Keep The Heroes Out was my biggest surprise of 2022. I backed it purely for the adorable meeples so you can imagine my surprise when an actual good game arrived on my doorstep. It even made my Top10 of 2022. I'm not sure I can agree with you on it not being intuitive. The symbols are all pretty obvious, and the way the heroes behave is incredibly simple. The flowchart offered I feel makes it look more daunting than it actually is, as really it's just going down a checklist of situations and after one or two games you already know which one applies at a quick glance. That said, I haven't tried teaching this to my kids yet. I also find it a lot less random than you imply. Yes there are random elements that can screw you, but the rulebook encourages you to separate your discard pile to help you keep track of what's already come out, making it easier to predict problem areas and account for them in your turn.
Nice review of a game that I have already played 7 scenarios + holidays. Although, @BoardGameCo forgot to mention a major balancing mechanism. The seemingly push-your-luck prison mechanism mitigates the issue of the required additional actions to build the deck while controlling the dungeon, by strategically deciding for when not to go for it. The issue of swinging between full-control or quick snowball effect is there though. IMHO all-in-all @LuisBrueh did an excellent job on delivering a language independent game that even my 6.5 years old son can enjoy in the family or medium level of difficulty. It is undoubtedly the GOTY family game for us. Keep on keeping the heroes out Luis! Amazing work.
Keep The Heroes Out! is my game of the year, beating out other games I absolute love from the year; namely Resurgence, Massive Darkness 2, and Verdant. It is also my 17-yeard old's game of the year. I don't disagree with any of the "Dislikes" you mentioned, they just didn't bother us or affect how we felt about the game ... which is wanting to play it again immediately upon finishing every of one of the 12 games we've played so far. We've played mostly at 2-player with only three games at 3-player. Regardless of those two player counts, the experience was the same - Amazing, Awesome, and FUN !! Edit: We haven't played on "Challenge" level and, in all likelihood, will not as none of us care for the super-hard-to-win levels in board games. We save those challenges for Elden Ring and Sekiro and such :)
Thats wild to me, my group found this game utterly lacking in staying power. Awesome graphic design and all, just way too barebones and simple for us. Pandemic light, and pandemic is already too light for us without a tonne of expansions.
@@mickelboy182 Not wild to me at all ... different people have different things they enjoy in board games and different things the find light / complex
@@Sl1vers I guess more wild for me because of the other games you mentioned yet this was your GOTY! I just don't see the longevity in the games systems myself. I like simple games too!
Its a great game for us to mix it up. Im playing Aeon Trespass for example right now(and absolutely love it) yet this game Hits the table anytime my SO wants to take a go at it. The Charme of this game is absolutely through the roof. I couldn't get her to play heavier stuff since she is not that much into boardgames as I am. But this one has been absolutely addicting to her and thats why its my GoTY aswell. Seeing someone sharing the same compasion for a board game as I usually do gives me a feeling none of the heavier stuff can do when i can't share those experience as much as id like. (Just my thoughts:))
Deck building is not really there. More like a buying a couple key boosting cards to make your deck run more smoothly. I wondered if flipping all the hero cards at once then resolve in sequence can help manage those bad draws. I play this only two players and it has been lots of fun.
Interesting... this has quickly become one of our groups favorite games. Mostly played at three players. It is certainly true that you have to lightly deck build. Too much deck building and you lose control of the board midgame but too little and you don't have the cool cards needed to control the board during the last third of the game. It is important to have a good mix of monster types at three players: a support, crowd control and a dragon or cuthulu for example. We like the feeling that we probably have this but there's always a chance of a total wipe in one hero turn. :) Go into it with having fun as your priority and you'll have a blast.
You nailed my feelings with the deck building aspect. The cards are so cool and I want to be able to cycle through more of them but at higher difficulties I just don’t feel like I have enough actions to do so while also keeping the heroes in control once you’re drawing two cards a turn from the hero deck. Sending a hero to the jail every turn to draw the extra cards feels mandatory to give you the extra actions.
Great video! You really nail a lot of our thoughts that we didn't really address in our initial impressions video. It's our 10 year old's all time favourite game!
