Polygon - Reviewshttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/42931/favicon.ico2024-03-18T13:00:00-04:00https://www.polygon.com/rss/reviews/index.xml2024-03-18T13:00:00-04:002024-03-18T13:00:00-04:00D&D’s most newbie-friendly campaign now offers a luxe boxed set from Beadle & Grimm’s
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<img alt="A canvas map of the Sword Coast region with Dungeons and Dragons miniatures and dice sitting on top of it." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Yk8wD20kUQkQy_dRYhsp8CWccFg=/0x0:3000x1688/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73215550/beadle_grimms_phandelver_cover.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A mindflayer model and some dice (not included in the set) sit atop a canvas map of the Sword Coast region | Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon</figcaption>
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<p>Matthew Lillard’s luxury boxes keep getting better and better</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="KObO8H">A newbie Dungeon Master, I was attracted to <a href="https://www.polygon.com/deals/21294556/dnd-how-to-play-dungeons-dragons-5e-guide-spells-dice-character-sheets-dm">Dungeons & Dragons</a> by the opportunity to spend my free time making delightful experiences for my players. And delighted they were when I plopped a giant canvas <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/25/9207861/learn-to-draw-world-maps-from-one-of-d-ds-best-cartographers">map</a> of the <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23150739/dnd-doomed-forgotten-realms-darkest-timeline-fan-made-campaign">Sword Coast</a> region onto my dining room table. I looked at my nephews and my wife, all with some TTRPG experience under their belts, and then to the odd man out: my nearly 70-year-old father who has zero previous experience with role-playing games. </p>
<p id="x9Qy6N">But even with the disparity in their skill sets, it was the elegant prop map that pulled them in. While I’d done the work to prepare the scene, and brought everyone together with pizza, I <em>didn’t </em>make the map. Instead, it was an immaculate prop of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2020/11/18/21573429/beadle-and-grimm-platinum-edition-review-rime-of-the-frostmaiden">Beadle & Grimm’s</a> design that truly pulled the party together. Suddenly this imaginary nonsense I’d sold my dad on was a real place — with real roads and real goblins waiting in ambush.</p>
<p id="PG77U3">The adventure was <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23841341/dnd-dungeons-dragons-phandelver-below-preview"><em>Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk</em></a>, the new best starting point for those just getting into D&D. But I wasn’t just using the excellent campaign book published by Wizards of the Coast. I was also relying on a $350 box of maps and other props made by Beadle & Grimm’s, Matthew Lillard’s publishing company. Like its <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22392353/beadle-grimms-dungeons-dragons-ravenloft-boxed-set-release-date-price">other boxed sets</a>, this one is loaded with items to help you run a specific campaign. </p>
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<img alt="Four pins from various Dungeons &amp; Dragons factions sit on a table. Four are right-side up, while the fifth is on its face, displaying the back." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/y_kvixqawEnUTDYR7s4pDS24X2U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25331502/B88A9824.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon</cite>
<figcaption>Metal pins that you can give to your players, each of which represents a different D&D faction — like the Harpers pin in the upper left</figcaption>
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<p id="RKlc8h">There are monster cards that you can place on your DM screen that have the monster’s stat block on one side and gorgeous art for your players on the other. There are badge pins that the party can earn during the course of play, allowing them to show off their allegiance to the Harpers or the campaign’s other factions. There is a deck filled with magic item cards to help your players stay organized. And there’s even a custom DM screen loaded up with information on important NPCs and when your players are supposed to level up. But the most important part of the package — for player immersion, at least — are the maps. </p>
<p id="7l7zkX">My big, beautiful canvas map of the Sword Coast helped introduce my players to the world, and it got them on their feet early in the game. But as helpful as it was, the canvas map was nothing compared to the gridded battle maps. The boxed set comes with 32 of them, each one detailing an important encounter. </p>
<p id="XU5PPA">Heading through the first dungeon — Cragmaw Hideout — I placed the detailed map on my table with sheets of paper blocking the places my players hadn’t yet discovered. As they walked, I uncovered pieces bit by bit. That way, when a goblin guard spotted the party and set off to flood the tunnel, the group authentically panicked. Only by consulting the map were they able to weasel their way into a steep offshoot from the main path. The map not only sold my players on the environment they were adventuring through, it changed <em>how</em> they played.</p>
<p id="32IM97">That’s when the game opened up for everyone — even my dad.</p>
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<img alt="A massive pile of encounter cards for Dungeons and Dragons are spread out around on a table" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Q7rp28nUl-bzlK6WXIk2_QHq6Gg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25332669/IMG_0355__1_.jpg">
<cite>Image: Beadle & Grimm’s and Wizards of the Coast</cite>
<figcaption>The pack is filled with encounter art for players to look at during combat or role-play sections</figcaption>
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<p id="lsqFlh">Our Barbarian rolled well and shot up the steep alley path with a natural 20 while I consulted the adventure booklet next to me (which Beadle & Grimm’s separated out into chapters, making referencing what the party might find on a specific path like this much easier). Our Ranger made it up about halfway, while our Fighter and Druid were stuck at the bottom, trying to stop themselves from being swept away by the flood. Unfortunately, the Ranger stepped on a snake and it bit him until he was unconscious — level 1, folks. Our Barbarian caught the unconscious Ranger by the back of his shirt only to roll a 1 a round later, dropping him. We all watched on the map as I slid the Ranger’s token down onto the ledge with the snake, crushing the enemy, but causing a small cave-in that not only knocked our Fighter unconscious and caused our Ranger to fail a death save, but knocked our Druid into the oncoming flood as well.</p>
<aside id="GhRuwy"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Get over 100 awesome, femme-forward D&D one-shots for just $20","url":"https://www.polygon.com/deals/2024/3/18/24104816/dungeons-and-dragons-uncaged-anthology-goddesses-ttrpg-deal-sale"}]}'></div></aside><p id="7mya1V">Our Barbarian watched in horror as most of his party was swept back to the entrance of the cave. Everyone was eventually stabilized with a healing potion or two, but it was a harrowing and hilarious bonding moment for the entire group. They then went on to conquer the rest of the dungeon and rescue Sildar Hallwinter, a knight whose picture I was able to display for the group thanks to some helpful handouts from Beadle & Grimm’s. But that’s not the point. What matters is I saw three amateur D&D players and one complete newcomer finally get what makes tabletop role-play great in that clusterfuck of a moment. </p>
<p id="adRA86">I originally intended our adventure to just be a one-shot of Cragmaw Hideout to test Beadle & Grimm’s Legendary Edition, as I’m already busy DMing my own game for some friends on a weekly basis. However, I now find myself with four family members who are deeply invested in Phandalin and its many mysteries, all of whom are expecting a second session (which I’ve of course agreed to). But despite having doubled my work as a DM, I hardly feel any pressure at all when it comes to my <em>Phandelver and Below</em> campaign. </p>
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<img alt="A stat block printout for Psionic Goblins and Goblin Psi Brawlers sits in front of art work of a green goblin wielding a flaming sword" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7eM7chv4HAUDFFzksPKlMALjCA8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25332671/IMG_0354__1_.jpg">
<cite>Image: Beadle & Grimm’s and Wizards of the Coast</cite>
<figcaption>Most of the art for players includes a helpful cheat sheet on the back with a stat block and some lore for the Dungeon Master</figcaption>
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<p id="O3ATEn">I love DMing my personal campaign, but it’s pretty taxing on my time. I spend multiple hours a week thinking through potential scenarios and trying out various character voices and personalities in the shower to ensure that I can entertain my players when we group up. But outside of character creation, I only thought about <em>Phandelver</em> in the couple of days and hours leading up to our initial session. In fact, it took me longer to corral my players and find a time that we could play than to prepare for the adventure itself. </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="iHfFBy">All of the pieces in the box either helped me sell the world to my players or helped me prepare extremely quickly. Sure, I wish the set was even more friendly to new DMs like myself and came with more than five miniatures (three mind flayers and two intellect devourers). But I very much appreciated that I didn’t have to spend hours staring at a fiddly mapmaking website, fighting with Microsoft OneNote, or cruising Etsy to suck my players in. Not only did Beadle & Grimm’s allow me to free up my time for other important stuff (like my original campaign or my real, human child) but it helped me preserve energy for the actual session itself so that I could be the best DM that I could be for my players, and that is priceless. </p>
<p id="Qp4ZXi"><small><em>Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk Legendary Edition</em></small><small> was reviewed using pre-release retail products provided by Beadle & Grimm’s. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships, but not with Beadle & Grimm’s. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find </small><a href="https://www.polygon.com/pages/ethics-statement"><small>additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here</small></a><small>.</small></p>
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https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24094327/beadle-grimm-phandelver-below-shattered-obelisk-legendary-reviewRyan Gilliam2024-03-16T10:20:00-04:002024-03-16T10:20:00-04:00I played 43 legendary psychedelic games in a row and now my brain is a puddle
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<img alt="Art for Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter story shows an airbrush portrait of Minter along with llama and camel characters from his games on a psychedelic pink-and-purple background" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lIh-F3eC_8so9DNtlb1Vz4m6LkQ=/0x0:3840x2160/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73211589/JeffMinter_3840x2160_NoLogo.0.png" />
<figcaption>Image: Digital Eclipse</figcaption>
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<p>Playing through the early works of one of the world’s most idiosyncratic game designers</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="a11lPj"><em>Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story</em> is a fascinating “interactive documentary” from Digital Eclipse, which previously applied the same format to <a href="https://www.polygon.com/features/22880558/atari-50th-anniversary-plans"><em>Atari 50</em></a>, a 50th-anniversary celebration of the legendary company’s early arcade and home games. Like <em>Atari 50</em>, <em>The Jeff Minter Story</em> collects a huge range of playable, carefully emulated classic games, and puts them in context via a wealth of background material: video clips, photographs, artwork, documentation, and more, all presented via an interactive timeline. There’s one major difference: Everything in <em>The Jeff Minter Story </em>is essentially the work of one man.</p>
