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Quite simply, Altar Quest is a hack and slash dungeon crawl game for the modern board game audience! It takes an old classic like Hero Quest, mixes it up with some fresh, quirky artwork and adds in the Sadler brother’s tried and tested modular deck system to give you something that is just fun and entertaining from start to finish.
Altar Quest reuses the system that has been used in popular solo games like Street Masters and Brook City in order to make different combinations of Villains, Threats and Quests to go up against. There are so many dungeon crawl game on the market today, most of which are able to be played solo and therefore it is hard for any game to stand out. Altar Quest does add a refreshing feel to the genre though, even if it doesn’t have any specific new concepts. I was drawn to it for its solo accessibility and the fact that it does not need to be played as a big campaign but can be played in one off scenarios that still offer variability.
Gameplay
Being a co-operative game makes playing Altar Quest solo very easy, as there is no difference in how the game plays multi-player or solo. Once you have picked the character you want to play, you then choose the type of quest that you want to play from the 6 in the core box. All of the quests act differently due to their own deck of cards and all have a different objective. You then pick a villain and a threat deck which also all act differently and therefore make each game of Altar Quest different depending on the decks that you pick.
As a solo player you can play with more than one character and this does allow there to be a bit more synergy between characters, however, I prefer to play with just one character and this would be the way I recommend that you play your first few solo games.
You use your character to explore the dungeon board and each time you reveal a new room there is a procedure to follow whereby you reveal new enemies, new features in the room to interact with and reveal something new about the the quest that you are playing. This is a key part of the game and although it is not ‘exploration’ in the conventional sense (due to you being able to see the dungeon layout), you don’t know what you are going to find in each room. This also means that every time you play, the features that you find will be different.
The items and enemies you find will sometimes have abilities that happen straight away, and others will occur once your turn has finished.
Lastly, the Rhune dice. These all have different faces which represent mystical energy that you can potentially use to increase the effectiveness of your cards and weapons, however, the enemies are also able to use them so you need to try and ensure that you don’t leave them the Rhunes that they are after!
What Makes It A Good Solo
There are a couple of main reasons that make Altar Quest work so well solo, the primary being that the way you play does not change regardless of whether you are playing with 1 or 4 heroes. The fact that this is a Dungeon Crawl game that you can play with just 1 hero is a huge deal as there are very few games that allow you to do this. This makes it far more approachable as there is only one hero for you to manage but you have the option of playing with more if that’s the way you prefer.
The other aspect is that Altar Quest can be played as a one off and does not need to be played as part of a campaign. This is also something that is uncommon in this genre of game as most games like this are big, long campaigns which require a significant time commitment. Some may have variants or options to play the game as one off scenarios but I have found that these generally feel like afterthoughts. The thought of another campaign game to sit down and play can be daunting and off putting. Altar Quest not only has the option of both a campaign and one off play, it actually feels like it was primarily designed as a one off rather than a campaign and this is very refreshing.
The modular deck system adopted by Altar Quest and the numerous combinations of Quest, Villain and Threat decks is tried and tested and is a great way to add variety into the game and increase the replay value of it. I have played this numerous times with the same decks and the game is still different enough due to the order the cards come out and the fact that you can start in any room on the board!
When you are familiar with the system it becomes very easy to set up and although the quests are all different, they use the same core gameplay system making setup almost second nature if you play it regularly. All four of the heroes in the core box also feel very different from each other and therefore you do have to approach each hero differently. This adds yet another level of replay value to Altar Quest.
Finally, the production is excellent. The symbols on the cards are clear and the amount of plastic in the box is crazy, with plastic representations of all features as well as the enemies and the heroes.
Is There Anything To Dislike
Altar Quest is by no means perfect. There are numerous problems with it that do stop it coming to the table as often as it could do. Unfortunately, this becomes a vicious circle because some of the issues I have with Altar Quest become more prevalent the larger the gap between playing it.
Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, this is a hack and slash game yet it is more complicated than it needs to be. The amount of keywords to digest as well as the symbology can get too much when you are not playing it regularly.
Secondly, there is keeping up with the interruptions when entering a new room and what constitutes an action and what you can do for free. None of this seems to match with how the game feels when you play through it. If you don’t play it regularly then it can feel like work. This is going to be something that often comes up unfortunately.
The longer the game goes on, the longer it is likely to take to go through all of the phases as there will naturally be more and more cards out referencing enemies, features and the active quest you are completing. This means that sooner or later there will become a point where it takes longer to complete the actions of the dungeon and the quest than your own turn. This causes the game to drag and really slow down as it gets closer to the end rather than ramping up.
Finally, Altar Quest really is a table hog, even when playing with just one hero. There are so many cards out on the table, all of which you need to be able to read the text of, as well as needing to have all of the Feature, Villain and Threat miniatures that you may need through the course of the game. When you combine all of this together you really need a decent size table to be able to accommodate all of the components in Altar Quest.
Is It Recommended
When it comes to Altar Quest it has some great potential and some really good ideas, it just has a few things that let it down. I have enjoyed my plays of it when I have got it to the table, however, there have been numerous times that I have considered playing it and I have avoided it in order to play something less cumbersome. It is very clever in how it plays and the way the decks create the variability with such ease is something that I really see the value in
I think for some gamers out there, Altar Quest could be one of your favourite solo board games. When you play it regularly and you become familiar with the mechanisms and key words, a lot of the problems I have with the game will go away. If being played regularly then this also opens up the usage of the campaign that is in the core box as well.