I love this game and find it quite fun to play solo and at 2 players, but wasn't bad at 4 either; the downtime was increased, but nothing onerous. 1-3 seems best. It is a harder game than it looks, not so far as rules, but as far as how difficult winning can be as you crank the difficulty up. I do wish we had more deck building options and a little more mitigation of the randomness, but it's so much fun that I don't mind the few things that I don't love about it. In the next KS campaign, I hope Luis will not just add more stuff, but deal with the few issues that it has.
Been playing the game for about a month now and I really do love the style of the game and theme is right up my alley. I do share some of the same frustrations thst you have however, particularly when it comes to the gulf between the too-easy Family mode and the breathless higher difficulties where you barely get to explore the deck building thwt so intrigued me.
I was incredibly charmed by this one. I don't have another tower defense game in my collection, so this was a welcome addition. I absolutely love the big meeples! I did have some issues with the rules in places, but figured it out after a bit. I also found the hero meeples essential as it was easy to miss the cardboard tokens with how vibrant all the colors were on the board. The meeples were just easier to see. I've only played this solo two handed, and think I'd only ever want to play solo or with 2 at most.
Thank you for the review! I’m going to test it out myself but I’m a little worried now. I was hoping this could be a cute and more accessible way to explain to my SO before Marvel Zombies arrives, but now I’m not so sure. I guess on the flip side, if I can successfully explain this to her than we’ll have no problem with MZ 😆
Go for it. It's not ez to get my SO to play with me as much as I would like. But she fell in love with this game immediatly. The style and Charme of it is outstanding and definetly makes up for any issues. This game is a challenge, but a warm welcome challenge and she really wants to beat every Single Szenario now, no matter how often we lost. The rules werent that tough. Its a "play it once and you get it" kinda thing. That are my to Cents;)
Keep The Heroes Out was my biggest surprise of 2022. I backed it purely for the adorable meeples so you can imagine my surprise when an actual good game arrived on my doorstep. It even made my Top10 of 2022. I'm not sure I can agree with you on it not being intuitive. The symbols are all pretty obvious, and the way the heroes behave is incredibly simple. The flowchart offered I feel makes it look more daunting than it actually is, as really it's just going down a checklist of situations and after one or two games you already know which one applies at a quick glance. That said, I haven't tried teaching this to my kids yet. I also find it a lot less random than you imply. Yes there are random elements that can screw you, but the rulebook encourages you to separate your discard pile to help you keep track of what's already come out, making it easier to predict problem areas and account for them in your turn.
Same experience! I was so surprised by how good it is!
Nice review of a game that I have already played 7 scenarios + holidays. Although, @BoardGameCo forgot to mention a major balancing mechanism. The seemingly push-your-luck prison mechanism mitigates the issue of the required additional actions to build the deck while controlling the dungeon, by strategically deciding for when not to go for it.
The issue of swinging between full-control or quick snowball effect is there though.
IMHO all-in-all @LuisBrueh did an excellent job on delivering a language independent game that even my 6.5 years old son can enjoy in the family or medium level of difficulty.
It is undoubtedly the GOTY family game for us.
Keep on keeping the heroes out Luis! Amazing work.
Keep The Heroes Out! is my game of the year, beating out other games I absolute love from the year; namely Resurgence, Massive Darkness 2, and Verdant. It is also my 17-yeard old's game of the year. I don't disagree with any of the "Dislikes" you mentioned, they just didn't bother us or affect how we felt about the game ... which is wanting to play it again immediately upon finishing every of one of the 12 games we've played so far.
We've played mostly at 2-player with only three games at 3-player. Regardless of those two player counts, the experience was the same - Amazing, Awesome, and FUN !!
Edit: We haven't played on "Challenge" level and, in all likelihood, will not as none of us care for the super-hard-to-win levels in board games. We save those challenges for Elden Ring and Sekiro and such :)
Thats wild to me, my group found this game utterly lacking in staying power. Awesome graphic design and all, just way too barebones and simple for us. Pandemic light, and pandemic is already too light for us without a tonne of expansions.
@@mickelboy182 Not wild to me at all ... different people have different things they enjoy in board games and different things the find light / complex
@@Sl1vers I guess more wild for me because of the other games you mentioned yet this was your GOTY!
