(Image credit to CMON Games )
Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer
Zombicide: Night of the Living Dead
Dice rolling, action movement, card playing, cooperative, tactical combat, miniatures, zombie themed horror
1-6 players
Published by CMON and Guillotine Games
In 1968, a low-budget horror movie comes out, the director is George R Romero.
No one knew at that time that this would pave the way for the modern zombie movie. CMON has celebrated this by releasing a special edition of their Zombicide game, the Night of the Living Dead. Tom Vassel from the Dice Tower says this is a “quiet version” of the Zombicide line. There are no abominations here, the enemies are not as powerful but still deadly. I have done reviews of several Zombicide games, and you can check those out if you want to know about regular Zombicide. This version is similar but has some unique rules and this review is going to mainly focus on those unique rules.
Can we work together? That’s the focus of this version; it gives you the chance to change what happens in the movie. What if the survivors agreed more, how much better their chances would they have been if they did? The game is made up of scenarios that are scenes from the movie, if you play all of them, you will play out the whole movie.
Get inside the house! The players turn
Each scenario requires playing with all 6 survivors. The survivors in this version play in 2 modes; Romero and Zombicide. Zombicide mode gives you more skills and rewards cooperation. The Romero mode is a weaker version of the survivor and is where players usually begin unless otherwise stated by a scenario. There are 4 different zombies or ghouls in this version; walkers, fatties, breakers, and Relatives. Walkers are the basic people who have died and are shambling about, craving human flesh. Fatties are bigger and stronger, breakers are Ghouls who use bricks and whatever they find to break barriers letting the horde in. Relatives are special, they force survivors who are in Zombicide mode to return to Romero mode; the reality of loved ones is too much to bear, and they are forced to break down in despair. However once dispatched, the survivor returns to the more powerful Zombicide version.
The equipment decks are separated into basic, melee, ranged, and special. Romero mode survivors can only search in the basic deck. It takes more skills to use the items in the other decks which are restricted to Zombicide mode survivors. Like regular Zombicide, survivors take 3 actions per turn; ranging from move, search, melee, ranged, and interact. Depending on the scenario, there are special rules that may require players to build barricades, gather fuel, drive a vehicle, and so on.
Braiiiins!!! : The Ghouls turn
Once the survivors have taken their actions, the ghouls take their turn. Each ghoul takes one action, if in a zone with a survivor they attack and the survivor takes a wound. If not, they move towards the closest survivors. A breaker will tear down any barricades in their zone as a first-priority action unless in the same zone as a survivor where they will attack instead. If there are no breakers in a zone then the other Ghouls cannot enter or tear down a barricade.
After all ghouls have activated, draw a spawn card and spawn ghouls at each spawn zone based on the highest adrenaline level of a survivor. The game continues until the survivors complete their objective and win or one survivor is killed, the objective cannot be met or a scene-specific action occurs.
We need to work together! Strategies and suggestions
This is a different Zombicide for sure, basic weapons consist of table legs mostly, so it is best to get to Zombicide mode as soon as possible as that is the only way to access more powerful weapons. Also, the Relatives and breakers are a very dangerous threat. For fans of the movie, this one is a no-brainer; for Zombicide fans, even with the changes, I think it has a lot to offer. As stated, this is not an adrenaline-fueled kill fest, it focuses on player interaction and cooperation more than the slaughter fest of regular Zombicide so keep that in mind.
Unlike a lot of special edition games, this one is not a Kickstarter exclusive, it’s available in retail and online. With Halloween just around the corner, this might be a good one to add to your Halloween game night.
Staff Writer: Ed Carter
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