Let's Review: ZOMBIES!!!

What is it?:

ZOMBIES!!! is a board game by Twilight Creations with a bunch of expansions and sequels and so on. The game is designed for 2-6 players, but I advise you to have as many as you can get. To call it a 'board game' is a bit of a misnomer as it's really a tile game. It requires a few d6s. They give you two in the box, but I strongly suggest getting one for each player.

Just keeping walking and pray she doesn't see you...

The setting:

The set-up for the game is pretty simple: You're a survivor trapped in a city full of zombies. There's a helicopter coming, but it's only got room for one... The expansions (that I have) just add more stuff, like a mall and an army base. If you want, you can limit the game to just those locations. I prefer to have more “fun”, and require using a ton of space, and add them in.

Welp, you're screwed...

The system:

Playing the game is pretty simple: Roll d6, move that many squares. Fight any and all zombies you enter the space of while moving. Collect things in the square you occupy. It's very similar to Munchkin, as in your goal is to kill things and screw over your friends. You can do that in a few ways. Each player draws three cards at the start of the game and refills their hand as they use them. Some of the cards allow you to get items if you're lucky enough to make it to the right location... Which is very hard. Otherwise, you can help yourself or screw over your friends with the cards, Make it so someone has a negative roll, that zombies can't be attacked, and etc. At the end of each turn, you roll a d6 and move that many zombies one square. Most people do this to clear their own way and block any and all other players. Tile placement can screw people, too, as you can block off paths and dead end them (pun not intended but fitting) or you can place a location that has a lot of zombies right in their path.

Winning the game boils down to two ways: Either reach the helicopter tile first or collect 25 zombies. If the helicopter tile can't be placed, I think we know what happens...

The game is very simple, which is both good and bad. The simplicity makes it easy to pick up, but it gets boring after playing it a few times. When you add in all of the cards from all of the expansions, you get a huge deck to draw from. Since you can spend things to keep rolling, and then people can use cards, some combats can last much longer. And if you get the wrong kind of people playing the game, they'll try to make it last as long as possible. The incessant screwing over also causes things to slow down, as there's a few cards that can fuck everyone over. If you get the right people playing, you can actually have a pretty fun time. Once everyone knows the rules and develop their strategies, it can play quickly and smoothly. Screwing over your friend to help you advance can be fun. Screwing them over just to be an asshole is probably going to be fun for just you.

Is it worth it?:

I bought this game years ago, before the 4^th expansion came out. Back then, it was a little cheaper. Now, it's about $30 for the core set and near $15 per expansion. If you buy more than one expansion, buy a Bag O' Zombies. Not only is it cool to buy a bag of little plastic zombies, but you'll probably need them. The Bag is about $13 for 100 or so. That might be a bit much for a game you're going to get bored of before too long. That said, if you can find it at a decent price and want a fun little Halloween party game, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, you might want to skip it as there's a ton of other zombie games out there.