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Zombies!!! 2: Zombie Corps(e) | |||||||||||||
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Publisher: Twilight Creations Inc. Game Design by Todd Brietenstein, Art by Dave Aikins Medium: Boxed Game Expansion Price: $14.99 Reviewer: Mark Warren Jackson hid behind the overturned Humvee as he attempted to replace the clip in the M16 he had found on the body of a soldier. He couldn't seem to get the clip seated. Exhaustion and the blood trickling into his right eye from the cut on his forehead foiled his attempts. The clip finally seated and Jackson looked up as he shot the bolt in time to see the window light up as someone ran past it in the building in front of him. His eyes brightened; another living person. Zombies didn't move that fast and they didn't carry lights! He hauled himself to his feet, looking around to make sure he wasn't being followed, and ran for the door. Jackson entered the building in time to see someone dash into the room to his left. This looked like some kind of lab. A sickly glow spilled from the open doorway ahead. Jackson hoped these people could help him find the Helipad… What's better than a plastic Zombie? A glow-in-the-dark plastic Zombie! And that's just what you get in the new Twilight Creations Inc. expansion "ZOMBIES!!! 2: Zombie Corps(e)". Todd Breitenstein and friends are up to their old tricks with this new expansion for the original "Zombies!!!" (See the review for "Zombies!!!" on this site). This expansion is not a stand alone; you need the original "Zombies!!!" game to play. As in the original, this is a game for 2 to 6 players that challenges you to escape an ever growing army of undead while using your friends as human shields. Players take turns drawing cards and placing the tiles that create a doomed city as they fight their way through streets choked with zombies and try to reach the exit in the form of a heliport. The game contains the following: Components: Let's jump right in and look at the components. First off, Dave Aikins is back applying his artistic talents to the game. I must say the Dave's art work is one of my favorite things about Zombie!!! His work combined with humorous captions like "No Brains Here", "WeekendPass: DENIED", and my personal favorite "Adjusting Nicely" make this game what it is. In short, like the first game, this one is well presented. There are 15 new map tiles in the expansion. The new tiles are used in a separate stack and represent a military base. One of the tiles ("Front Gate") is shuffled in with the normal tiles. Once this tile is played, the players may venture into the military base (Where another Helipad can be found). Tiles from the military base may only be played inside the base and town tiles may only be played in town. The cards are essentially the same materials (thin card) and have artwork complimentary to the original set. The event cards are also of similar quality. There are 30 cards in the box. 15 of them are unique (two of each card). The artwork and captions are comparable to the parent game. The cards are shuffled into the original deck adding a little more variety. The cards actions seem to be relatively well balanced and not too over the top (cough* rocket launcher *cough). The six Glow-in-the-Dark zombies are from the same mold as the originals but are now cast from a translucent material that… well… Glows-in-the-Dark. We'll discuss the new zombies more as we talk about the rules. Rules: The rules and goals are essentially the same. The difference is the military base addition. The new "Front Gate" tile is shuffled into the original tile deck (alternately they recommend you shuffle it into the top half of the deck) and the new tiles are set aside in a separate pile. As the game progresses, if one of the players draws the "Front Gate" tile, then they may enter the military base and proceed by drawing from the new tile deck, or may place the tile and ignore it by continuing with the "town" deck. There is also a new tile called "Motor Pool" that allows you pick up a virtual Jeep that will increase your movement (so long as you don't leave the road spaces). According to the rules booklet, some players complained about the game running a bit long. This is understandable with larger groups. In this case, they recommend you shuffle the "Helipad" into the bottom half of the original deck rather than just placing it on the bottom as the original rules stated. The Helipad in the military base is also shuffled in rather than placed at the bottom. The net effect of this is that the Helipad may come up sooner and, should the "Front Gate" tile turn up early; it is conceivable that the game could end pretty quickly. Last but not least, the Zombies. I think I've made it clear that I like Zombies. So does my daughter. She's a bit older than she was in the original review but was as thrilled with the new zombies as I was: Allysa: Was'at Daddy? The new zombies are plastic and thankfully, non-toxic. They are essentially "Super Zombies". They are also very rare. They are only placed on one tile, the "Top Secret Lab" tile. While this is a great idea, this is where I start to have problems. First off, why would you restrict something as nifty as Super Zombies to one location? That said why would you want to enter an area you know is full of Super Zombies? When we played we adjusted the rules a bit. We placed one Super Zombie in each military base tile that required you to place Zombies. This served two purposes. It allowed us to use more Super Zombies and it made the shortcut through the military base a bit more dangerous. Do it however you will, as Todd Breitenstein says, play it how you want. "After all, you bought it…" Summary: The new expansion is just that, an expansion. It "adds" a bit to the already fun "Zombies!!!" line. There are a few new cards for some fresh laughs and a new area that could potentially be a quick shortcut to the end of the game. The overall game speed has been altered (i.e. shortened) a bit to make the sessions a bit more palatable. If you've played Zombies!!! more than twice and plan on playing again, then this inexpensive add-on will both increase your enjoyment of the game and help support an independent game company – which I feel we can never have enough of. If you've never played "Zombie!!!", then don't come crying to me when hordes of heart hungry dead things are beating down your door and you don't know what to do… Did I mention there are the new Zombies? Zombies… Mmmmmm…. Playability:
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