Like the original series, X-Men ‘97has been adapting a variety of comic book storylines from the 90s. Thus far, the likes of Inferno, The Trial of Magneto, and Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly’sNew X-Men run have been brought to life, with varying levels of time and success. The show has a lot of stories it can tell, and one of them may bring the team in conflict with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Who Should Be The New Wolverine? io9 Picks
Speaking to ComicBook, Ross Marquand (who voices Professor X) indicated there was a “real chance” the show gets to adapt Avengers vs. X-Men. Speaking to Captain America’s appearance in the seventh episode “Bright Eyes,” Marquand noted how it could be the first step toward adapting that storyline. “[Rogue] threw [his shield] in the side of a snowy mountain,” he said. “He ain’t gonna find that shield. It’s not like Mjolnir where you can just like pull it back, it’s stuck in that thing. He’s gonna be pissed at Rogue for a while.”
Released in 2012, the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline—from writers and artists like Brian Michael Bendis, Jonathan Hickman, Matt Fraction, Adam Kubert, and Olivier Coipel—was arguably the last big event before Marvel went into its MCU synergy phase. Like the title implies, the two teams went to war over the returning Phoenix Force, which eventually split itself into five pieces that bond with Colossus, Magik, Emma Frost, Namor, and Cyclops. Things eventually end with the Phoenix Force restoring the then-dwindling mutant population, Cyclops as a mutant revolutionary, and Cap forming the Uncanny Avengers to mend fences with mutants.
What makes a potential adaptation interesting in the context of X-Men ‘97 is that it’d how, by design, the X-Men’s POV would take center stage instead of the Avengers like in the comics. The show’s shown how characters like Rogue and Cyclops are fed up with how mutants are currently treated, and how Cap’s “by the book” approach with violent acts against them is unacceptable. If anything, its version of the storyline would be titled X-Men vs. Avengers, and make whatever the late 90s/early 2000s version of the Avengers out to only stick their neck of mutants if they get to look good.
AvX is a big story, and it’d probably be easier (and more fun) to pull off in animation than the movies. Recent episodes have had no problem showing that characters like Scott and Magneto are right in their anger and actions, and one can imagine that it’d find an interesting way to present those viewpoints (and those who are swayed to their side) when they’re influenced by the ever-corrupting power of the Phoenix Force.
X-Men ‘97’s already got a second season secured, and it may have a third under its belt as well. Let us know in the comments how you think it’d do tackling Avengers vs. X-Men, or if it’s even worth doing in the first place.
Owlcat Games continues its work on Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, this time with a patch aimed at rectifying some nagging problems. Patch 1.0.88 contains a multitude of changes, including making skill checks easier across the board. The next major patch will release sometime in January 2024.
Patch 1.0.88 also fixes “a vast majority of broken quests and cutscenes that blocked progression or worked only for specific choices,” made sweeping changes to items and abilities, improved optimization, and tweaked companion quests and responses. This includes fixes to system stability, co-op desync, broken narrative quests, weapon damage, and a particularly tricky ladder that served as a one way trip for the Space Wolf companion Ulfar.
Skill checks are also easier across the board, which is useful for players who lean on lore, persuasion, or medicae checks in their playthroughs. The massive RPG campaign still has some bugs and technical issues that make it difficult to progress: I found myself dismayed when I romanced Heinrix van Calox and found that our dalliance locked him in a “sex mode,” where I couldn’t equip any of his gear or use him in combat. I had to break up with the Inquisition agent to restore his combat potency.
That lingering problem notwithstanding, it’s good to see Owlcat Games continue to polish things up.
Games Workshop retail staff have a rough job, from low pay to consistent unreasonable targets from upper management, so it’s with all the love and respect that I tell you about the animated lad that my 14-year-old friends and I used to make fun of for liberal use of the phrase “If a Space Marine walked in here right now…” It was always accompanied by wildly enthusiastic gesticulation meant to convey the absolute unit-tude of said Space Marines (8 feet tall in Warhammer 40,000’s lore). I bring this up because it perfectly sums up the thorny issue behind marketing these yoked stormtroopers: Space Marines are very expensive for something so small, forcing Games Workshop to make the legend of these tiny plastic soldiers tower over the reality.