<p id="vbzaut">Jeff Minter is one of the most enduring and iconoclastic figures in indie game development, a lone gunman with an inimitable style who’s been pursuing his own unique agenda — a blend of classic arcade games, trippy psychedelia, and animals belonging to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungulate">ungulate family</a> — for over 40 years. The 61-year-old self-taught coder and designer came of age in the early-’80s homebrew computing scene in the U.K. and simply never left that way of working behind. I had the pleasure of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23613576/jeff-minter-profile-akka-arrh-atari-llamasoft-arcade">profiling Minter last year</a>; he’s a true character, with a perspective on almost the entire history of video game development that’s both poignant and refreshing.</p>
<aside id="k90afU"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Jeff Minter, the wizard of gaming psychedelia, is back on his bullshit","url":"https://www.polygon.com/23613576/jeff-minter-profile-akka-arrh-atari-llamasoft-arcade"}]}'></div></aside><p id="2jukdC"><em>Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story </em>is a great way to get to know Minter and to understand more about his work. The documentary set collects 42 games from the early part of his career, between 1981 and 1994, plus one modernized remaster by the Digital Eclipse team, <em>Gridrunner Remastered</em>. The best way to take it in is to explore the interactive timeline, watching the informative video clips — directed by Paul Docherty, who’s currently producing a feature documentary about Minter — and dipping into games occasionally as you go.</p>
<p id="yVPBDG">I, however, decided to play all 43 games back to back, in chronological order.</p>
<p id="UQba1c">This is a very silly way to approach <em>The Jeff Minter Story</em>. It was sometimes frustrating, repetitive, and overwhelming. Minter games go <em>very</em> hard: brutal speed, challenging gameplay ideas, eye-watering visuals, and untethered surrealism are the norm. Also, many of the early games included are pretty crude. Nevertheless, my strange quest shone a light on both the amazing scope of what Digital Eclipse has achieved with this package, and the limitations of it.</p>
<div class="c-wide-block"><div id="NCLCL2"><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4uIW8Qd-7rE?rel=0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share;"></iframe></div></div></div>
<p id="Ps9U2p">It’s an amazing experience to watch an artist form before your eyes like this, as their preoccupations and signature quirks pop up one by one, and their design ideas are refined over time and gradually start to coalesce into a coherent whole. There are very few video game creators you could do this with, either because their work is more dissipated and collaborative, or because their games aren’t so blindingly immediate or so intensely personal.</p>
<p id="U0zQKq">It helps that Minter is incredibly prolific — or was, at the start of his career — and is also a shoot-from-the-hip iterator who has no qualms about working out the kinks in his ideas in public. In fact, there are a lot fewer than 43 individual games here, because Digital Eclipse includes many of the ports Minter and his friends made as they knocked out copies of his hits on new systems. Rather than cheapening the package, these illuminate both the evolving technology and Minter’s way of working. It’s interesting to see how ports of games for the Commodore VIC-20 computer to its more powerful follow-up, the Commodore 64, often seem <em>more </em>primitive, as Minter’s experience with the older system contrasts with him learning the ropes on the new one.</p>
<p id="IeU9Jt">Many of his early games are unapologetic rip-offs of arcade classics like <em>Defender </em>and <em>Centipede</em>, with one or two of his own ideas inserted. (In fact, Minter’s unlicensed 1981 version of <em>Centipede</em> for the incredibly primitive Sinclair ZX81 computer was made without having played the original.) Sometimes those insertions are characterful goofs, like replacing the AT-ATs in an <em>Empire Strikes Back </em>game with camels in <em>Attack of the Mutant Camels</em>. Sometimes they’re diamond-hard nuggets of game design genius, like the hardened nodes that clutter and block the gameplay field in his <em>Centipede</em>-inspired 1982 classic, <em>Gridrunner</em>. Minter arguably prefigured present-day modding communities in the way he reverse-engineered his personal quirks into his favorite games.</p>
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<img alt="Cover art for Attack of the Mutant Camels in the game library screen of Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2V1Egh1r-LiVTkHuqifqNxIHP5U=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25338005/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_06.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<img alt="A giant pink camel marches in front of a stark view of pyramids at sunset in Attack of the Mutant Camels" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EXhpuGp5cqdalU4wjJJwlEvxtPk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25337992/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_04.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<p id="u46ds7">It’s delightful to see Minter’s personality come to the fore through the games, too. First it’s his way with words: “EXCESS BAT MISERY,” proclaims simple bat-and-ball game <em>Deflex V </em>if you place too many bats on the field. Then surreal visual touches start to appear, like a very <em>Monty Python</em> hand of God that plucks the player off the screen in the almost unplayable <em>Ratman</em>. Strobing visual effects come next, then the games start to get much faster, and the sound intensifies. 1982’s <em>Andes Attack</em> begins a lifelong obsession by replacing the people in a <em>Defender </em>clone with llamas. There’s a satirical, parochial Englishness to the likes of 1983’s <em>Headbanger’s Heaven</em> and lawnmower-action game <em>Hover Bovver</em>.</p>
<p id="txm5UB">Even better are the design ideas, devious in their simplicity, which Minter employs to mix up what’s mostly classic move-and-zap action. In 1983’s <em>Laser Zone</em>, the player controls two turrets on the X and Y axes of the screen simultaneously. The laser-spitting llamas of <em>Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time</em> bounce their shots off a forcefield that the player can raise or lower to control the rebounds. The action in 1984’s <em>Sheep in Space</em> is suspended between gravitational fields that bend shots up or down.</p>
<p id="y1mbU1">The issue with this collection is its truncated scope, combined with Minter’s absurd early productivity. The first 31 games in the collection cover just the years 1981 to 1984; there are 12 games from 1983 alone. It’s strongly biased toward titles that are academically interesting but that can be excruciating to play. From 1984, the narrative shifts. Minter began a strongly experimental phase that had some bizarre results, like minigame compilation <em>Batalyx</em>, a typically weird and unforgiving flirtation with nonlinear action-adventures called <em>Ancipital</em>, and the completely confounding <em>Mama Llama</em>. It also yielded an epiphany of sorts with <em>Psychedelia</em>, a gorgeous, beautifully coded light synthesizer for the C64 that would begin a lifelong love affair with light synths and music visualizers. (It’s telling that Minter spent much longer coding his light synths than his games, on average.)</p>
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<img alt="A goat-like character in a room of bouncing cassette tapes and skull-and-crossbones in Ancipital" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/XI9hVIga9EgdAAAhcdkTLvbS5Bo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25338020/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_09.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<img alt="The interactive timeline in Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story shows an entry about “The British Games Console”" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y5L9XEm7USXypULPnhIGRm4VlgA=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25338028/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_08.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<p id="Oo5jHS">Then, after a great run of sophisticated and technically brilliant shooters for the C64 in 1986-7<em> </em>(<em>Iridis Alpha</em>, <em>Revenge of the Mutant Camels 2</em>, and the mind-melting <em>Voidrunner</em>, which is <em>Gridrunner </em>with four player ships and scorching, light-synth-inspired effects), it all started to go wrong. Minter committed, as he often would, to the wrong hardware, and wasted years on a failed U.K. game console project called the Konix Multi-System (there’s an unfinished Konix game included in the Digital Eclipse collection — a super-rare curio). His pace of development radically slowed. In 1994, he made a triumphant comeback with his masterpiece, <em>Tempest 2000 </em>for the Atari Jaguar — which is where <em>The Jeff Minter Story </em>abruptly ends, arguably at the very moment Minter becomes a fully formed artist.</p>
<p id="Y81sak">To an extent it’s understandable: Many of Minter’s best games from the last 30 years, including the likes of <em>Space Giraffe</em> and <em>Polybius</em>, remain commercially available on Steam and elsewhere, and presumably neither Minter nor Digital Eclipse wants to cannibalize Llamasoft’s meager sales. But it means this otherwise illuminating, funny, and exhaustively detailed portrait of a unique video game artist cuts him off in his prime.</p>
<p id="XGwFDj">It’s still worth checking out, though. If you do, don’t be like me and play all 43 games — play these five instead.</p>
<h2 id="7hmDlA"><strong>Gridrunner (1982)</strong></h2>
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<img alt="A screenshot of Gridrunner, framed by an old TV monitor, showing its simple 8-bit graphics" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n1p_kM7SV9H9bd0AGpDGZFmaI4c=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25337981/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_10.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<p id="6TbqSn">Minter’s blinding, supercharged remix of Atari’s <em>Centipede</em> is undoubtedly the best game of his early years, and one he’d keep returning to again and again. The original VIC-20 version took him a week to write, start to finish. </p>
<h2 id="hsMbrt"><strong>Hellgate (1984)</strong></h2>
<p id="QF0mxM"><em>Hellgate</em> takes the two-axis shooting action of <em>Laser Zone </em>and cruelly mirrors it over four axes, controlled simultaneously. “The whole idea of <em>Hellgate </em>was in part a deliberate attempt to overwhelm,” Minter says in the collection’s documentary material, “but still to give enough control to be able to be at cause. I wanted to force entry to the ‘zone,’ the place where you go where you get so good at<em> Robotron</em> that you don’t really understand why, but damn, it feels good. The game feels impossible at first, but if you actually play it, then it starts to work.”</p>
<h2 id="0m4XMD">
<strong>Colourspace</strong><em><strong> </strong></em><strong>(1985)</strong>
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<p id="5xoiHe">Minter’s evolution of his <em>Psychedelia</em> light synthesizer for the Atari 8-bit computer is even more mesmerizingly beautiful, with a ton of parameters to fiddle with if you want to get under the hood. Put some Pink Floyd on, grab a joystick, and peace out.</p>
<h2 id="UFyzHN"><strong>Revenge of the Mutant Camels 2 (1986)</strong></h2>
<p id="6aQEbn">Minter’s last game for his beloved Commodore 64 is one of his most lush and characterful, with such modern features as an upgrade store and a grid map of locations to unlock. Each level has a distinct vibe and a wild assembly of surreal enemies for your marching, leaping camel to spit at.</p>
<h2 id="nPis4b"><strong>Tempest 2000 (1994)</strong></h2>
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<img alt="A screenshot of Tempest 2000 - lightning crackles across a triangular purple tunnel while distorted writing reads EAT ELECTRIC DEATH!" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dlnI4wUsVyX_ftjL8o7BH2IJxsk=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25337984/Llamasoft_The_Jeff_Minter_Story_05.png">
