Zombies!!!

Inspired by this post on Big Lee's blog, I immediately asked my parents to get me this game for Christmas so we could all play it as a family! I received it yesterday and we played it with my Grandma and Granddad after lunch making 6 of us altogether (the maximum recommend for the game).

It took us an hour to go through one round of turns, just getting used to the mechanics and rules of the game but after that it really picked up speed and came to a thrilling conclusion! The next time we play, however, we will probably just have 4 players to speed it up and so those who didn't really enjoy the game (Grandma and Sister) can sit out.

Below are several pictures of the games exciting conclusion with annotations beneath each photo (photos are clickable).



The black piece was controlled by my younger sister who hadn't done much all game. This was about her fourth turn and each go she had rolled a 1 on the movement dice and so hadn't encountered any Zombies yet. When the helicopter card is pulled out, it is placed by the player with the least number of zombie kills (you can also win by killing 25 Zombies) and naturally, she placed it next to her although there were 9 Zombies placed on the card, 3 of which she would have to battle to reach the helicopter and escape to victory! She ended up dying and then she gave up and left the game.



After my Sister's character had died, there was then a race on to the finish, with the path cleared. But three of the players kept playing cards on each other to move them back so they couldn't reach the helipad.



At the end of your turn, you role a dice to see how many Zombies you can move 1 space each and with this, players moved zombies in to attack my Dad (the Red piece) to try and stop him reaching the helipad (you must kill the Zombie in the middle square of the helipad to get in the helicopter). In order to win, he had to role 5+ on a D6 so he could make it to the helicopter and he rolled a 6. He then had to battle against 4 zombies and win each battle to move on another space. At this point he played his Shotgun card which increased his attack role and gave him additional bullets to try and ensure victory. He managed to battle through all 4 Zombies before reaching the helicopter and taking off, leaving his fellow survivors behind to face certain death. A pretty awesome ending to a film don't you think?



The photo above shows the end of the game with my Dad (red piece) reaching the centre of the helipad tile and winning the game. I was the yellow piece at the back (I had been at the top of the board, bashing some skulls) but I didn't feel bad when I had 'lost'. I hadn't died during the entire game (if you get killed, you just start again, minus half the zombies you've already killed. I never died and had the most life remaining and had killed the most zombies.

It's a really enjoyable game and I can't wait to play it again!

Overall Rating: 5/5
Rules: Simple and methodical
Time to learn rules: 1 hour (whilst play testing)
Average game time: The game, had we played through without stopping would have taken between 30 mins and an hour.
Max players: 6
Recommended by me: 4 (to speed things up and make it more interesting)