And what a legend it is. The Horus Heresy book series currently consists of over 60 fat paperbacks worth of lore. There’s far too much nuance to unpack here, but it’s fair to say that when writers spend that long exploring something, they have to take it quite seriously, especially if they want to keep their readers hooked. To be clear, 40K is a fascinating, fun, creative, vast, and often extremely clever setting. But it’s also — at least as recently as 2021, according to its parent company — explicitly, intentionally satirizing the very faction that the vast majority of its lore seems so fascinated with. “Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be,” wrote the novelist Dawn Powell. As 40K grows and grows, it’s becoming more difficult to deny that the portrayal of the Imperium is at least somewhat aspirational.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
A quick primer: Humanity’s overwhelming presence in the 40K setting takes the shape of the Imperium of Man, where staunch xenophobia, mindless zealotry, and outright hostility toward social or technological progress are among the highest virtues — a literal “cult of tradition”. Ordinary folk live in cramped “Hives,” toiling away until death, at which point they’re repurposed as tasty, nutritious “corpse starch.” The Imperial Guard, humanity’s most numerous military force, is best known for employing the Zapp Brannigan maneuver, i.e., throwing endless bodies at a problem until it sorts itself out. As such, individual human life is less than worthless. Terra’s more elite military are the Space Marines. As 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd is to law enforcement, so are the Space Marines to the concept of the Ubermensch — a grimly satirical warning about the pursuit of perceived physical perfection and ultimate strength.
Of the 36 playable factions in 40K, around half (17) are of the Imperium in some capacity, with a further nine being their direct foil in Chaos, leaving just 10 to split between the multiple nonhuman species that populate this mind-bogglingly huge universe. Sci-fi can vary wildly in flavor, but a unifying thread is that great science fiction is almost insatiably curious. 40K absolutely shines when it mocks the staunch anti-curiosity of its human protagonists. But as the company has gradually grown to value sales over artistic intent, that lack of curiosity too often seems to be adopted by Games Workshop itself.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
This fantastic look at the timeline of 40K, and how it moved from satire to something almost resembling celebration, puts it like this: “As the setting grew more mainstream, Space Marines’ [portrayal] as noble warrior monks became more and more prominent, resulting in a world where these abused, intolerant, mass-murdering child soldiers are only ever portrayed from the Imperium’s point of view,” and, in the vast majority of official artwork, “as genuine heroes.” Even the official website categorizes nonhuman armies as “the Xenos threat.” Look a little closer, and it’s easy to see the inherent satire in images of Primarch Roboute Guilliman with a Christ-like halo of light shining from the background. But unless you know what you’re looking for, this stuff looks suspiciously like the very propaganda that it’s making fun of.
This isn’t to say, of course, that modern-day Games Workshop has lost its sense of satire, and most certainly not its sense of humor. As we’ve seen time and time again in the games industry, shareholders misunderstanding or just straight-up not valuing the creative process is a depressingly prevailing theme — it’s easy for nuance to get crushed under the pursuit of easy profitability. The rule of cool sells plastic, not difficult themes. Plus, 40K is a wargame. In a setting that requires constant conflict, factions that think in absolutes become necessary. But that’s where video games like the recent, excellent CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader come in. It’d be a massive anticlimax to end a game of 40K with a conversation before it even starts, but as the setting is allowed to spread its wings in a new genre, some of that classic satire begins to flourish again.
Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon
40K is, above all else, ridiculous, and Rogue Trader hasfun with it without losing any of the campy grindhouse stuff that grimdark excels at. Characters speak in rich, baroque prose, at once excellently written and almost indecipherable to anyone not already indoctrinated into their bizarre religious neo-feudalism. You don’t even have to leave your own ship to encounter dehumanizing class structure, and each of your erstwhile associates is comically nefarious enough to be the main villain in any other setting. In Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, the evil path requires a deliberate, long attempt to stray into monstrous territory. Here, you can have several crew members executed in the first few hours without breaking character.
Rogue Trader isn’t even the first game to pull this off recently. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, despite a rocky launch, is shaping up as an excellent successor to the Vermintide series, and portrays the horrific satire of existence in 40K’s horrendous hive cities masterfully. Loading screen quotes are such pointed satire you’d have to have accidentally super-glued your eyes shut building models to miss them, with lines like “A small mind is a tidy mind,” “Blessed are the intolerant,” and “Duty is vital, understanding is not.” It seemed only a few short years ago that the glut of Warhammer games felt like a punchline. Now, the scope and breadth these games offer are starting to feel like a better medium to portray the most complete version of 40K than the tabletop game itself.