<cite>Image: Digital Eclipse</cite>
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<p class="c-end-para" id="ah0vmS">Minter’s intense, techno-driven remix of the classic vector-graphic Atari arcade cab — in which enemies crawl up a 3D tube toward your craft, clinging to its outer lip — is simply one of the greatest shmups of all time. There’s something about staring down the playing field into the void that is the perfect match for his psychedelic, flow-state sensibilities. </p>
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https://www.polygon.com/gaming/24101970/llamasoft-jeff-minter-story-reviewOli Welsh2024-03-15T09:00:00-04:002024-03-15T09:00:00-04:00Irish Wish is full of awful rom-com tropes, yet I want Lindsay Lohan to find happiness
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<img alt="Ed Speelers shows Lindsey Lohan how to play darts. The two look longingly into each other’s eyes" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4Qa-CvELdTou_RPQlTWJz7zb0JM=/0x375:7200x4425/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73209127/IW_20221004_Unit_11149_R.JPG_IW_20221004_Unit_11149_R.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Patrick Redmond / Netflix</figcaption>
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<p>Lohan and Ed Speleers deserve better than Netflix’s new movie</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="hNjenN">As a big fan of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23207424/kaguya-sama-love-is-war-rom-com">romantic comedies</a>, both <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23832124/romantic-comedy-rom-com-guilty-pleasure-red-white-and-royal-blue">in movie and</a> <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22933941/how-to-get-into-romance-books">book form,</a> I have a shortlist of beloved tropes. Enemies to lovers? Sunshine and grumpy? Second chances after a missed connection? Love, love, <em>love</em>.</p>
<p id="jX56XW">But I also have a shortlist of my most hated clichés. I know it’s a me thing, but I just don’t like a <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23498584/love-actually-problems-fixed-recasting">workplace romance where one party is clearly working directly under the other</a>. I also don’t like romances that kick off when one party is in a relationship with someone else. Or romances where someone is pining for their best friend’s partner. And I absolutely loathe rom-coms where we’re supposed to buy the strength of a couple based on some sort of alternate-reality-slash-dream situation where literally everything else about their lives is different, and only one person remembers the details. When the tropes <em>are</em> the premise, there’s often no hope for me latching on.</p>
<p id="bldGoF">Netflix’s new, vaguely St. Patrick’s Day-themed romantic comedy, <em>Irish Wish</em>, is basically built on a whole bed of rom-com tropes that I actively hate. So even though I love a Lindsay Lohan-led rom-com — <em>Just My Luck </em>was one of my favorites growing up, and Lohan’s recent Netflix Christmas rom-com was over-the-top cheesy in the best way — I knew the odds of enjoyment were stacked against me. But there <em>are</em> exceptions to every one of my taste rules, if the movie is good enough. I came in hopeful! But while I am not immune to Lindsay Lohan being charmed by a roguish Englishman played by<em> </em>Ed Speleers (<em>Star Trek: Picard</em>, <em>Eragon</em>), the rest of<em> Irish Wish </em>failed to sweep me off my feet. </p>
<p id="JBYaO0">[<strong>Ed. note:</strong> This piece contains some spoilers for <em>Irish Wish.</em>] </p>
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<img alt="Lindsay Lohan in Irish Wish sitting on a stone bench under a pretty tree. She wears a yellow sweater, red hair blowing in the wind, as she looks to the right." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OZKt5EOFEfAHUbEZlKqYibL6xKY=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25335827/IW_20220922_Unit_08252_R.JPG_IW_20220922_Unit_08252_R.JPG">
<cite>Photo: Patrick Redmond/Netflix</cite>
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<p id="CNTxCw">Hated trope crime No. 1: Lohan’s <em>Irish Wish</em> character, Maddie, is an editor who is hopelessly and unrequitedly in love with one of her writers, a charming Irishman named Paul Kennedy (Alexander Vlahos). But because Maddie doesn’t have enough guts to confess her love to him, Paul meets her cute friend Emma (Elizabeth Tan) and the two get engaged instead, all while Maddie is still hopefully pining after him. (Second point, *insert eye-roll emoji*!) On the eve of their wedding in Ireland, Maddie meets a strange giggling woman who encourages her to make a big wish, so Maddie then wishes that she was the one getting married to Paul. She wakes up in another reality, one where she’s the one getting married. But as it turns out, Paul isn’t the partner she thought he would be. And <em>also</em> she keeps running into a scruffy yet dashing photographer named James (Ed Speleers) and sharing very romantically charged moments with him. If you’re counting, that’s points three and four. </p>
<p id="KoMrme">Thankfully, Lohan and Speleers have mastered the art of making charged eye contact across a room; their chemistry infuses their characters with more longing than the text makes the case for. Since most of the romantic moments happen in the “wish universe” (what I’ll be calling the reality where Maddie is marrying Paul), it’s already hard to believe that they’d get together in real life, since everything about their meeting and relationship there is already different. But still, the wish universe does give them some adorable moments — getting caught in a rainstorm while scouting out locations for wedding photos and then cozying up in a quaint little pub. While the sparks definitely fly, it is still just one full day of knowing each other, which is hardly enough to justify those angsty looks of yearning.</p>
<div class="c-wide-block"> <figure class="e-image">
<img alt="Ed Speelers shows Lindsey Lohan how to play darts. The two look longingly into each other’s eyes" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MmnGswZTeRl2pzCXcoCf-5c6RNI=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25335834/IW_20221004_Unit_11149_R.JPG_IW_20221004_Unit_11149_R.JPG">
<cite>Photo: Patrick Redmond/Netflix</cite>
<figcaption>I am not immune to whatever’s going on here</figcaption>
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<p id="fN7r02">Yet! Those looks are <em>so</em> good. Their individual moments together are delicious, especially set against the gorgeous Irish landscape and some cute little set-pieces. But it’s not enough to save the fact that their relationship is built on an alternate reality. So when they do meet for realsies, Maddie just knows all these things about James that make it seem like she’s been stalking him, whereas he barely has any idea who she is. Maybe there’s an attraction, but it’s hard to buy that it’s true love. </p>
<p id="JmdUhh">Maddie’s crush on Paul, despite him being a terrible person to work with and also generally a spoiled man baby, is also frustrating. Yes, the plot of the movie hinges on her realizing they don’t work well together, but it’s a wonder what she even saw in him originally! There’s a superfluous side plot involving Maddie’s mother trying to get a plane out of Des Moines. I do not know why it’s there, other than to put Jane Seymour on the cast list. She never even has a face-to-face conversation with her daughter!</p>
<p id="0Q0ENp">Some tropes might not be for me, but other people do love them, especially when it comes to romantic comedies. But there are movies that overcome my preconceived dislike and make me reevaluate why I hated certain tropes. <em>The Proposal</em>,<em> </em>for instance, bypasses my usual disdain for the “workplace romance where one party is clearly working for the other” cliche by just being a solid movie. Despite the lovely chemistry between Speleers and Lohan,<em> Irish Wish</em> did not rattle my preconceived notions — if anything, it’s the worst version of my hated tropes. Speleers and Lohan deserve a movie worthy of their electric eye contact and charming banter — and who knows? James and Maddie’s romance just barely started in this movie, so there could be more ahead. <em>Irish Wish</em> may have played into my least-liked cliches, but I <em>am</em> invested in these characters. </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="Hq2HSz"><small><em>Irish Wish</em></small><small> is out on Netflix now. </small></p>
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https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24100743/irish-wish-review-netflix-lindsay-lohanPetrana Radulovic2024-03-14T23:59:00-04:002024-03-14T23:59:00-04:00Civil War stuns in the least likely ways imaginable
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<img alt="A blonde woman in a “Press” bulletproof vest stands in the White House in Civil War" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eTevqZFxwCcD_ZSMxPlBu5KjsLY=/0x0:2459x1383/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73208592/https___cdn.sanity.io_images_xq1bjtf4_production_260ceb2f85f29cfb88838e763fc0ec5f035ddce8_4500x3000_copy.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: A24</figcaption>
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<p>Alex Garland lets politics play in the background of an action drama that lives in the moment</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="ONMyIA">In an era of divisive, high-stakes U.S. politics, it isn’t surprising to see so many people online responding to the entire concept of Alex Garland’s <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23999786/a24-alex-garland-civil-war-movie"><em>Civil War</em></a> as if it’s inherently toxic. Set on and around the front lines of a near-future America broken into separatist factions, Garland’s latest (after the fairly baffling fable-esque <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23063126/men-review-alex-garland-jessie-buckley"><em>Men</em></a>) looks like a timely but opportunistic provocation, a movie that can’t help but feel <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24000121/civil-war-movie-map-a24-alex-garland-politics">either exploitative or far too close to home</a> in a country whose name, the United States, sounds more ironic and laughable with every passing year.</p>
<p id="WA5fOZ">And yet that doesn’t seem to be Garland’s goal with <em>Civil War</em> at all. The movie is about as apolitical as a story set during a modern American civil war can be. It’s a character piece with a lot more to say about the state of modern journalism and the people behind it than about the state of the nation.</p>
<p id="bvAd3g">It’s almost perverse how little <em>Civil War</em> reveals about the sides of the central conflict, or the causes or crises that led to war. (Viewers who show up expecting an action movie that confirms their own political biases and demonizes their opponents are going to leave especially confused about what they just watched.) This isn’t a story about the causes or strategies of American civil war: It’s a personal story about the hows and whys of war journalism — and how the field changes for someone covering a war in their homeland instead of on foreign turf. </p>
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<p id="hUDClE">Lee Miller (Kirsten Dunst) is a veteran war photographer, a celebrated, awarded, and deeply jaded woman who’s made a career out of pretending to be bulletproof in arenas where the bullets are flying — or at least being bulletproof long enough to capture memorable, telling images of what bullets do to other people’s bodies and psyches. Her latest assignment: She and her longtime work partner Joel (Wagner Moura) have been promised an interview with the president (Nick Offerman), who is now in his third term in office and coming off more than a year of public silence.</p>
<p id="7ts1GP">It’s a dream opportunity for a war correspondent — a chance to make history, and maybe more importantly, to make sense of the man whose choices seem to have been key in pushing the country over the line and into war. But securing the interview will require traveling more than 800 miles to Washington DC, through active war zones, and past hostile barricades erected by state militias or other heavily armed local forces. And tagging along on this potentially lethal road trip is Jessie (<em>Priscilla</em> star Cailee Spaeny), a green but ambitious 23-year-old photographer who Lee obviously thinks is likely to get herself killed along the way — or get the whole traveling party killed.</p>
