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HeroCard: Cyberspace
(search on Board Game Geek)
- Replay Value (1-10): 5
- Fun Factor (1-10): 7
- Worth Buying (1-10): 6
This is a strategy game based on the Herocard system, which is a game system that simulates a duel between two players using cards. The Herocard system is actually an easy-to-understand game by itself, but since it only handles melee battles, the designers clearly wanted to add more "meat" by having a strategic board component.
Unfortunately, the strategic board game part itself has rather dry mechanics, true to the form of a simulation game -- you get three "actions" a turn, and the actions are different ways to move pieces and block pieces and create new pathways. This is something that certain fans of this sort of game love to do while the rest of us scratch our heads and call them geeks (admittedly unfairly).
The "cyberspace" in this game is apparently represented by triangular tiles that represent network "clients" and "servers" -- the goal in this game is to spawn your "avatars" and take over networks. So it really isn't a simulation of real cyberspace as much as it is simulation of idealized cyberpunk where hackers fight using the same strategies that Sun-Tzu used centuries ago.
It's worth mentioning that artwork on the cards is actually very nice -- it's done in a faux-manga (that's anime to you Philistines out there) look that works pretty well for its topic.
The Herocard melee aspect isn't completely separated from the strategic component; though. Because of the ebb-and-flow of card draws, you can tell when you have a hand that is suitable for attack, one that is suitable for defense, and one that is suitable for neither, which translates to the basic strategies of "chase someone and attack them," "chase someone and goad them into attacking you," and "run away until you get better cards." So although the game does feel like there are two levels of divorced scope, that's not really true.
In a sense (and I'm sorry that I'm about to make a reference that very few of my readers will know), this game is a lot like the old IBM PC game Star Control (not Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters) -- a melee component, a "full game" with strategic logistical decisions with the occasional melee, and most players deciding that the main game was crud but the melee was darned fun but ultimately rather meaningless.
But hey, if you find that fun, who cares?
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