Oh won't you take me to... Zombietown!

Designed By: Twilight Creations Inc
Year Published: 2007
# of Players: 5-6
Playtime: 60 Minutes
Suggested Ages 12+

To Start: Zombietown is a board game where each player represents a survivor during a Zombie holocaust.

Theme: This is where the game shines. Who wouldn't love playing a desperate and selfish human survivor whose reaction to the end of the world is to shoot his neighbor in the face.

Components: The game board is a fairly forgettable which is acceptable in a game of this type because really it is all about the Zombies. The Zombie pieces are the exact plastic tokens used by Twilight Creations in their flagship game ZOMBIES! Besides the killing dead, the most interesting game pieces are the three dimensional barricades that are set up to keep out both Zombies and rival players. Overall the carpet matches the drapes.

Gameplay: The object of the game is to survive for ten days. Each players turn consists of moving, potentially entering houses, collecting resource cards, and playing actions. At the end of each players turn they are allowed to move Zombies to menace other players. The best feature of this game is the ever increasing numbers of the hungry dead (you get to move more every turn!) Game balance is pretty good, every player begins play with a pistol (a finite resource for fighting Zombies or other players) they are also in an empty house and thus forced to move out into the hostile game board. Other houses are initially a rich source of resources and eventually controlling those serves as one victory condition. Having played the game few times now I can comfortably say that there is a decent amount of strategy. However, far to much of it is provided by veteran player tactics like forming alliances and coordinating Zombie movements. The game ends at the end of the tenth day when all players total the number of houses they control, the resources available in those houses, the number of loaded guns they have, and survivor cards they posses and the total number of Zombies that they have killed. If there is a tie than the player with the most kills is the victor.

Weaknesses: The gameplay in Zombietown is solid enough once you understand the rules. Unfortunately, that is not easy to accomplish because they are a horrendous mess. Trying to make sense of even the most basic rule effects is extremely difficult. The slim rule book reads like a badly translated Eurogame tragically, it is all American.

For: Adults and possibly teens. Enhanced by Alcoholic beverages. Muggle friendly.

Not for: Anyone looking for a cerebral game without direct player vs player confrontation.
Overall: Despite all of its warts I have to admit that I like this game. I have always been a fan of ZOMBIES! And I had high hopes for a board game version. Zombietown doesn’t quite deliver on that promise.