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<p id="IXlH93">The tension between Lee and Jessie — potential mentor and her potential replacement, the past and future of their chosen career, allies but competitors chasing the same things within a small profession known equally for its rivalries and its interpublication commiseration — forms the center of <em>Civil War</em>, far more than the tension between any particular political perspectives does. For all that the movie is coming in a time when pundits keep warning about the potential for an actual new American civil war, Garland’s <em>Civil War</em> barely tips its hand about the specifics of the conflicts.</p>
<p id="iZubbO">There’s plenty there for viewers who want to read between the lines, about which states are in revolt (California, Texas, and Florida all get passing mentions as separatist states) and about the soldiers — mostly Southern and many rural — who get significant screen time. But Lee’s angry exhaustion and Jessie’s fear and excitement over learning more about the profession from someone she respects are the real heart of the story.</p>
<p id="V377R1">All of which makes <em>Civil War</em> a movie more about why war correspondents are drawn to the profession than about any particular perspective on present American politics. And it’s a terrific, immersive meditation on war journalism. Lee and her colleagues are presented as half thrill-seeker adrenaline monkeys, half dutiful documentarians determined to bring back a record of events that other people aren’t recording. They’re doing important work, the movie suggests, but they have to be more than a little reckless both to choose the profession and to return to the battlefield over and over.</p>
<p id="zvcmnB">Lee never gives any big speeches about the difference between covering war in Afghanistan and in Charlottesville, but it’s clear she’s fraying under the pressure of watching her own country in such a rattled and ragged state, with hardened soldiers on both sides demonizing other Americans the way Americans have demonized entire foreign nations. Jessie, for her part, seems impervious to the weight of that reality, but still far less inured to cruelty and to combat. The two women push powerfully at each other, with a clear, beautifully drawn, yet unspoken sense that when Lee looks at Jessie, she sees her own younger, dumber, softer self, and when Jessie looks at Lee, she sees her own future as a famous, capable, confident journalist.</p>
<p id="xwEn6P">All of this character work is built into a series of intense, immersive action sequences, as Lee’s group repeatedly risks death, trying to negotiate their way across battle lines or embed themselves with soldiers during pitched combat. The finale sequence, a run-and-gun combat through city streets and tight building interiors, is a gripping thrill ride that Garland directs with the immediacy of a war documentary.</p>
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<p id="SpmScc">The entire film is paced and planned with that dynamic involved. It’s a particularly gorgeous drama, shot with a loving warmth that reflects its point of view, through the eyes of two photographers used to conceiving of everything around them in terms of vivid, compelling images. A late-film sequence shot as the group drives through a forest fire is especially beautiful, but the movie in general seems designed to impress viewers on a visual level. By mid-film, it becomes clear that Lee shoots with a digital camera, while Jessie shoots on old-school film, and that for both of them, that choice is important and symbolic.</p>
<p id="NZpD3b">In the same way, Garland’s shot choices and the movie’s vivid color keep reminding the audience that this is a movie about not just documenting moments, but capturing them well enough to mesmerize an audience. In some ways, <em>Civil War</em> comes across as a bit nostalgic for an earlier era of journalism and photography. The collapse of the internet seems to have reset the news to a point where print journalism dominates over TV or social media, and no one seems to be getting their news online. It’s the most prominent retro aspect of a story that’s otherwise reflecting a potential future. </p>
<p id="pT3VNF">What the movie isn’t about is taking sides in any particular present political conflict. That may surprise and disappoint the people drawn to <em>Civil War</em> because they think they know what it’s about. But it’s also a relief. It’s hard for message movies about present politics to not turn into clumsy polemics. It’s hard for any document of history to accurately document it as it’s happening. That’s the job of journalists like Jessie and Lee — people willing to risk their lives to bring back reports from places most people wouldn’t dare go.</p>
<p id="9ODR72">And while it does feel opportunistic to frame their story specifically within a new American civil war — whether a given viewer sees that narrative choice as timely and edgy or cynical attention-grabbing — the setting still feels far less important than the vivid, emotional, richly complicated drama around two people, a veteran and a newbie, each pursuing the same dangerous job in their own unique way. <em>Civil War</em> seems like the kind of movie people will mostly talk about for all the wrong reasons, and without seeing it first. It isn’t what those people will think it is. It’s something better, more timely, and more thrilling — a thoroughly engaging war drama that’s more about people than about politics.</p>
<p id="ROz5jK"><small><em>Civil War</em></small><small> opens in theaters on April 12.</small></p>
https://www.polygon.com/24099490/civil-war-review-2024Tasha Robinson2024-03-13T16:36:38-04:002024-03-13T16:36:38-04:00Sydney Sweeney is Hollywood’s most interesting young movie star and Immaculate proves it
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<img alt="Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate, screaming with her face covered in blood" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/D5oh1MWogW0L7uTpCS7f4brPtsA=/0x0:1707x960/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73205136/7_Sydney_Sweeney_in_IMMACULATE_Photo_Courtesy_of_NEON_rgb.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Image: Neon</figcaption>
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<p>The Euphoria star’s hot streak continues</p> <p class="p-large-text" id="3zre6x">No one is doing it like Sydney Sweeney, our most idiosyncratic young movie star. Riding rising fame from <em>The White Lotus </em>and <a href="https://www.polygon.com/22879178/euphoria-season-2-premiere"><em>Euphoria</em></a>, her true star turn technically started at the end of 2023 with the release of <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24047285/robert-downey-jr-oscars-2024-nomination-oppenheimer"><em>Anyone but You</em></a>, a raunchy throwback rom-com that turned into a massive box-office hit. After that she starred in the <a href="https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24071362/madame-web-review-post-credits-scene-sequel-teaser-bad">awful and derided <em>Madame Web</em></a>, but managed to come out the other side not just unscathed but brushing it off with A-list energy, joking about the movie’s failure on <em>Saturday Night Live</em> mere weeks after it opened. Her next big win is <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24050507/sydney-sweeney-immaculate-trailer-nun-horror-movie"><em>Immaculate</em></a>, a weird, fascinating, and extremely fun new horror movie that’s coming to theaters later in March.</p>
<p id="YK2a1q"><em>Immaculate</em> opens with an American nun, Cecilia (Sweeney), transferring to a strange little convent in Italy that specializes in end-of-life care for their fellow sisters in faith. But everything’s a little off; there are people wandering around in red masks, terse sisters questioning her actions, and priests who are a little too friendly. After a few short days doing difficult caretaking work, Cecilia mysteriously becomes pregnant. Everyone at the convent proclaims that she’s carrying the second coming of Jesus Christ. Cecilia’s life only gets weirder from there. </p>
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<img alt="Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate dressed like Mary with nuns flanking her on either side " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1sgwLaj-wgu1DhMmK_xtDJZfTpU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25334487/9_Sydney_Sweeney_in_IMMACULATE_Photo_Courtesy_of_NEON_rgb.jpg">
<cite>Image: Neon</cite>
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<p id="S8ELyU">From the beginning, <em>Immaculate </em>director Michael Mohan<em> </em>is thoroughly committed to delivering a throwback exploitation movie of exorbitant sleaze. There may not be any outright sex in the movie, but there are long scenes of nuns taking baths in skimpy white dresses, and leering priests lurking around every corner that interrogate Cecilia over her virgin status — only to verify the purity and truth of their coming savior, of course. <em>Immaculate</em> also has more graphic blood, guts, and gore than most action movies these days. All of these little elements are hallmarks of prime 1970s <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/the-best-nunsploitation-films-ranked.html">nunsploitation</a>, the horror offshoot specifically centered on the cloth.</p>
<p id="C9NqmH">The movie’s only real break from its genre roots comes in form: It’s simply a much better-made and more gorgeous movie than most of the films that inspired it. Mohan frames beautiful moments of haunting symmetry around the convent and uses the camera to make Cecilia look and feel completely isolated, particularly when her devout colleagues start worshiping her and dressing her like a haunted imitation of Mary. The movie is full of mood and carefully paced terror that is more sustained than bolstered, with a plotty ending that never pays off the movie’s conspiratorial promise. The good news is, in true exploitation fashion, the movie’s final moments are grisly, pitch-black, and perfect. </p>
<p id="hBwgIp">While nunsploitation movies have popped up every now and again, the lurid kind are still exceedingly rare, and certainly not what we think of as star vehicles for one of Hollywood’s biggest up-and-coming actresses. And yet, Sydney Sweeney goes all in, owning a prosthetic pregnancy stomach, ready to be covered head to toe in blood, and being an absolute star through every second of the film. And it’s all impressively unshowy. The part demands wide-eyed confusion and terror, and Sweeney plays it without a hint of vanity or desperation, assured enough in her star power not to reveal her character’s strength and competence until it’s absolutely necessary. </p>
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<img alt="Sydney Sweeney in Immaculate holding a candle with nuns behind her " data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/U1W87_mF2TbCfu8mWZYPL7723Z4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25334489/5_Sydney_Sweeney_in_IMMACULATE_Photo_Courtesy_of_NEON_rgb.jpg">
<cite>Image: Neon</cite>
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<p id="RH603y">Looking back, interesting but easily overlooked choices are Sweeney’s MO. After her breakout role in HBO’s <em>Euphoria</em>, she starred in Mohan’s previous movie, a fun and dirty erotic thriller called <em>The Voyeurs</em>. She played Reality Winner in Max’s <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23689819/sydney-sweeney-reality-winner-movie-hbo-release-date"><em>Reality</em></a>, a grittier acting showcase that felt like a classic made-for-TV movie. Now she’s followed up a hit R-rated rom-com with a tremendously fun nunsploitation movie. It’s the most fascinating career of anyone her age, and she’s absolutely captivating to watch, regardless of genre.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="s3hscJ">While actors like <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/25/20978540/little-women-review-greta-gerwig-saoirse-ronan-florence-pugh-timothee-chalamet-emma-watson">Florence Pugh and Saoirse Ronan</a> have a bigger hit rate for prestige, Sweeney’s success shouldn’t be undervalued. But we need far more from our movie stars than just “great acting.” Sometimes all a movie star needs to be is the best part of a dozen movies you had a great time watching. That’s the kind of movie stardom Sydney Sweeney seems to be chasing. Sweeney’s like a movie star transported from an entirely different era. Rather than the stardom of most actors her age, she seems more interested in following in the footsteps of New Hollywood greats like Susan Sarandon or, if her <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/10/sydney-sweeney-barbarella-remake-sony-pictures-1235141900/">upcoming <em>Barbarella </em>remake</a> is any indication, Jane Fonda, taking fascinatingly weird roles that often ask for more than just glamour and drama. And it’s working.</p>
