Let's Review: Evil Spares None

What is it?:

Evil Spares None is a cooperate horror board game that I helped Kickstart a few years ago.

The setting:

It's based on the typical “slasher flick” type movie we remember. You take on some high school students trying to get away from the slasher while trying to who's behind the mask. The victims, I mean students, are forced to flee , running through the town, passing by those killed by the Psycho and those yet to be killed. and collect evidence to discover who the killer is.

The system:

The system is a bit of a mess. At the start, you get 2-3 characters to start with. But, you can only activate one to begin with and hope you get the chance to put the rest in play. Or just activate them as your other characters die. During your turn, you get three actions with your characters, but you have to burn an action to switch to another character if you have more than one in play. Characters have a Health stat, a Combat stat, and Brains stat, in addition to a special Active ability and a special Stand-by ability. They seem to have a huge amount of variance between them and I haven't played enough to see how balanced they are.

In between player turns, the Psycho gets to move one space and draw cards. These cards usually let him move more, so he can catch up with you before you get a chance to even move your first character.

When it comes to drawing Action cards, you have to be in the right spot on the board to get the chance to draw them. And you need those Action cards. You also need to make it to the right spot to reach a Stranger before the Psycho gets there first. Strangers can become Townies, who you can sacrifice to save your own skin, or can become another Character. And, for even more fun, you need to reach the bits of Evidence left around so you can solve the mystery... And hopefully use it to survive when the Psycho comes calling.

When it comes to placing new parts of the board, you're suppose to do it randomly, but that's really hard when the tiles are double sided. Draw the wrong one, and everyone is fucked. Hard.

The one thing that goes smoothly is combat. It's simple dice rolling and comparing Combat stats between the Characters and the Psycho. Weapons and other Action cards can help the players, and Evidence and Townies can be “thrown at” the Psycho to avoid the combat. But, as the Psycho increases in power, he becomes harder and harder to defeat... Well, slow down, really, in combat.

As you play the game, there are a few score boards you have to keep track of. The first is the Stalk-O-Meter, which tracks who's the Target of the Psycho and who's going to be next. Being the Target is bad. Very bad. Then, there's a Psycho score board and a Player score board. The Psycho score moves up based on what the Psycho cards do. And some Psycho cards are conditional upon the Psycho score is. The Player's score moves up by finding Evidence and hurting the Psycho. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to get those all figured out.

Is it worth it?:

I hate to say it, but...

No.

I paid $25 for the game and I don't know if it's something I really want to play again. As one of my friends who played with me said “These rules are way more complex than they need to be.” That sums up my feelings. I think it could have used a bit more playtesting to simplify it. The idea is sound, but the execution was fumbled. Now, I do feel like I got a good amount for what I paid for, but I wouldn't have bought it blind like I did.

While I did have to put the game pieces together (which means putting stickers on things), I didn't mind that. My only real compliant was that the character pieces are wooden things with “Minecraft Avatar” versions of the characters. Why not just have a profile picture or just name instead? Minor, but not something that really sold me.

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.