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The Joy of Unboxing: Star Wars Imperial Assault Expansions

By December 20, 2017August 28th, 2019Boardgames, Unboxing, Videos

We are the spark, that will light the fire that’ll burn the First Order down.

The Last Jedi movie just came out – so let’s have a Star Wars-themed unboxing: the Return to Hoth and Jabba’s Realm expansions for Imperial Assault!

I saw the new film last week in a lovely old restored community theatre in Hokitika, New Zealand. The room was full, someone help up a green lightsaber as they intro blurb crawled, and everyone cheered. Somehow Star Wars still seems to catch the popular imagination like nothing else, despite the terrible prequels and the endless commercialisation. It alway surprises me a bit because – even though I’m pretty sure I saw the original in a cinema in 1977 at the age of 11 – that kind of obsession with this universe has always passed me by. I like Star Wars, but I’ve always found it a bit bland. Alien and Blade Runner were more my thing.

Anyway, I enjoyed some of the film, and had my head in my hands in despair at other parts. I won’t spoil anything here, but there were a couple of moments that had me gobsmacked at the tonal clunkiness, unnecessary exposition, and silly plotting. But this has been happening to me a lot lately – films that I’ve thought were average or even bad have been getting great reviews. Perhaps I’m just asking too much of film-making these days! The visuals were on the whole great (one weirdly amateurish bit of green-screening aside), I enjoyed some of the wonky humour (though some was too self-referential and self-conscious), and the last half hour was vastly superior to the rest of the film, especially the ‘throne room’ fight, which felt like it suddnely appeared out of another, better film.

When the credits rolled, everyone clapped and cheered though.

Anyway, that ‘mini-review’ aside, here’s an unboxing of two expansions from the Imperial Assault family. It’s a good game and the release of the new app that allows co-op play makes it even better, so I thought I’d snap up some more expansions. They’re good quality, though I’m still very annoyed at the fact you have to buy main characters separately – no Jabba in Jabba’s Realm? Come on! That Rankor though, that’s a beauty.

7 Comments

  • The8thPagan says:

    Yes… Jabba is found in a ‘Villain Pack’. I was disappointed that none of the band and dancers have been made into figures.

    Saw the Last Jedi today and I agree with much of what you say.

    I know you’re less of a fan of the films than I am, but even I’m getting a little jaded. Maybe it’s just a function of getting older… seen a lot of films and it’s the 9th Star Wars I’ve seen.

    I’m getting the same feeling with the Marvel movies to be honest. They started ok, but there’s just so many now…

    Anyway… don’t forget to get the App so you can try the coop version of the game. It’s on Steam, Android and iTunes.

  • The8thPagan says:

    Oops. Sorry, just read the blurb. You have the app.

  • The8thPagan says:

    I skimmed the tutorial mission (clicked on whatever was required without actually playing on a board to get a feel for the app) and played the first scenario which is a bit simplistic (just defeat waves of imperials), but I’m hoping for a bit more sophistication in the rest of the campaign.

    • Dave DuJour says:

      The first Descent app mission is about the same. Just waves of goblins. But later missions and campaigns mix things up quite a bit.

  • Thanks for the unboxing. haven’t seen Last Jedi but will probably go soon before someone spoils it 4 me. Seems everyone wants to talk about it or can’t shut up so might as well get it over with. Unfortunately the app doesn’t include these expansions yet and also the prices went up! Really like the Hoth one.the tank looks cool and it has HK droids and if you’ve played Knights of the Old Republic the opportunity to play with HK47 sounds like fun…. if you like being called a meatbag relentlessly 😉

    https://youtu.be/Vg1gTas7OAA

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