<p id="QLm3wm"><small><em>Immaculate</em></small><small> is in theaters on March 22.</small></p>
https://www.polygon.com/24099874/immaculate-review-sydney-sweeney-nun-movieAusten Goslin2024-03-12T11:00:00-04:002024-03-12T11:00:00-04:00Blade Runner RPG moves the story forward with a bite-sized boxed set
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<img alt="A detective sits, gun in hand, on the other side of a Voight-Kampff Machine in cover art for Blade Runner TTRPG’s Fiery Angels case file." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IHzODd0BcaSV5ugu9Y4ZMxUnm9I=/0x0:3000x1688/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73201008/BR_FieryAngels_Cover_Art_cropped.0.jpg" />
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<p>The perfect blend of thematic adventure and immersive props</p> <p id="3tNrom">Free League’s <a href="https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23507498/blade-runner-the-role-playing-game-review"><em>Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game</em></a> came out of the gate strong in 2022 with a fabulous core rulebook and a stellar starter set, both of which we’ve heaped praise on here at Polygon. And we’re not alone in our celebration of Free League’s work, which received <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23815466/ennie-awards-2023-best-game-vaesen-linda-codega">multiple industry awards</a>. But I think that the newest boxed set, <em>Case File #2: Fiery Angels</em>, might be my favorite piece yet, mainly because it makes me feel like Harrison Ford from page one.</p>
<p id="b9wTZg">[<strong>Ed. note: </strong>What follows contains light spoilers for the opening moments of <em>Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game - Case File #02: Fiery Angels</em>.]</p>
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<img alt="An owl with one red eye looking into the camera." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/N3l8WXwEJHxArVgpulsrSUGcP5Q=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25329978/Fiery_Angels_Interior_Art_1.jpg">
<cite>Image: Free League Publishing</cite>
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<p id="SNbIvy">While <em>MythBuster</em>s alum Adam Savage has long been the champion of <em>Blade Runner </em>nerds thanks to his passion for <a href="https://youtu.be/ITiJkdL5QEQ?si=UHqHeIbyK_EylNTj">Rick Deckard’s powerful sidearm</a>, I’ve always been a bit partial to the mysterious <a href="http://goldenarmor.com/voightkampff/2017/11/1/blade-runner-voight-kampff-machine.html">Voight-Kampff machine</a>. While this boxed set doesn’t come with one, you can almost hear it buzzing and whirring between the lines of <em>Fiery Angels</em>’ softcover adventure booklet, which kicks off right in the middle of a high-stakes “empathy test” inside the LAPD Tower. Naturally, things go about as well as they do in the films, with the suspect leaping to his feet and throwing detectives around like cordwood. After the coroner carts away the corpse(s), it’s up to the players to solve the mystery of where the replicant came from. What results is a tight, four-to-six-session adventure that suits the source material just about perfectly.</p>
<p id="MadQb6">True to form, Free League’s production is excellent, with lots of moody art, characterful mugshots, and a handful of maps that evoke the look of CRT screens. There’s even a big manila envelope to hold all the evidence. It’s the same kind of quality that’s gone into its other lines, including <a href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/games/vaesen/"><em>Vaesen</em></a> and <a href="https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/23632384/walking-dead-universe-preview-interview-ttrpg-kickstarter-launch-date-price-free-league"><em>The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game</em></a>.</p>
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<img alt="A render of the goodies inside Blade Runner Case File #02, Fiery Angels. They include mugshots, maps, and an in-universe newspaper broadsheet." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Tw_bONFeeTJ1DpHJYnDBeLjZ3iU=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25329985/BR_firery_angels_mockup_content.jpg">
<cite>Image: Free League Publishing</cite>
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<p id="WNWIdw">Best of all, however, is that this case file and the original that launched with the starter set in 2022 are connected, with the promise of another case file dropping before long. So while you may not have the time for a weekly game of <em>Blade Runner</em> that spans years, you can be assured of perhaps 10 to 12 great sessions of play total, supported by top-tier materials in a setting your players should already be familiar with.</p>
<p id="ffyyYF"><a href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/shop/blade-runner-rpg/fiery-angels/"><em>Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game - Case File #2: Fiery Angels</em></a> is available now as a digital file, granted in advance of the physical release which arrives at <a href="https://www.gama.org/page/FLGSlocator">friendly local game stores</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Free-League-Publishing-Stand-Alone-Roleplaying/dp/9189765354/?tag=polygon05-20" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">online</a> on April 2.</p>
<p id="0sjhdR"><small><em>Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game - Case File #2: Fiery Angels</em></small><small> was reviewed using a retail copy provided by Free League Publishing. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find </small><a href="https://www.polygon.com/pages/ethics-statement"><small>additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here</small></a><small>.</small></p>
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https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/24094815/blade-runner-rpg-case-file-fiery-angels-reviewCharlie Hall2024-03-09T01:00:00-05:002024-03-09T01:00:00-05:003 Body Problem is the kind of TV epic we need
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<img alt="A woman floating in front of three celestial bodies (ahem) in 3 Body Problem" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rgmwz7leFD-WuxURe86i1mT-51k=/392x0:3116x1532/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73193554/3_Body_Problem_n_S1_E3_00_34_33_04RC.jpg_3_Body_Problem_n_S1_E3_00_34_33_04RC.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Image: Netflix</figcaption>
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<p>Everyone wanted a Game of Thrones clone except the Game of Thrones showrunners, who did us one better</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="TSVLqX">When <a href="https://www.polygon.com/tv/2019/6/3/18634311/game-of-thrones-review-full-tv-series-hbo"><em>Game of Thrones</em> ended in May 2019</a>, the hunt was well underway for a series that could match its blockbuster scale. HBO <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23680618/game-of-thrones-hedge-knight-dunk-egg-series-hbo">was already talking spinoffs</a> <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24062273/game-thrones-canceled-long-night-prequel-spinoff-first-look-naomi-watts">with George R.R. Martin</a>, while <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23809084/witcher-season-4-release-date-cast-news-liam-hemsworth">Netflix’s <em>The Witcher</em></a>, <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23688759/mandalorian-season-3-finale-review-too-much">Disney’s <em>The Mandalorian</em></a>, <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23873497/foundation-season-2-finale-ending-apple-tv-plus-interview">Apple’s <em>Foundation</em></a>, <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24086786/halo-tv-series-rings-great-journey-master-chief-boring">Paramount Plus’ <em>Halo</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23404277/lord-rings-power-istar-sauron-gandalf-finale">Amazon’s mega-budgeted gambit</a> on a <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23414847/rings-power-season-1-review">Lord of the Rings prequel bubbled</a> at various stages of development and production. Five years later, all the shows exist — but there’s no clear champion. Even reactions to <a href="https://www.polygon.com/house-of-the-dragon">HBO’s prequel, <em>House of the Dragon</em></a>, were more golf-clap acclaim than calls of the second coming of a franchise.</p>
<p id="TM5X1V">What the wannabe successors proved (that everyone seemed to know at the time except IP-hungry executives?) is that <em>Thrones</em>’ secret wasn’t scale, but substantive drama. A great show needs characters with big questions and big goals, but down-to-earth emotions. The balance of a continent could hinge on valiant knights and ancient prophecy and dragon battles as long as when those involved got mad, it felt like actual people getting mad. For all the finale-related flack, <em>Thrones</em> showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were afforded the time and space to adapt the human side of Martin’s sprawling narrative as well as its set-pieces. So it’s no surprise that while the rest of Hollywood chased tentpoles, Benioff and Weiss set their boyhood dreams of making a Star Wars movie aside (phew, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/3-body-problem-benioff-weiss-netflix-thrones-interview-1235783117/">crisis averted</a>) to cash their chips on a deal where they could demand time and space and quality work that didn’t involve swordplay. </p>
<p id="Nhl6sq">And they actually did it: Teaming up with veteran TV writer Alexander Woo (<em>The Terror </em>season 2), <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24030600/3-body-problem-trailer-netflix-release-date">their new Netflix series <em>3 Body Problem</em></a>, like <em>Thrones</em>, feels epic in scale while probing the messiness of human instinct. Movies like <em>Interstellar </em>and <em>Solaris</em> ventured into deep space to confront our innate spirituality, but <em>3 Body Problem</em> season 1 sticks close to home to the benefit of its characters, who juggle romantic relationships and work-life stress and impending doom. Still, there is <em>something</em> extraterrestrial out there in the universe, a cosmic unknown. Benioff, Weiss, and Woo treat that promise like a chemical pipetted into a petri dish. Just a few drops of knowledge cause an instant reaction with consequences that will only be felt hundreds of years in the future. </p>
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<img alt="A bearded man wears a highly reflective futuristic VR device that reflects the image of the character Jin in 3 Body Problem" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UdBG3MdUo3MqsuxqjquMpWbALlg=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25325945/3_Body_Problem_n_S1_E2_00_24_27_06R.jpg_3_Body_Problem_n_S1_E2_00_24_27_06R.jpg">
<cite>Image: Netflix</cite>
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<p id="nHPlxR">The showrunner trio adapts Liu Cixin’s famed Remembrance of Earth’s Past science fiction trilogy with both reverence and an eye toward storytelling economics. The core drama of <em>3 Body Problem</em> season 1, focused on a set of physicists out to understand what the hell is going on in the universe, weaves together people, places, and things from across all three books in order to be propulsively paced while easily digested. Die-hard readers may miss Liu’s dense “far out, man”-core style, but the pillar moments remain. Early episodes bounce from China’s Cultural Revolution to present-day London to virtual reality landscapes that hold the key to greater mysteries. The prickly politics of solving Earth’s perilous future simmer across timelines. Benioff, Weiss, and Woo don’t dumb any of it down as they tear through the plot, relying on genre conventions to keep it all watchable. (British mysteries like <em>Broadchurch</em> and <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23737410/happy-valley-season-3-sarah-lancashire-catherine-cawood"><em>Happy Valley</em></a> feel as much part of the show’s DNA as any sci-fi series.) </p>