I just don't see the longevity in the games systems myself. I like simple games too!
Its a great game for us to mix it up. Im playing Aeon Trespass for example right now(and absolutely love it) yet this game Hits the table anytime my SO wants to take a go at it. The Charme of this game is absolutely through the roof. I couldn't get her to play heavier stuff since she is not that much into boardgames as I am. But this one has been absolutely addicting to her and thats why its my GoTY aswell. Seeing someone sharing the same compasion for a board game as I usually do gives me a feeling none of the heavier stuff can do when i can't share those experience as much as id like. (Just my thoughts:))
@@teDDieh thats fair, though sounds like it is less the game itself and more the fact your partner is into it...
Deck building is not really there. More like a buying a couple key boosting cards to make your deck run more smoothly. I wondered if flipping all the hero cards at once then resolve in sequence can help manage those bad draws. I play this only two players and it has been lots of fun.
I LOVE this game! The mounting snowballing chaos is part of the fun.
Interesting... this has quickly become one of our groups favorite games. Mostly played at three players. It is certainly true that you have to lightly deck build. Too much deck building and you lose control of the board midgame but too little and you don't have the cool cards needed to control the board during the last third of the game. It is important to have a good mix of monster types at three players: a support, crowd control and a dragon or cuthulu for example. We like the feeling that we probably have this but there's always a chance of a total wipe in one hero turn. :) Go into it with having fun as your priority and you'll have a blast.
You nailed my feelings with the deck building aspect. The cards are so cool and I want to be able to cycle through more of them but at higher difficulties I just don’t feel like I have enough actions to do so while also keeping the heroes in control once you’re drawing two cards a turn from the hero deck. Sending a hero to the jail every turn to draw the extra cards feels mandatory to give you the extra actions.
Great video! You really nail a lot of our thoughts that we didn't really address in our initial impressions video. It's our 10 year old's all time favourite game!
I love this game and find it quite fun to play solo and at 2 players, but wasn't bad at 4 either; the downtime was increased, but nothing onerous. 1-3 seems best.
It is a harder game than it looks, not so far as rules, but as far as how difficult winning can be as you crank the difficulty up.
I do wish we had more deck building options and a little more mitigation of the randomness, but it's so much fun that I don't mind the few things that I don't love about it. In the next KS campaign, I hope Luis will not just add more stuff, but deal with the few issues that it has.
Thank you for the video - this helped weigh late backing the KS
One of My favorites of the last year!
In 4 there is partners in crime variant, and you can “control” the game by diving and “knowing” the heroes who are going to arrive and where
Been playing the game for about a month now and I really do love the style of the game and theme is right up my alley. I do share some of the same frustrations thst you have however, particularly when it comes to the gulf between the too-easy Family mode and the breathless higher difficulties where you barely get to explore the deck building thwt so intrigued me.
I was incredibly charmed by this one. I don't have another tower defense game in my collection, so this was a welcome addition. I absolutely love the big meeples! I did have some issues with the rules in places, but figured it out after a bit. I also found the hero meeples essential as it was easy to miss the cardboard tokens with how vibrant all the colors were on the board. The meeples were just easier to see. I've only played this solo two handed, and think I'd only ever want to play solo or with 2 at most.
Totally agree with you, Alex! Have the very similar feeling about this game.
Thank you for your commentary, the game is pretty for me.
Ty for this review!
Thank you for the review! I’m going to test it out myself but I’m a little worried now. I was hoping this could be a cute and more accessible way to explain to my SO before Marvel Zombies arrives, but now I’m not so sure. I guess on the flip side, if I can successfully explain this to her than we’ll have no problem with MZ 😆
Go for it. It's not ez to get my SO to play with me as much as I would like. But she fell in love with this game immediatly. The style and Charme of it is outstanding and definetly makes up for any issues. This game is a challenge, but a warm welcome challenge and she really wants to beat every Single Szenario now, no matter how often we lost. The rules werent that tough. Its a "play it once and you get it" kinda thing. That are my to Cents;)
Exactly how I felt about the game. The rules are poorly laid out and it definitely needs a reference card. Late game is a bit mediocre.
Most of the cooperative games are heavily luck based