Legendary Encounters: The Matrix is another mid-weight deckbuilder from Upper Deck Entertainment that features iconic pop culture. The scenarios closely follow the events of the original Matrix trilogy of films, omitting the recent fourth installment.
In Legendary Encounters: The Matrix, players work together as familiar heroes from the movies, in order to complete a series of objectives. You’ll use a standee to track your position in the Real World or The Matrix. You must recruit allies in the Real World, and do battle in The Matrix.
Legendary Encounters: The Matrix recently released in August 2023, and is available directly from Upper Deck. It supports 1-5 players, and like the Alien counterpart, it features competitive gameplay too.
It was undoubtedly a struggle to break down the Matrix films into the most essential and pragmatic events for a board game. As a result, there are some surprising omissions, such as snubbing the exhilarating highway chase everyone remembers from Reloaded.
However, Legendary Encounters: The Matrix greatly succeeds in translating its selections. They are fast-paced and creative scenarios that emphasize urgency.
For example, the new standee system isn’t just a novelty. Player actions are limited by which world they’re currently in. If you don’t manage your Matrix Row, Agents can clog your way out of the Matrix. Without secure phone lines, you’ll have to pay Recruit if you want to escape to the Real World and…recruit from the Dock.
The hero abilities are also very thematic, and they scale well. Neo is downright powerless in the first scenario from the original film, but later he becomes an absolute juggernaut with healing abilities and strike improvements.
Similarly, the enemies you hope to discover are surely accounted for and flavorful. Minor spoilers ahead—the driller from Revolutions literally destroys Zion piece by piece, and the Twins are elusive as ever. The only miss for me was the climactic battle with Smith at the end of the game, as the clones only stood by in the movie.
The setup and flow of Legendary Encounters: The Matrix is top-notch. It plays more smoothly than many previous Encounters titles, and is only surpassed by Alien, which has remained one of my favorite board games of all time.
With the addition of the standee, it also makes the Encounters line feel even more like a hobby tabletop experience than a card game. This makes it an ideal entry point for fans of The Matrix who don’t normally care for hobby gaming.
I personally hope that The Matrix Resurrections will be adapted later on, just like Alien: Covenant. Although Resurrections was a divisive film, I enjoyed it more than I expected to, and if Legendary Encounters can include the fourth Alien film, it can surely include the fourth Matrix movie.
Final Thoughts
Legendary Encounters: The Matrix is a streamlined, punchy game that imaginatively adapts familiar moments and characters from the films. It adds a lot to the tabletop series, without losing its balance. Its campaign may feel shorter, but the Traitor gameplay does offer more replay value.
Score: 9/10
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