<p id="kiqohI">Perhaps a 10- or 12-episode season would have made room for deeper character work, but the writers are pros at making every line of dialogue illustrative of their characters’ deeper motivations, and every silent gesture — staring at the stars, gasping at equations, even watching a kid play Mortal Kombat — speaks volumes. Unlike recent Netflix adaptations that have crammed long narratives into uncompromising run times by <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24079131/netflix-avatar-last-airbender-filler-episode-tv-shows">removing all downtime “filler,”</a> <em>3 Body Problem</em> is full of humanity’s quirks. The show has religious zealots, anxious nerds, quiet romantics, and Benedict Wong as a no-bullshit cop. There is a lot of mumbo-jumbo about quantum physics and gravitational interaction, but also one of the best on-screen meet-my-family awkward dinner dates in recent memory.</p>
<p id="eI7cna">Doing <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/threebodyproblem/comments/rl7p0a/who_is_the_lord/">the Lord</a>’s work is actor Jess Hong, a relative newcomer and the nexus of all of <em>3 Body Problem</em>’s narrative strands. In a cast full of <em>Game of Thrones</em> veterans and big-screen talent like Wong and Eiza González (<em>Baby Driver</em>, <em>Godzilla vs. Kong</em>), Hong takes on the burden of making all of the show’s otherworldly turns feel totally natural. Whether her character, Jin, is sipping a beer and making pub chat or navigating the immersive third level of the least fun virtual puzzle game ever invented, she reflects an authentic reality that’s increasingly tested by the show’s oddities. <em>3 Body Problem</em> ultimately questions whether we deserve the planet we have so often fucked up. Hong’s Jin, in all her ups and downs, glimmers with the kind of humanity that we want to believe in. </p>
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<img alt="Jess Hong as Jin wearing Victorian era clothing and holding up an apple in a throne room" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vbjzmEB8YJNKVV9DutwBYcvDXhM=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25325946/3BP_103_Unit_03306RC.jpg_3BP_103_Unit_03306RC.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Ed Miller/Netflix</cite>
<figcaption>Jess Hong as Jin</figcaption>
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<p id="FDFI6x">It really helps that Netflix didn’t skimp on <em>3 Body Problem</em>, which, for all its character drama, goes big when it needs to go big. Benioff and Weiss’ clout has bought them the kind of top-tier production value that I thought only David Fincher commanded; flashbacks to the 1960s/’70s China feel rich in detail, while scenes set in the present-day drama have a refined look, rather than the cheap digital sheen that’s plagued so many post-Fincher Netflix projects. Anyone haunted by awful renderings of VR in movies and TV will be relieved by the show’s intentionally uncanny, often fantastical digital worlds that look like actual Unreal Engine survival-game backdrops. And when <em>3 Body Problem</em> kicks into a high sci-fi gear, the show gets truly mind-bending — and often gnarly. The giddy provocateurs who orchestrated the Red Wedding are absolutely at the helm of this series.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="ygccXf">I’m a little in awe of <em>3 Body Problem</em>. Liu’s books are like a character study of humanity itself; there is inherently too much to chew on. But Benioff, Weiss, and Woo came ready to cook. Their adaptation is gripping from the start and already prioritizing the pieces needed for a coherent endgame. From the trilogy’s pages of information they’ve carved out a visual story, dazzling and frightening. There are nits to pick from episode to episode, leaps in logic that may not stand up to scrutiny, but it’s a show that, unlike the <em>Game of Thrones</em> imitators, swept me up. Most of those shows settled on escapism. <em>3 Body Problem</em> feels like a true escape, an excuse to wonder about the vastness of the cosmos from the comfort of the couch and wonder, <em>What if?</em> </p>
<p id="YAVCdT"><small><em>3 Body Problem</em></small><small> premieres on Netflix on March 21.</small></p>
https://www.polygon.com/24094854/3-body-problem-review-spoiler-freeMatt Patches2024-03-08T10:00:00-05:002024-03-08T10:00:00-05:00Star Wars: Unlimited can make you a deck builder overnight
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<img alt="An assortment of cards from the Luke Skywalker starter deck near several kyber crystals and a lightsaber." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/A4sjRJvaBo3vweuzpS2fRnxdWzw=/0x0:3000x1688/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73191545/star_wars_unlimited_cover_image.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon</figcaption>
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<p>These may be the droids that you, angry Disney Lorcana fan, are looking for</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="qMk8VJ">My biggest beef with trading card games, a genre now in its fourth decade of existence, is just how hard it is to get ahold of the damned cards. The challenge of searching inside random packs is obvious, of course, but two other obstacles loom large. On one side of the spectrum, you have newer games like <a href="https://www.polygon.com/disney-lorcana"><em>Disney Lorcana</em></a>,<em> </em>where sometimes there just aren’t enough cards being manufactured to meet demand. On the other, you have more established games like <a href="https://www.polygon.com/mtg-magic-the-gathering"><em>Magic: The Gathering</em></a>, where the very best cards in a set can only be found in quantity on the secondary market. That’s why fairly mid <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2020/5/28/21266763/magic-the-gathering-commander-origins-elder-dragon-highlander-alaska-menery">Commander</a> decks can run you, at minimum, a couple hundred dollars each.</p>
<p id="xf0M73">So, what if you just… didn’t need as many cards to play in the first place?</p>
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<p id="j1HNBP">The more that I learn about <a href="https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/24092287/dune-ccg-lessons-for-disney-lorcana-mtg-star-wars-unlimited">TCG history</a>, the more I find that design decisions — fundamental principles laid down at a game’s inception — play just as big a role in card availability later on as manufacturing bottlenecks or artificially created market pressures. <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23998857/star-wars-unlimited-tcg-deck-building-preview-han-chewy-boba-fett-decks"><em>Star Wars: Unlimited</em></a>, which launches today into a resurgent TCG marketplace, is designed with this in mind. By reducing the number of cards needed to construct a competitive deck from 60 to 50, the game becomes more affordable to own at the start. Additionally, the cards themselves form highly modular blocks that can be used to quickly build different decks, which makes <em>the rest</em> of the cards in the game so much fun to chase after. So to me, it’s the perfect mix: a game that respects my wallet by allowing me to play with fewer cards, and one that respects my time by making those cards easy to plug and play into different decks.</p>
<p id="EvgegR">The secret to <em>Unlimited</em>’s remarkably concise launch set, titled <em>Spark of Rebellion</em>, is something called an “aspect.” Here’s how it works: Rather than different mana colors like in <em>Magic</em>, cards in <em>Unlimited</em> are assigned aspects — blue for Vigilance, green for Command, red for Aggression, yellow for Cunning, gold for Heroism, and purple for Villainy. Most cards will only have one aspect, and when you’re sorting through a box of boosters, those will be your biggest stacks of cards. Let’s call these cards the <em>core</em> of a given aspect.</p>
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<img alt="Ezra Bridger, Gamorrean Guard, and Bossk cards." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nPGwGYfHBEULt3trL7fOwG-l1N8=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25321287/B88A9865.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon</cite>
<figcaption>Cards with the Cunning aspect fall into three main categories. The <em>Star Wars: Unlimited </em>two-deck starter set also comes with two handy instructional paper playmats. They have a poster of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader on the back, so you can pin them up if you like.</figcaption>
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<p id="iV22L8">Outside the core are also multi-aspect cards. The bulk of Cunning cards, for instance, just have one aspect. However, you also get a second and third stack of Cunning cards, each one about half as tall as the core stack. One will be Cunning <em>and</em> Heroism, while another will be Cunning <em>and</em> Villainy. All three work off each other, so while you can only choose Heroism or Villainy as a secondary aspect when building a deck, you can still use the core of Cunning-only cards for either stack.</p>
<p id="4E5M0H">The game gets even more modular with its approach to combat. Units in <em>Unlimited</em> fight either on the ground or in space, and those two lanes of combat almost never intersect. So to build a balanced deck, you’ll also need to have a good mix of ground and space forces across both types. Sprinkle in a few big-ticket items, and you’re off to the races.</p>
<p id="zS7DaO">Here’s where Fantasy Flight Games’ design chops really come to the fore: To make a deck of cards, you first need to select a leader and give them a base of operations. Together, these two cards give your deck its personality. They also clearly show what aspect color cards belong in that deck; your leader contributes two of those aspect colors, and their base contributes the third. Together, these three colors become your deck’s identity. Once you’ve selected a leader and a base, all you need to do is find the stacks of cards in your collection that match those colors, plug in the most potent space and ground modules from those stacks, and you’re ready to rock. Honestly, once you get a booster box sorted, putting a deck together feels almost like Legos.</p>
<p id="eHE0rL">The emphasis on easy deck building extends to, and is complemented by, <em>Unlimited</em>’s iconic IP. As an example, you might find that the unit card for Ezra Bridger from <em>Star Wars: Rebels</em> has both a yellow and a gold aspect icon, meaning he’s both Cunning, Heroic, and allied with the Rebellion — which all checks out. Bounty hunter Bossk, on the other hand, is yellow (Cunning) and purple (Villainy), making him Imperial thanks to that one time we saw him chase after Han Solo on behalf of Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Jabba the Hutt’s Gamorrean Guards aren’t taking sides; they’re just yellow (Cunning).</p>
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang"><aside id="Cev8Pb"><q>The emphasis on easy deck building extends to, and is complemented by, <em>Unlimited</em>’s iconic IP.</q></aside></div>
<p id="uIWDXq"><em>Unlimited </em>also features a selection of cards that <em>only</em> include Heroism or Villainy aspects — stuff like TIE fighters and probe droids on the Imperial side, and X-wings and Rebel Pathfinders on the Rebel side. There’s even <em>another</em> short stack of cards that have no aspect at all, and these are your true multipurpose filler cards that can find a home in literally any deck. By mixing and matching cards from all these different aspects, there’s plenty of flexibility — even within a single booster box — to create synergies and strategies across multiple decks. Not happy with a deck? Fine! Those blocks can easily be pulled apart and then used to build other decks.</p>
<p id="sGsXny">It’s also worth repeating that Fantasy Flight has also helpfully reduced the number and type of cards that are needed to build a deck in the first place. Instead of the 60-card standard common in games like <em>Magic</em> and <em>Lorcana</em>, <em>Unlimited</em> only requires 50 for a legal deck. Additionally, you can only have at most three (not the genre-standard maximum of four) of any given card inside that deck. Both design features mean you’ll need fewer cards overall to build decks.</p>
