(Photo credit to CMON)
One of the most popular horror survival games ever, Zombicide got a new revision and I was on the fence for a while, because I had invested in the original seasons. Was it worth getting the new version or was the old one good enough? Did they make any major changes that were worth reinvesting in another version of the game I already had? Well obviously, you gathered by this review that is exactly what I did. Rather than go over how the game plays, as I have several other reviews of Zombicide already, I thought I would go over the changes from the original to this one and let you all decide if it is worth the upgrade.
The first big change is the components! You can finally have dashboards for the original game. That may not seem like a lot, but since Black Plague, I was hoping they would change the original character dashboards to fit in the holders and they did! In addition, all of the skills that the survivor has been on the back of their card, so you don’t have to search in the glossary for the explanation, just look on the back.
The maps have changed, as they indicate on the tiles where to place the objective tokens and the new crates. Doors are automatically closed so you only place door tokens if they are open. The cards have been updated as well, the starting items are very easy to tell apart from the standard equipment and there is now a deck of separate pimp weapons that players draw from when they find a special weapon. There are three different abominations now and they have their own deck.
The big change for the maps is the dark zones, as that is where zombies now spawn inside buildings. Miniatures-wise, they have changed the color scheme so brutes and runners are a darker gray, and walkers and abominations are a lighter gray,
One addition are kidz. They are characters that only have 2 health but they have a skill that once per turn they can escape a zombie zone with no hindrance or extra movement. Some gamers find adding kids to the survivors is too grim and some see it as similar to kids in shows like stranger things. You can decide how to interpret that on your own.
The gameplay has changed as well. The targeting priority is now the same as the more recent versions, only misses count as hits to survivors in the same zone as enemies. The rage counter is now called adrenaline but works in the same way, zombie spawns are made at the level of the survivor with the highest level. I mentioned crates earlier, and that is a new thing they added. In addition to searching the cars for special weapons, there are now crates that can be searched for them as well for one action.
There are currently two expansions for Zombicide 2e; Fort Hendrix and Washington ZC. Both of these are campaign games that introduce a few new mechanics; the biggest being nighttime. In the night, the visibility is reduced so items like flashlights are definitely useful.
Overall, the game has been streamlined in setup and gameplay, the two campaign expansions introduce a new way to play the game as well. Fans of Zombicide have most likely already added the new version but for those who held back, like myself, I wanted to give you all a basic idea and let you decide if you wanted to upgrade as well. For people who are looking at the game for the first time, I strongly advise going with the base game of the 2nd edition instead of the original seasons. I think you will be a better starting point for newer content going forward.
Check out CMON’s website for more!
Written by Ed Carter
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