Sleeving, Unsleeving, and Getting Stopped in Unstoppable
Defeat threats and find clever ways to craft sleeved upgrades on the path to defeat a menacing boss with Unstoppable.
One interesting note about my solo games… It’s usually pretty clear which ones were chosen by my husband, as he is a huge fan of sleeving every card possible! I’m the exact opposite, so it was a rather interesting middle ground when I brought Unstoppable to my table. Required sleeving and unsleeving was about to give me a new sort of game experience!
Game Overview
Game Name: Unstoppable
Publication Year: 2025
Designer: John D. Clair
Artists: Many (9 Credited)
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
With a unique sort of double-sided deck, the goal is to progressively defeat threats to level up and defeat a boss. Lots of upgrades and other choices are present for quite an interesting system that rewards paying close attention to what’s on the other side of these special cards!
First Play
March 15, 2025
Complexity
3
Latest Play
March 15, 2025
Expansions
1
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
1
Play Time
35 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
28" x 20"
Low Score
N/A
Sleeving Guide Woes
Prior to playing for the first time, some of these uniquely shaped cards require sleeving. I’m used to this with new arrivals my husband picked out… But this was a lot more.
Although component images were on the opposite page, it was very hard to understand how to find the labeled cards.
Some of the elements were small icons, and I wasn’t really sure if I had anything correctly sleeved. That’s the issue: Most face left or right, so which is right side up in a sleeve?
This was a tedious process that felt like it wasn’t tested with someone new to the game. But I did prevail, thankfully!
No, You Didn’t Prevail
Oh, hold on. As I started to play and saw how the deck was put together to be shuffled, I realized I sleeved over half of the cards upside down. Which may not seem like an issue…
But some cards feature a piece that sticks out above the sleeve, and the shapes are unique. So I had to go through the process an extra time since I wasn’t sure about the guide.
It was my own fault, I’m sure, but I was so busy trying to identify cards that I failed to see how I should have sleeved.
Tedious setup. And for someone who’s happy when this sleeving process is over… Cleanup involves unsleeving! Ugh.
Neat World Setting
Now, I definitely felt like there were some cool things going on here. The setting felt rather unique with the different kinds of planets and pieces of narrative flavor text.
My choice of character was Zephyr, a cybernetic bounty hunter with a feline companion. That was no ordinary junkyard cat, though! Don’t mess with Zephyr. Ha ha!
I enjoyed learning about the system and how there were so many choices about upgrades and adding new cards.
The process of shuffling was anything but easy, though, as some sleeves contained anywhere from 1-4 cards.
Decisions, Decisions
This had some real glimmers of excitement, and I had a few turns when everything came together. I picked up neat upgrades, got to create cool combinations, and leveled up!
Each turn started with a face-down threat card, and I got to choose the helpful side that would then go in my hand.
But this meant that I would have to watch out for an unknown threat down the line. Even cooler: Upgrades were expensive, yet I had insight into what both sides did.
It was pretty cool in general, and I thought I might be able to get past all of my issues with the sleeving and shuffling.
Sleeving… An Old Dilemma and My Thoughts
I’ve talked about sleeved cards a few times before, often in jest because that’s one of the first requests I hear from my husband when a new game arrives! The process isn’t terrible for me, either, as I find it kind of meditative. But shuffling sleeved cards is difficult for me, and I often miss the feel of linen or matte finishes. So I sleeve as few games as I can.
Not that this game does anything drastically different, yet I can’t imagine it would be a good choice for someone new to sleeving cards. I caught card edges a few times and didn’t cause any damage, but strongly disliked how much extra time went into managing these components. The cleanup process was more extensive than I expected it to be, too.
The overhanging edges on most cards make sense for unsleeving, but I do have to point out why my husband likes to sleeve cards: To avoid general damage from wear and tear, including natural oils from hands. It seemed more like the game used sleeves to mash cards together in unique ways… And yet that usual card sleeve protection idea suffered a little bit.
Against the Harbinger
The boss needed a fair amount of damage, which was only possible through the boss cards I had in my deck. As I neared the end of my deck, I wondered where they were…
Stuck together, of course. These don’t have a piece that sticks out of a sleeve. Combine that with a single card compared to the rest, and they tend to clump up at the end.
Another small nitpick: The information under the boss token was important, but was hidden at each space.
The underlying system kept giving me neat actions, though, and I soldiered on, hoping that I could overlook all of this!
Ma’am, You’re Stoppable
And suddenly, I found myself with no way to block a ton of damage. In a second, I was defeated fairly early on.
Did I make strategic mistakes? I’m sure I did: I probably got a little too excited about upgrades and didn’t realize how I was affecting all of the threats. It was a learning game.
But as I started to think about playing again, the process to reset was just a lot. Unsleeve this, sort these, make a pile…
I felt like there were neat card component ideas, yet in practice, this reminded me of my worst experiences of having to sleeve, unsleeve, and re-sleeve an entire game.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: Loss
I was about to add some more damage to the boss, so I wasn’t too upset. Yet the sheer randomness that led to my defeat didn’t feel great. There’s likely an excellent system here for those who don’t mind the constant sleeving and unsleeving, yet I got a few card edges snagged on sleeves and felt like card damage was imminent! Not for me, although I appreciate how different a lot of the ideas are!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
6
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
5
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are some very awesome moments when it comes to using cards or finding neat combinations to try out.
- All of the artwork is excellent and sets the stage for a world setting that has some intriguing elements.
- Figuring out which threat and tactic or ally are paired together is a useful part of planning for optimized turns.
- A sense of progression is present as better cards are added to a deck to create bigger and bigger effects.
- Not a lot of table space is required to play, allowing the action to stay focused within a reasonably sized area.
- Defeating a threat that does damage as a reward provides excellent cascading moments of clearing multiple threats.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Sleeving all of the cards, including some that stick out of the top, can be very tedious and frustrating during setup.
- Although there is a sleeving guide, the rulebook lacks clear visual examples to make the first-time work confusing.
- Losing can happen immediately based on a random and unlucky draw from the deck, which is a bit disheartening.
- Shuffling is not easy to do, and sleeves with a different number of cards inside tend to inadvertently clump together.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Boss
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the Harbinger.
Win at least 1 game as Zephyr.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Unstoppable? Have you had any exciting adventures against the various bosses? I enjoyed parts of my play, and admit that I’m probably someone who wasn’t going to like all of the work with sleeving and unsleeving the cards. At least I had fun! So although I was absolutely stoppable… My love of solo board games continues to be unstoppable. Ha ha!
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