There has been a lot of crossover between tabletop and video games of late and HeroClix Online is a classic example of that. Gone are the days of carting around 
your Clix system miniature collection to friends’ houses, game shops and the like in order to do combat. Now, if you so choose, you can do it all online.
Here are some quick changes between the tabletop and online versions.
1. The Maps are fully rendered in 3D
2. Rules are enforced by the game itself - you can play poorly but you can’t play incorrectly
3. Sanctioned tournaments have a chess clock feature
4. No more tackle boxes!
5. 24/7 Worldwide matchmaking
Otherwise, HeroClix Online is a direct translation of the tabletop version of the game. If you have played that, you will instantly be able to pick up and play the online version. Provided you pay to build up your collection. Sure, it could be a costly hobby if you’ve already got a massive physical collection and want to replicate it, but remember, most players will be starting over as well.
For those who haven’t played the game at all. Each miniature has a circular base that shows all of the pertinent stats for the character which are attached to a dial. When damage is done the dial is turned to show any changes to status, stats and special abilities.
Each character has the following stats:
- Attack Value - Added to attack dice to determine hit/miss
- Defense Value - total defense when attacked vs. attack value
- Speed - number of spaces the character can move in a turn
- Damage - amount of standard damage character does when attacking
- Range - distance the character can attack with ranged combat including # of targets possible
- Point Value - how expensive the character is
- Rarity - How many of the character exist (like trading cards)
HeroClix Online offers a couple ways to play including standard public matches or automated tournaments. The problem is that games can only be played simultaneously so it means you’ve got to find the time and the people online to play. Right now, there are 18 people on the server I am on so it’s rather difficult to find players for a game many hours of the day. The standard public matches have two variables: force cost and number of players.
One of the first things I checked was dropping connection. This was apparently something they thought about as well because when you drop connection and reconnect while in a match it allows you to rejoin the match in progress. So that’s a good thing at least.
What is not a good thing is that if your resolution is too low, as on the netbook I logged in with, you cannot see all of the controls. For example I opened a bug report window, but could get close it again because it was hidden behind other controls. Luckily, the window could be dragged in order to close it. But it shows that there are some graphical scaling issues yet to be resolved. The game is still in beta so some minor problems are expected.
