or maybe it’s just the odds." Theisen liked the components and artwork, calling them "up to Games Workshop’s usual high standard for quality and use of color." He found that "Space Hulk is easy to learn and (I would venture to guess) very difficult to master." Theisen concluded, "Space Hulk possesses too many tactical subtleties to evaluate and has the potential for too many new scenarios to design to permit any dust to accumulate on it for very long. [...] Despite its high price, I recommend Space Hulk — or, to quote an Australian friend of mine, 'This one’s a ripper!'" In the April 1991 edition of Dragon (Issue 168), Ken Rolston called the 1st edition of the game "excellent", commenting on the "Expensive and elegant components, lovely alien Genestealer and Space Marine models, simple systems, and exceptionally clear rules with lots of helpful diagrams." He also complimented the "fast pace of play and lots of action and mayhem." In Issue 22 of Magia i Miecz, Artur Marciniak reviewed the Polish language version of the game, and although he found the translation almost as good as the original edition, he bemoaned some of the translation issues, saying, "Unfortunately, the translation of the rules of the game leaves a lot to be desired. Bizarre syntax, English terms left untranslated (including some quite important ones), it all worked to reduce my satisfaction with the Polish release of this game." In the May 1996 edition of Arcane (Issue 6), Mark Donald questioned its replayability and rated the 2nd Edition of Space Hulk a 7 out of 10, saying, "It's a fun game, a doddle to play, but it'll probably fade away to nothing once the initial playing frenzy is spent and all the missions have been played through to completion." Space Hulk was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Matt Forbeck commented, "Space Hulk taught me more about elegance in design than any other game. It's an icon of well-nested mechanics that build a system far greater than its parts. Better yet, every part of the game works to support not only each other but the game's underlying metaphor, giving a united play experience that's unmatched." Awards Space Hulk won the Origins Award for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1989. One of its first expansions, Genestealers, won the Origins Awards the following year for Best