“In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.” That’s the tagline of Warhammer 40,000, one of the most over-the-top and brutal sci-fi settings around. But even in a merciless, brutal dystopia that grinds its people into dust, some get to enjoy being on the top of the food chain. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader is about the perils and pleasures of being atop that particular hierarchy.
Rogue Traders in 40K are freelance explorers, scouting the far frontiers of the Imperium of Man. It’s a risky career, but it comes with luxurious rewards: agency, freedom, power, and a giant flagship. As the player, I explore a system of the Imperium with a loyal crew of companions, making impactful choices and determining the fate of those around me.
Rogue Trader is a computer role-playing game in the vein of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Pillars of Eternity. I create my custom protagonist, determining stats and bonuses based on my backstory, home world, and so on. I’m then thrust into a high-pressure job interview as a potential heir to a Rogue Trader aboard her flagship. Little do we know that there’s a coup in the works, and traitors aboard the ship. After a deadly struggle against heretics and demons, I ascend to the position of Rogue Trader. I’m the captain now, and I get to decide how to run my ship.
Image: Owlcat Games
This is a vast game, with tons of features you’d expect from a CRPG — companions (each with their own narrative paths and conversation trees), top-down strategic combat, and branching choices that impact the world around you. I get to make choices all day — in fact, that’s part of the gig of a Rogue Trader. Some are more important than others; whenever I get to specific points in the story, I can choose from one of three major paths. Dogmatic choices exult the God-Emperor and loathe the mutant and the witch, the Heretical options pursue corruptive power, and the Ionoclast path is the closest thing we have to modern-day “good guy” morality.
After the events of the tutorial, my beautiful voidship is run down and my staff is struggling. As the newly anointed Rogue Trader, I have to trek around the various planets of the Koronus Expanse to get a new Navigator, fix my ship up, and avoid any major diplomatic incidents with the locals. My voidship is the size of a modern city; I’m as much a governor as a captain, and I have to manage the ship, its cargo, and its many occupants.
In the process of getting back on my feet, I uncover a nefarious cult and a deep conspiracy. It’s not an easy job, but I’m blessed with a handful of companions from the Imperium to help me out. I can call on them to unlock doors or perform other environmental checks, but they come most in handy in combat.
When I meet opposition, it’s deeply satisfying to control my troops in a turn-based battle. Each fight takes place on a grid; it’s very similar to Baldur’s Gate 3 or even XCOM 2. Some positions provide cover, while others are out in the open. Friendly fire is also a very real concern. An arc of auto-fire from a bolter, or a Navigator’s third eye opening, can harm friend as well as foe. My Rogue Trader is a sniper, and she would be lost without her Senechal taking the front lines. There’s a lot of firepower at my disposal, and it’s mostly quite satisfying to use — even if I occasionally shred my poor Senechal with a devastating AOE.
Image: Owlcat Games
I can chat with the companions between battles, learning more about their pasts. Most of them have deep and dark secrets I can uncover with a little time or patience, and they have fascinating stories to tell. Abelard, my Senechal, is a guy who sucks morally but will back me to the absolute hilt. I grew to love hearing about his days in the Imperial Navy, and he was the one guy I felt like I could trust. Augusta, a Sister of Battle, starts as a one-note zealot, but cracks form in that facade when I learn about her past and doubts. Cassia and Pasqal both represent two sub-factions in 40K, and they have lots to share about the Navigators and Tech-Priests.
My absolute favorite companion is Marazhai Aezyrraesh, a dark space elf who feeds off the suffering of sentient beings. He’s cruel, depraved, and an absolute hoot. Yes, he may flay a few too many people for my tastes, but he’s the best companion to bring to a party.
In the grand scheme of things, this is one of the most complete and detailed explorations of the 40K universe you can find. The game is an homage to the Warhammer 40K RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games, including Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy. I spent years as a teenager and young adult poring over these sourcebooks (which Rogue Trader isinspired by), learning more about the tiny details of life in the Imperium. Developer Owlcat Games has paid the same attention to every detail of the Koronus Expanse. I delve into ancient facilities staffed by tech-priests of the Machine God, the hostile xenos city of Commorragh, or massive cities built to honor the God-Emperor of Mankind.