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<img alt="An assortment of cards, including Jyn Erso, Iden Versio, Grand Inquisitor, and Boba Fet. In the center is Jedha City, a stunt base with less health than the rest." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/T8TaTnSeFHRqx8vAYk7NIK2ZRj0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25321294/B88A9869.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Charlie Hall/Polygon</cite>
<figcaption>Leaders and bases from <em>Star Wars: Unlimited - Spark of Rebellion</em>.</figcaption>
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<p id="7AUV3K">So, with just a single box of 24 booster packs, each with 16 cards, I was able to quickly build three viable decks just by sorting out the cards and smooshing a few piles together — and I’m pretty sure there’s a few more in there I could build as well. Best of all, the experience of cracking open those packs was a lot of fun, since each one includes both a leader and a base card right on top. There was literally a friendly face from the Star Wars canon waiting for me every time I opened a pack, ready to inspire more deck building.</p>
<p id="WaDhRy">True to its name, however, <em>Unlimited</em> also refuses to say no to players who don’t like these rules. Can you put cards into your deck that don’t match the aspect of either your leader or their base? Sure. You’ll just have to pay more resources for them when you bring them from your hand onto the table. Can you swap out that bog-standard leader and their boring little base, trading things like hit points and other useful features for wild, one-time-use abilities? Yes, you can. In fact, those more glass-cannon-style leaders and bases are more rare, so they’re tougher to find in booster packs. Would you like to have more than 50 cards in your deck? That’s a thing you can do, says Fantasy Flight. But don’t say they didn’t warn you when the right ones don’t turn up when you need them.</p>
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<aside id="utg1zS"><div data-anthem-component="readmore" data-anthem-component-data='{"stories":[{"title":"Star Wars: Unlimited is available starting today. Here’s where to buy it","url":"https://www.polygon.com/deals/24092536/star-wars-unlimited-tcg-accessories-where-to-buy"}]}'></div></aside><p id="uwIdLi"><em>Star Wars: Unlimited</em> is an extremely impressive game from a mechanical perspective, and that’s overlooking the stellar original art that draws from all across the canon, including places like <em>Rebels</em> and <em>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</em>. I feel like it’s teaching me the skills I need to learn just by opening up packs of cards and sorting them out, which is not something I’m used to with other card games. In fact, <em>Spark of Rebellion</em> feels both more engaging and more lively than <em>Disney Lorcana </em>did at launch. </p>
<p id="8PbQHj">It also feels more complete.</p>
<p id="mHs4ba">Don’t take that as a knock against <em>Lorcana</em>. Again, it comes down to the game’s design. Where <em>Lorcana</em> seems to be doling out new pieces of a much larger game with each new set of cards, this first dose of <em>Unlimited</em> feels like it’s shown me most of the tricks it has up its sleeve already. What I’m hoping is that while <em>Lorcana</em> gets wider, its sibling <em>Star Wars: Unlimited</em> gets more complex, because both are perfectly viable ways to build a trading card game for the long run.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="5U0xQ9">The first set for <em>Star Wars: Unlimited</em>, <em>Spark of Rebellion</em>, is out now. The next, titled <em>Shadows of the Galaxy</em>, is expected in July. Fantasy Flight says it has already wrapped the design of the next four sets after that — and it has plans for releases all the way out to 2027. </p>
<p id="0sjhdR"><small><em>Star Wars: Unlimited</em></small><small> was reviewed using pre-release retail products provided by Fantasy Flight Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find </small><a href="https://www.polygon.com/pages/ethics-statement"><small>additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here</small></a><small>.</small></p>
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https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24086008/star-wars-unlimited-tcg-reviewCharlie Hall2024-03-07T20:02:00-05:002024-03-07T20:02:00-05:00Imaginary is a mess of a horror movie, and not in the fun way
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<img alt="DeWanda Wise as Jessica and Pyper Braun as Alice in Imaginary sit at a table outside" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KGYJjzcBCQjj2I3lSatRLVdlvsE=/0x188:3600x2213/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73190541/imaginary_unit_230526_00669rc.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo: Parrish Lewis/Lionsgate</figcaption>
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<p>There are real teddy bears scarier than Blumhouse’s latest movie</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="EQmIhx">It’s hard to know where to start in describing how bad <em>Imaginary </em>is. The new horror movie from Blumhouse and director Jeff Wadlow (<em>Kick-Ass 2</em>) starts with the simple but promising premise of a haunted stuffed animal and a malicious imaginary friend, but its bland characters, muddy storytelling, and lack of scares leave behind a movie more lifeless than a teddy bear with no stuffing.</p>
<p id="OByWfT"><em>Imaginary</em>’s mess of a story begins with a woman named Jessica (<em>She’s Gotta Have It</em> and <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23339787/jurassic-world-dominion-directors-cut-extended-version-changes-deleted-scenes"><em>Jurassic World Dominion</em></a>’s DeWanda Wise) and her new husband, Max (Tom Payne), waking up after one of Jessica’s recurring nightmares. She’s being chased through a long hallway by a giant spider, who also happens to be the main villain in the children’s books she writes. The couple quickly decide that it’s time for them and Max’s two kids from a previous marriage, teenage Taylor (Taegen Burns) and much younger Alice (Pyper Braun), to move into Jessica’s childhood home, in hopes that the familiar setting will cure her of her nightmares. Max’s kids aren’t too happy about the move, though it isn’t quite clear how far they’re going or what their specific objection is.</p>
<p id="j6ZdvP">It isn’t really clear whether we’re supposed to believe Jessica wants to get along with her new stepdaughters, or if her rudeness to them is an accidental problem of the script and the performance. Either way, after a few days in the house, Jessica ignores Alice by sneaking out of the house during a game of hide-and-seek in order to take a work call, leaving Alice to explore the basement and find Chauncey the creepy teddy bear.</p>
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<img alt="DeWanda Wise in Imaginary stands in a shadowy room wearing a yellow dress with stains on it" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/y4AGeV8o4SecLYhvce-anTW2L3A=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25323419/imaginary_unit_230623_00482rc2_cropc2v1.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Parrish Lewis/Lionsgate</cite>
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<p id="BXupxo">Chauncey quickly becomes Alice’s new imaginary friend, who she talks to constantly and takes with her everywhere. This part of the plot strongly evokes <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23540740/m3gan-movie-review-release-date-cast"><em>M3GAN</em></a>, without ever getting near that movie’s knowing sense of fun. All this setup happens by about 10 minutes into the movie, and it’s also where the coherent details of the plot end.</p>
<p id="CKkEML">[<strong>Ed. note:</strong> The rest of this story contains significant spoilers for <em>Imaginary</em>. The good news is, reading about them is much more fun than sitting through all 104 minutes of the movie.]</p>
<p id="Dd8lNb">Chauncey’s arrival should also usher creepiness into <em>Imaginary</em>, but the movie gets so diverted by trying to piece together a story out of its myriad meaningless plot threads that it doesn’t have much time to dedicate to actual horror. In one scene, for instance, the children’s biological mother shows up at Jessica’s house without warning, attacks Jessica, reveals that she seems to psychically know there’s something evil in the house, gets arrested, then disappears for the entire rest of the movie. This scene is never brought up again.</p>
<p id="ritJ18">Shortly after that, Max just leaves his children with their new, clearly not up-to-the-task stepmom so he can go on a seemingly indefinite tour with his band. There’s also a creepy neighbor who just happens to have a fully illustrated academic textbook on imaginary friends that seems tailor-made for a lazy exposition scene. The movie even throws in two separate child-abuse plotlines that it eventually just shrugs off when they aren’t useful anymore. </p>
<p id="6sr2gi">It’s tempting to try to read into this labyrinth of digressions to try to find some kind of meaning or intention, but <em>Imaginary </em>never makes that feel worthwhile. There isn’t a single character in the movie who feels worth rooting for, and the performances are entirely devoid of charisma. The script, written by Wadlow, Jason Oremland, and Greg Erb, is full of wooden dialogue that’s stiff and often feels almost completely nonsensical. Characters sometimes introduce new information like it’s a fact the audience has known forever.</p>
<p id="Wd1lXV">At other times, they treat seemingly obvious plot points like major, unguessable reveals — like when we find out that Chauncey once belonged to Jessica. None of these plot threads ever amount to much, and most of them are just left dangling by the end of the movie. If the filmmakers don’t care about them, why should we? </p>
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<img alt="A young girl played by Pyper Braun sits at the top of the stairs next to a teddy bear while an ominous shadowy figure lurk behind her in Imaginary" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ltR7JJKMKbrtuZnSjd3Wr6MDV8o=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25323409/imaginary_unit_230531_00362rc2.jpg">
<cite>Photo: Parrish Lewis/Lionsgate</cite>
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<p id="WJj9HR">But as with any horror movie, most of this disaster could be overlooked if only the story was scary. Instead, that’s where its failures become most apparent. <em>Imaginary </em>doesn’t bring a single original idea to the horror genre. It’s entirely paint-by-numbers filmmaking that never even manages to create tension, let alone fear. Characters look under beds while the cloying score brings in a swell of strings to beg us to feel something. Chauncey moves on his own a time or two, and even transforms into a monstrous bear, but the scenes are lit so badly that the effect just looks cheap and underbaked rather than remotely terrifying. Watching sequences this rote is soul-crushing for a horror fan, and they make the moments where the movie slows down for its next attempt at a scare feel like they drag on for ages. </p>
<p id="bRbkx8">The one briefly interesting sequence comes in the final third of the movie, when Alice has been tricked into visiting the world of the imaginary friends, and Jessica and Taylor have to rescue her. This world floats in darkness, and its only solid ground is a checkerboard floor in an endless hallway of doors. Sections of the world form staircases to nowhere, dead ends that drop into an abyss, and doors that seem to float upside down.</p>
<p id="CaipSb">None of these visuals are wholly original — they take aim at the middle ground between <em>Twin Peaks</em>’ <a href="https://twinpeaks.fandom.com/wiki/Red_room?wikia-footer-wiki-rec=true">Red Room</a> and a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcWxQUMLsLA"><em>Scooby-Doo</em> chase scene</a>, without any of the fun that combination implies. But even without originality, it’s far and away the best visual of the movie. Sadly, for most of their time in this world, the characters just charge blindly into doors and end up in the same boring rooms we’ve seen in the rest of the movie, each one shot essentially the same as it was in the real world, just a little bit darker. </p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="823ORZ"><em>Imaginary </em>didn’t have a high bar to clear. In a year that’s been lacking interesting horror movies so far, with the other Blumhouse entry <a href="https://www.polygon.com/24030612/night-swim-review-baseball-wyatt-russell-ending"><em>Night Swim</em></a> as the only real bright spot, all this movie ever really needed to be was some silly fun with a few good scares. Instead, it gets lost in a maze of awful storytelling and frustrating characters, all without offering anything more than the stock-standard horror tropes that have been <a href="https://www.polygon.com/23739161/boogeyman-review-stephen-king-dark-tower">done better</a> in a million other movies. </p>
