Zombies!!! Second Edition Directors Cut

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image credit boardgamegeek.com

Recently, Matt gave me a gift card to our FLGS for my birthday. It was quite unexpected, so I decided I would treat myself to a game that I have wanted to try for a while now. You may not know this, but zombies are my favorite theme for games, regardless of how trendy/pop culture they are! Basically, if you paste a zombie theme on something I will at least try it. So with my newly acquired gift card I reached strait back into board game time and grabbed “Zombies!!!” by Twilight Creations Inc.

WHATS IN THE BOX

30 Map Tiles

50 Event Cards

100 Plastic Zombies

6 Plastic “Shotgun Guys” aka Pawns/Player Markers

30 Life Tokens

60 Bullet Tokens

2 Dice

GAMEPLAY

The typically zombie game (at least most I have played) is a cooperative or coop-with-a-defector game where we are all basically working toward the same goal, or so we think. Twilight’s “Zombies!!!” IS NOT a cooperative game at all. It’s actually the kind of game that makes you throw a handful of teeny tiny zombie models right into your best friend’s face to tell them to go strait to hell.

In Zombies!!! each player is trying to be the first player to reach the Helipad Map Tile and air lift out leaving all of the other players to die horribly in a mass of shambling, rotten corpses – or be the first person to kill 25 zombies. Sounds fun right!?

The basic player turn is as follows:

-Draw and place a Map Tile

-Fight any zombies in your current space by rolling 1d6

-Draw up to 3 event cards – max 3

-Roll 1d6 and move your marker that many spaces

-Fight any zombies you encounter along the way by rolling 1d6

-Roll 1d6 and move that many zombies 1 space each (helpful for slowing down your opponent(s)

-At the end of your turn you may discard 1 event card from your hand if you choose and play passes to the next player

This game actually has pretty high replay value due to the way the map is developed by drawing and placing tiles. It generates a different layout every time and helps to keep things fresh. Alternatively, due to the frustration of how set back you can be by the cruelty of other players and their event cards (which you can basically play at anytime with no restrictions), the replay value is lowered because you hate everyone who used to be your best friend. HAHA!

http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com

http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com

http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com

http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com

 

COMPONENT QUALITY

This is, unfortunately, where Zombies!!! lets me down a little. The zombie sculpts are pretty cool looking for the most part. The game comes with 2 zombie variants a GREY zombie which is male and a GREEN zombie which is female. As I said they are pretty cool for what they are in terms of aesthetic appeal, but they are flimsy and don’t stand as well as they should. I think they should have used a round base rather than an oval base for the zombies (and “Shotgun Guys”) which would provide a bit more stability. And it is really only an issue when you have to touch them.female

The Bullet and Life Tokens are paper chits and they are exceptionally low quality. I could see these becoming ruined after a short time with regular use. There is no doubt in my mind that they will begin to peel just from being in the box.

The card quality, however, is pretty good. They are regular cards; lower quality than a deck of Bicycle Playing Cards but the art is decent enough.

My biggest complaint is the quality and design of the Map Tiles. They are just basic cards but they are square. This is a problem because when you are laying out the map they begin to shift around making the map a constant mess to put back together. I think that if they were made from cardboard like other games with tile placement mechanics it would make for a much better feel and experience. Another thing that is wrong with the Map Tiles is that the art on them doesn’t do a good job showing which spaces are Street (can be occupied) and which are generic Building/Obstructions (cannot be occupied). This complicates the movement a bit but not so much that it is unmanageable, but it also takes away from the over all feel of the game. It would be much more enjoyable to play every Map Tile out and have a huge city build and actually be able to tell where the streets lead and what the fastest route to your objective is. policestationtownsquare

On the positive side the game box easily houses all of the materials, although if offers no organization via an insert or anything of the sort. Which will lead to damage to the components or paying for some kind of containment as a secondary purchase.

Overall Twilight’s Zombies!!! is a very fun game and being as I got it for “free” it’s that much better. One thing that I can recommend is that you purchase Zombies!!! 3.5 expansion at the exact same time you buy the core game. Zombies!!! 3.5 is an all Event Card expansion and really adds some great stuff and an alternate way to play the Event Card mechanics.

 

 

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