules for two to four players and longer play times. Waldurk Forest and Caverns of Nathuz are medium sized games for two to three players and Draida Bay is the simplest of the offerings, with two game types for two players.

It's very exciting to see a junior board game with this level of customisation and individuality for the players without having to wait for them to be old enough to appreciate a full tabletop role-playing game. Even if those kind of pen-and-paper RPG's aren't your cup of tea, this looks to be a thoroughly entertaining family board game.

Heroica is now available from all Lego retailers.