A Cure for the Post-Undergrad Blues: Marvel Heroclix
Written: Jul 29 '03 (Updated Jul 30 '03)
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Pros: Great concept, collectible Marvel Comics miniatures game. Easy rules.
Cons: Some of the pieces are fragile and break easily. No Punisher character!
The Bottom Line: Collectible miniatures game based on the Marvel Comics Universe. Randomly assorted starter set and boosters mix the suspense of collectible card game with the fun of a table-top wargame.
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| avepythagoras's Full Review: WizKids Marvel HeroClix: Infinity Challenge Starte... |
Ok, lets face it: I am a nerd. There is no two ways about it. I cannot escape the destiny I have set for myself. And one of those nerd fetishes happens to be Comics. I love comics. Comics are my little escape from the mind numbing stress of spending entire days working on mathematics. Particularly evolutionary Trees, optimality criteria, and search algorithms. In a world where I ear and sleep in front of text-books and computers, it is nice to have a backdoor, a means of pacing the days, to know where I stand in the great movement of time. I eagerly await the coming of Wednesday, so I can drive giddy and salivating all the way to comic shop to check my box for any new issues. I can face it; my life revolves around comic books. My once hidden hobby and now my addiction.
But something new has come to town, something unapologetically addictive, like crack but less expensive. And this new nerd-drug is called Marvel Heroclix. It is a rapidly growing collectable miniatures game. Wherein pasty and unkempt comic book collectors can amass armies of Superheroes to fight valiantly against swarms of Super-foes. For years we've wanted it, the power to pit Wolverine and the Hulk against the Juggernaut and Sabertooth. Dr Doom versus Iron Man. Play the Fantastic-Four as they face off in a 'what if' scenario against Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Now, my cursed lot of overly pedantic Comic-book friends can sit for hours around the table "nerding-out" to Marvel style action sequences as I use my blessed Thanos to crush every puny human in sight.
The geniuses at Wizkids Games have finally created a game capable of laying waste to the hordes of overly played out collectible card games. Heroclix is everything card games were and more.
Marvel Heroclix is, I think, the greatest idea to hit gaming stores since the invention of Dungeons and Dragons. Nothing really compares to it. And finally I can rejoice now that Magic: The Gathering is no longer chic. We can actually return to the tabletop gaming experience again. None of this of Vegas style card chucking. Magic was popular because of the added suspense of buying a deck, you never really knew what you were going to get, you spent a few dollars on a booster and you'd end getting a really powerful card...and it would make you giddy with childish joy. Heroclix has the same suspense. You buy a booster and get four random characters that range from godlike to worthless. Some characters are exceptionally rare--like Thanos and Superskrull, Mojo and Apocalypse. While others are so common you'll end up with 20 or 30 of them in short time, and all worthless--like the Paramedic and S.H.I.E.L.D Sniper.
But before you can get started, you need to buy the Starter Set. This is important as it contains the necessary maps and rulebooks to play the game. Of course, if you just want to collect the pieces or know someone that has the boards you won't need to buy the starter set and would be much better off buying the various booster packs.
The game play is simple. Each piece has a point-value, as in, its power-ranking. The least powerful characters have point values of 10-20, while the most powerful--at present Dr. Doom--is 198. The point-value is dependent upon what super-powers the character has: can he move fast and phase through walls, is she an expert at ranged combat doing extra damage, can he use his psychic ability to mind control his opponents. You create your team by setting a point bound--say 400--and select pieces that are at or around 400 points. The primary goal of the game is to destroy the other team, simply killing everything that is not controlled by you. Each character has a distinctive combat dial that measures combat effectiveness and damage. For each point of dial, or one click as we say in the business, the character begins to loose effectiveness, until they are dead. Some characters, like the Hulk, actually get more powerful with each click of damage. So there are tremendous amounts of strategy involved. Usually, this involves managing your characters' super-powers effectively. Knowing when you should use them and how. This gives each player many possibilities when creating and actually playing their teams. I prefer to use ranged-combat experts to blast my opponents from afar, usually concentrating all my fire at the most powerful opponents to kill them as quickly as possible. While the rules may sound confusing they are easy to understand once you start playing, and generally after the second or third time you'll be a pro. You'll start to count your paychecks in Heroclix boosters and begin to spend too much time around the local gaming and comic shops eagerly awaiting the next acne-plagued challenger.
As a game, Heroclix is fun, fast paced and provides ample possibilities for new and interesting gaming experiences. The possibilities of play are endless; you can create nearly an unlimited amount of scenarios to play. Or can collect specific groups of characters, like the X-men, and use them in standard battles, fighting against their nemeses like Magneto and Apocalypse. But Heroclix is also fun to just collect. And that seems to be the beauty of it: the suspense of buying a booster pack. You never know exactly what you're going to get. And some of the more unique characters are worth a pretty penny. My coveted Thanos is worth around $40. So there is a lot of fun to be had in this game. And I've found that a reasonable investment of about $50 will give you enough powerful characters to hold your own in most gaming contexts.
As collectors' items, even though they are plastic, they can be broken. Especially the characters like Dr. Octopus and Elektra, ones that have many little appendages and extraneous materials that are weak, bendable and easily broken off. I wouldn't suggest dumping them into a plastic Tupperware container or placing them en masse into some other baggy or box. That is, if you want to keep them in tradable condition. I also found that many of the pieces have weak dials that are easily knocked out of place during the game. This generally applies to some of the early sets, as they changed the dials on some of the newer releases. This problem applies to the starter set and most other Infinity Challenge boosters. I personally do more playing than collecting so I don't worry about it as much. There are a few characters I have collected in special containers to preserve them, though. I have seen a few boosters that have had broken pieces in them. This would infuriate any comic collector, as we are an overly anal-retentive bunch. But otherwise there aren't many problems. The suggested retail price for the starter set is $18.99-$20 and the various boosters are $6.99. The starter set comes with maps, rulebooks and 8 randomly placed figures. You can also buy other map sets and an assortment of 3-D objects to populate the maps and give characters like the Hulk large objects to toss around the maps as weapons.
Be reasonably warned: if you are into comics and/or gaming Heroclix can and probably will be addicting. You'll find yourself spending more money than you should, as you crave the feeling of getting those unique and powerful characters in a randomly assorted box. It¡¦s a gambling mentality after all, so watch those pocketbooks. Also, the Heroclix game has a particularly violent context. The goal of the game is to kill the opposition. Therefore, 'morally conscious' parents probably wouldn't want to buy junior this game if they are easily offended by smallish plastic figures symbolizing heroic world-saving warfare.
Anyways, this is a great game. I love playing this game. And I love collecting the characters as well. Give it a try, it can't really hurt. (Though you may end up broke, out of a job, and like any other drug addict.--Just kidding of course). It'll give you something to do with your time. It saved me after the boredom of my post-undergraduate life took over, game me something interesting to do with my time, at least until the fiendish horrors of graduate school set in.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 18.99
Type of Toy: Board Game
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
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Epinions.com ID:
avepythagoras
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Location: Gainesville, FL
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 14 members
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Should be back soon, maybe...
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