I love the characters, the environments, the writing, the lore, and the flow of battles. But I have concerns with the game’s pacing. By the end of the first chapter, I had leveled up 16 times. Each level offered marginal rewards, like being able to move slightly farther during the character’s turn in combat or having a higher parry chance when being attacked. A slow drip-feed system means each level feels less important, and even though I’m growing stronger, I don’t get that sense of long-term satisfaction.
Image: Owlcat Games
It’s especially frustrating to hit a roadblock like the one at the end of Act 1, where an incredibly tough boss rolls out of nowhere and spanks my crew — and I can’t leave to go grind experience somewhere else. I eventually found out a way to cheese the fight by focusing on my melee fighters’ positioning, but it took far too long banging my head against the wall. The victory tasted like ash in my mouth after all that frustration.
Voidship combat is another aspect that feels clunky and frustrating. Like the squad-based skirmishes, naval encounters are also turn-based, where positioning is ultra important. Space naval battles should feel tense, but instead, I’m mostly annoyed at having to continually rotate my ship and set up my zones of attack. I wish I could delegate these annoyances to my Senechal — to delegate the duties of character leveling and ship combat, the better to appreciate all of the things Rogue Trader is doing so well.
Rogue Trader is a dense, vast game, and much of it has clearly been crafted with love for the expansive lore of the 40K canon. While there are small annoyances and clunky features along the way, the political intrigue, cast of characters, and moral choices have me hooked. For 40K fans, this is a rare treat — a game that digs past the heroic facade of bolters and battles and taps into the grimdark dystopia that makes this particular sci-fi setting so damn compelling.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader will be released on Dec. 7 on Windows PC. The game was reviewed using a pre-release download code provided by Owlcat 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 additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
Rachel Lindsay and Jodi Walker begin today’s Morally Corrupt with a chat about the Bravo news of the week, as well as the announcement of Rachel Leviss’s new podcast (2:25), before moving on to a recap of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 4, Episode 12 (15:55). Then, Rachel and Jodi do a deep dive on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Season, 13 Episode 6 (51:16), before Rachel is joined by Callie Curry to discuss The Real Housewives of Potomac Season 8, Episode 4 (19:30).
Baldur’s Gate 3 has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore to find hidden areas and loot, and sometimes you’ll need to have certain spells or characters on hand to access those tucked-away places. One example of this is Feather Fall, which, on the surface, allows your team to jump long distances without having to worry about taking fall damage. However, if you know where to use it, you can find some hidden secrets within Baldur’s Gate 3’s world.
11 Minutes With Baldur’s Gate 3’s Character Creator
Who can learn Feather Fall?
As a spell, Feather Fall is mostly restricted to the magic users in your party, but certain Rogue and Fighter subclasses can also learn the spell through leveling up. Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard can learn it normally, or you can teach it to the Rogue subclass Arcane Trickster, or Fighter subclass Eldritch Knight.
Screenshot: Larian Studios / Kotaku
If you don’t have anyone who knows the spell on-hand, you can also cast it by using the Scroll of Feather Fall, which is an item you can buy from Arron, the merchant at the Emerald Grove in Act 1. It’s good this item is accessible early, because one of the best uses of Feather Fall is found in the game’s early hours.
What secrets can I access with Feather Fall?
An early place to use Feather Fall is in the Blighted Village in Act 1. While passing through this area, you’ll find a well across from the fast travel point that you can descend down to find an underground cave system. Here you can fight some powerful enemies, though do be aware if you have arachnophobia that they are mostly giant spiders that can teleport. However, you’ll also find a seemingly endless chasm that, if you simply jump down, you’ll fall to your death. But if you cast Feather Fall, you can gracefully reach the bottom and end up in the Underdark.
Screenshot: Larian Studios / Kotaku
You can reach this area normally by progressing the main plot, but unless you go out of your way to find this particular spot, you’ll miss it on your way to your next destination. This section of the Underdark features some high-level enemies like powerful minotaurs and the Bulette boss fight, but also has a camp area where you can find some good loot. It’ll be tough getting there, but it’s one example of how using spells outside of a combat context can open up new paths within Baldur’s Gate 3.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25144368/polygon_warhammer_40k_rogue_trader_lieutenant.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25144354/polygon_warhammer_40k_janris.jpg)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25135215/TaintedStreets_1.png)
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25135302/Lab_1.png)