<p id="wdJVDO"><small><em>Imaginary </em></small><small>is in theaters on March 8.</small></p>
https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24093592/imaginary-review-horror-movie-blumhouse-teddy-bear-chaunceyAusten Goslin2024-03-06T15:00:00-05:002024-03-06T15:00:00-05:00The Thaumaturge is an ambitious, compelling RPG that’s a diamond in the rough
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<img alt="Protagonist Wiktor Szulski standing next to a salutor bathed in red light. " src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sKVTwCQme72HVy8-vu3vDjV-jRM=/0x0:4181x2352/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73187147/thaumaturge_key_art.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Image: Fool’s Theory/11 bit studios</figcaption>
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<p>Real-world history meets Slavic mythology</p> <p class="p--has-dropcap p-large-text" id="Ln90fh"><em>The Thaumaturge</em> exists in an alternate 1905 Warsaw, where I can’t go anywhere without a couple of soldiers trying to mug me for my nice warm boots, and making matters worse, I’m playing an exhausted-looking guy who keeps talking to himself. This RPG world doesn’t have the same immediate appeal as a <a href="https://www.polygon.com/gaming/23850889/games-like-baldurs-gate-3-best-rpgs-play">fantasy realm like <em>Baldur’s Gate 3</em>’s Faerun</a>, but once I start digging, I find a treasure trove of great writing and compelling choices.</p>
<p id="avV1ss">The game starts with a short tutorial that introduces us to Wiktor Szulski, our prideful protagonist. Wiktor is a Thaumaturge, a mage who invokes ancient rites to bind spectral entities and cryptids known as salutors to his will. He’s also kind of an asshole; the only people he’s even close to are his beloved sister and his new pal Rasputin. (Yes, <em>that</em> Rasputin.) While the tutorial takes place in a small village, allowing the player to figure out Wiktor’s skills in a low-pressure environment, before long I’m headed to Warsaw to investigate a mystery with much bigger stakes.</p>
<p id="N84hgn">Whenever a game throws a bunch of proper nouns and mechanics at me, there’s always the risk that I miss something. Thankfully, Fool’s Theory, the developer of <em>The Thaumaturge</em>, does a good job of introducing concepts naturally. This is the kind of game I was able to blitz through in a few long sessions because I was always eager to talk to one more person, find one more conclusion, solve one more quest.</p>
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<img alt="A terrible monster known as a salutor attacks a man. The creature is eyeless, but has a maw of teeth, human arms and hands, and garb of hooks and chains." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i0sYgEioWN8grK5YHY1TwSDOd1E=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25320217/ss_f9d7039e5c055717d1d881f3fb61daf5a8ed097b__1_.jpg">
<cite>Image: Fool’s Theory/11 bit studios</cite>
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<p id="6mhTKD">Using Wiktor’s Thaumaturge powers makes up a big part of the game. Certain items leave a Trace, a marker of its owner and a big way to find evidence throughout the story. For instance, during the tutorial, I found a year-old bloodstain smeared on a scorched floor. Simply taking a gander at it is enough to tell me how the person died, the murder weapon, and their emotional state at the time. It’s important that I track these mysteries, too, because in this universe, bad vibes are more than simply an unpleasant experience — they’re downright deadly. Major moral flaws draw in salutors, who then menace the populace. </p>
<p id="KN5XLo">The closest comparison I can draw here is with <a href="https://www.polygon.com/2015/5/13/8533059/the-witcher-3-review-wild-hunt-PC-PS4-Xbox-one">the Witcher</a> universe, another paranormal Polish franchise. Both depict mundane life, with people worried about “normal” concerns like war, economics, and their families, but they also happen to live side by side with monsters and magic. At one point, I have to solve the mystery of why everyone in an inn has gone murderously mad. Sure enough, after a little digging, I find an evil phantom. Geralt and Wiktor could probably get drinks and kvetch about the monster hunting biz.</p>
<p id="L8pgwA">In this universe, Thaumaturges need to bind one salutor to their will to keep them grounded. However, Wiktor’s a little more ambitious than your average Thaumaturge; much like a haggard Ash Ketchum, he wants to catch them all. I eventually end up with half a dozen in my command, and they are visually striking. I start with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upi%C3%B3r">Upyr</a>, a demonic creature from Slavic mythology who looks like a floating skeleton wrapped in heavy furs and that drains an enemy’s health and heals Wiktor. My enemies can’t see him, but I get a kick out of watching him hover behind my enemies with his pitted sword.</p>
<p id="jsHXIS">Here’s where <em>The Thaumaturge</em> opens up to be more like a traditional RPG, with a combat style reminiscent of the <a href="https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/4/17/17243416/yakuza-6-series-ranking-sega-sony-ps4">Yakuza games</a>. Wiktor starts out brawling with his fists, and I can either choose a quick attack or slower but more powerful hits. As I bind more salutors to my will, I can switch them into battle. The Lelek is a weird little bird-thing that inflicts insanity and chaos on my opponents, while the Bukavac is a great chained bone-beast that inflicts stacking damage effects on my foes.</p>
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<img alt="Wiktor, in an isometric view, examines a knife. His Thaumaturge powers give him information on both the emotional state and the intended use of the mic. He is surrounded by a cloud of red power." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/oU9ZjRprxLw0azq9LzjT3UF7Qvo=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25320242/ss_45554d2a1a9c4e96a24b8d4654b8d4ec845e4e56.jpg">
<cite>Image: Fool’s Theory/11 bit studios</cite>
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<p id="Fdk4aR">But while Wiktor is a Thaumaturge, he can’t solve every problem with magic or salutors. He also must serve as a detective. If I find all the evidence I need, I can draw conclusions, which open up new conversation options. I can blunder through situations with blunt force, but if I want the cleanest possible solution, I have to look around. Certain discoveries are locked behind Thaumaturge schools, which I can only unlock through leveling up. There are always choices to be made, and most of them have some kind of drawback.</p>
<p id="oGJytS">This is especially true when it comes to Wiktor himself. He has a “flaw,” a failing so large that it risks drawing in salutors and causing all kinds of trouble. He struggles with pride, so I get lots of conversation options marked with the little pride symbol. A lady asks me to kneel and tie her shoe so she can sneak a private conversation in? I can do so like a gentleman, or I can snap at her for treating me like a lackey. Wiktor is very aware of his pride, and he finds that other people have similar flaws — wrath, greed, and so on. All of these can inspire discontent, violence, and the arrival of more salutors to mess with the innocent populace.</p>
<p id="7cZAii">The more I indulge in my sin of pride, the more conversation options open up down the line. It’s a balancing act between not wanting to be a doormat and not wanting to lose Wiktor entirely to his curse. It’s especially tough to be a kind and patient person in Warsaw.</p>
<p id="o3yhaf">The city is a thriving character of its own, a place of contrasts and conflict. There are fliers in the street encouraging the workers to sign up for labor unions and organize for a nine-hour day posted next to warnings of evil Thaumaturges that must be rooted out, lest they bring devils and despair. The city is held by the Russian tsar, but it’s made up of various people. Jewish merchants trade with Polish townspeople who resent the Russian soldiers watching over their shoulders. A seedy underbelly of crime flourishes, while the rich of the city enjoy ballrooms and banquets. Wiktor is an outsider in Warsaw who views the city with contempt. The city, in turn, treats him with suspicion.</p>
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<img alt="Wiktor speaks with someone in Warsaw, and has the option to speak down to them condescendingly, feeding his sin of Pride." data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FxojI8QTrGruyL9vRRvbsn_8lm0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25320244/ss_ef43b30f94ebaec86460233a5901f976141bb9be.jpg">
<cite>Image: Fool’s Theory/11 bit studios</cite>
</figure>
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<p id="sdcMIE">The game even opens with an acknowledgment of the real-world issues it’s tackling with its storytelling. It reads: </p>
<blockquote><p id="FF2gFs">Fool’s Theory is a team of people with diverse beliefs, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Our goal is to tell mature stories that are meant to be a source of reflection for players. We would like to point out that in creating a game that draws so much inspiration from the past, we could not leave out the portrayal of certain attitudes and views that are rightly considered unacceptable today.</p></blockquote>
<p id="Gn4ULw">There are times when this writing philosophy is jarring; upon arriving in Warsaw, I’m immediately greeted by an agent of the tsar who rants about the enemies of the state. It’s an ugly sentiment, but one that feels real and is grounded in history, and it immediately motivated me to look beyond Wiktor’s selfish concerns and start helping those under the tsar’s malevolent reign.</p>
<p id="1ea3AY">There’s the issue of jank, however, which is to be expected from an ambitious game by a smaller studio. At one point, all of my saves were corrupted by an update, which was a bit of a pain in the keister. I even had to restart the game a few times due to memory issues. On a smaller scale, certain cutscenes feel a little rushed and imprecise, with characters clipping through terrain or suffering from awkward animations. It’s never enough to ruin the vibe, but it can be irritating from time to time.</p>
<p class="c-end-para" id="s3gtlu">That said, <em>The Thaumaturge</em> manages to do a deft job weaving between its supernatural story and the context of its historical setting. Wiktor is an outsider, and his detachment from society means that he can pick a side. I chose to have him back the unions and be a real comrade, but the game has tons of branches — including some where he falls to pride or commits sins that he cannot erase. These are the choices that make <em>The Thaumaturge</em> worth it, even when I’m annoyed by its technical shortcomings. Wiktor’s powers, detective skills, pride, and values are all things that can change the decisions at hand, and when I make a choice, it feels weighty. Since this is an RPG that lasts about 25 hours, I’m already getting amped up to see how a second run changes things. I have the feeling, though, that no matter how hard I try, <em>something</em> is going to go terribly wrong for <em>someone</em>.</p>
<p id="P5Ozhd"><small><em>The Thaumaturge </em></small><small>was released on March 4 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on Windows PC using a pre-release download code provided by 11 bit studios. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find </small><a href="https://www.polygon.com/pages/ethics-statement"><small>additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here</small></a><small>.</small></p>
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https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24091697/the-thaumaturge-rpg-review-pc-xbox-ps5Cass Marshall