Game Review

Concept:

Re-enact your favorite undead horror/gore/comedy movie -- Run from the Zombies, get out of town before the get you!

Gameplay:

To begin, the map tile with the town square is placed in the center of the game table. The player pawns are placed on the town square. The remaining map tiles are shuffled - except the heliport tile. The heliport is placed on the bottom of the map tile stack. Players are dealt three action cards each.

Players decide who goes first. Each player is given three bullets and three life points.

A turn goes as follows:

1. Reveal a new map tile from the map stack. Place it on the board linking it to the other map tiles.

2. Place zombies on the new tile -- for every road entry point, add 1 zombie, unless it is a special building tile.

3. If the tile is a building, add the number of zombies inside the building as well as any life points and bullets that the tile specifies.

4. Fight a zombie if it is on the same square as your pawn.

5. Draw action cards so that you have three in your hand.

6. Roll a 6 sided die for movement points.

7. Move & fight zombies.

8. Roll a 6 sided die and move that number of zombies 1 square each.

9. Discard an action card (optional.)

Players may play action cards whenever they apply. However, they are only allowed to play one card per round -- that is, until your turn comes up again, you may only play one card. Some action cards cause a player to lose movement, or control zombies.

Combat is pretty simple, roll 1 six sided die: 1, 2, or 3 -- you lose; 4, 5, or 6 -- you win. If you win, remove the zombie from the board and add it to your collection. If you lose, you have a choice either lose a life point and fight again, or use a bullet to modify the roll of the die. Each bullet will buy 1 point on the die, e.g. a 3 becomes a 4. If you collect 25 zombies, you win the game.

If you lose all of your life points... you are dead. Your turn is over (except for moving zombies.) Half of your collected zombies are returned to the "zombie pool." Discard any weapon cards that you have and your pawn is returned to the center of the town square. You restart with 3 life points and three bullets from there.

The player whose pawn reaches the center of the heliport tile first, wins. The heliport will always be the last tile placed on the map.

Winning Conditions:

• The player who reaches the center of the Heliport tile first wins.

or

• The player who collects 25 zombies first wins.

Our Opinion:

For people who like zombie movies like "Dawn of the Dead" or "Evil Dead" and even "Army of Darkness" this game is a fun shoot-em-up fest. The game plot is as close to a tongue-in-cheek horror movie as possible -- and it works. Our reviewers started to play this game just to get a quick run through of the rules so we could review it in detail later, but we all got hooked and absolutely had to finish.

The strategy of the game is hidden when you first try to play. Basically, you want to hinder all of the other players from doing well, while you hold onto as many bullets and life points at the same time. Knowing when to lose a life point and when to spend bullets becomes a very important issue. After enough zombies arrive, though -- all the players know that there are no more friends on the board, and it becomes a true survival game. This game can be as cut throat as Guillotine or Family Business. The action cards lure players to their doom with promises of better weapons in certain buildings. Later, players find that getting into the building is so dangerous, you tend to give up on the hope of finding a better weapon. For those of you who liked "Evil Dead" and "Army of Darkness" -- yes, there is a chain saw to use against the zombies. The game expects you to die at least once before you can actually win... so knowing when to die in itself becomes part of the strategy.

The game has been produced wonderfully -- with 100 plastic zombies, how could you go wrong? Seriously though, the game has good artwork, great balance and enough opportunities to double-cross your friends that it is great fun.

We only had one minor problem with the rules of the game. There is a rule about discarding a weapon when you die. The rules never stated whether or not players discard all weapons in use (on the table) or those in their hands as well. In face, the rules do not even define what constitutes a "weapon" card. This is a minor problem, but one that is easily dealt with with a quick in-game agreement.

As a fan of this genre of movies -- I really liked this game. If I wasn't a fan, then this game would be only so-so. As it stands... we liked it enough to play it again.

Where to buy:

Any local game store -- Our copy cost about $20.