“Keep moving,” said my brother as we made our way down the street.
“I am,” I replied to him.
At that moment, we turned our heads to see the monsters chasing us. They were at the other end of their street, but their ravenous hunger still frightened us. The terrifying creatures screeched as they began to advance toward us.
“I thought we lost them in the last building we were in,” I said, “You have to be kidding me right now.” The monsters were not relenting in their chase to harm us.
“We would have lost them had you not decided to kill the monster that came from the sewer. We now have to deal with the fast ones. Without stealth, they are always going to be coming after us.” My brother was calculated with his words as we continued.
With a sharp movement, he quickly pulled me behind a dumpster
“Do you see that door up ahead? We have to head for it. It looks like it will be our only option,” he said.
“Understood,” I quickly replied. I did not want to go back and forth with him any longer. I trusted him at the end of the day. This was my older brother.
Following a short pause, my brother and I hurried our way to the entrance of the building. However, entering the building would not be as easy as we thought.
“The door is locked from the inside. Do you have a crowbar?” My brother started to sound slightly more worried than before.
“No, all I have is a pan,” I responded. It was potentially the worst possible answer to give at a time of impending doom.
“I have to use the chainsaw then,” he said, “it’s our only chance of getting out of here alive.”
“Do what you have to do.” I knew very well that the chainsaw would increase the noise level in our vicinity. On top of that, I had a gut feeling that the building we were about to enter would be full of zombies. It seemed as if all of the buildings in the town were crawling with them.
He broke down the door, and we entered the building. To our luck, there were no zombies anywhere in the building. We rejoiced at the miracle.
However, the celebration was short-lived. We heard the screeches from the approaching monsters outside of the building. It almost immediately made us search for any defensive items.
We searched item after item until we were unable to carry anything more. The last item that we found was an extra pan.
My brother looked at me and asked, “Do you want dual-wield pans?”
“Well, if I am going to go out, at least I can go out in style.” I did not hesitate to take his pan off of him, and soon enough, I was ready to serve double the damage.
After our exchange, we turned around to see that the sprinting monsters had finally entered the building. They were only a few rooms away from us, but judging by their speed, it was clear we could not tangle with them.
At this point, my brother and I were already on the other side of the building. Without a second thought, he whipped out his chainsaw and busted down a door to grant us an escape route. The light pierced into the building as the door collapsed. It was our freedom on the other side. Or so we thought.
Once the door came down, the only thing that light provided us was a clear view of zombies directly in front of us. Our hopes for survival went from low to almost non-existent.
Was this going to be the end of us? Were we just going to become zombie food in the middle of a random town?
No, we could not fathom even the worst of outcomes. Knowing we could not turn around, we mustered our courage and headed out into the fray. We would not go down without a fight, charging ahead with the might of pans and rotating blades to accompany us. We would not go down without a proper fight.
And we didn’t go down without one. We decimated the horde of zombies, which carved a path for us to leave the town. Upon reaching the exit sign, my brother and I looked up from the game board. We gave each other a fist bump across our kitchen table. We had completed our Zombicide mission.
Zombicide – A Daring Adventure
According to the website of Guillotine Games, “Zombicide is a cooperative board game with miniatures for 1 to 6 players, age 14 and up. Choose your revengeful survivor of a zombie apocalypse! Find weapons, shoot zombies, gain experience, and customize your heroes: the more zombies you kill, the more they come. Complete the mission objectives to win the game!”
Zombicide is easily one of the most fascinating tabletop games ever invented. Zombicide’s ability to bring a player into a game rivals some of the best action-adventure games out there. In its current form, it is far beyond just one iteration, now having multiple adaptations derived from the classic version of the game. Each is unique in its own way, but all of them allow the players to equally enjoy themselves just like in the original version.
Gameplay
For the sake of this article, I will be honing in on much of the gameplay from the original game. The original version of Zombicide has six playable characters. Their names are as follows: Wanda, Amy, Ned, Doug, Phil, and Josh. An option is available to create your own character, but each existing playable character offers unique strengths.
In general, you can select a mission or create your own. The board is your own. You can decide how you want the layout, even if it does not directly align with a mission. It gets significantly more interesting when you start to pair boards together to increase the game’s capacity.
In addition to the characters, missions, and board layout, players can also acquire different weapons for defense and navigating the map. In some cases, players can drive cars, open and close doors, and even find unique items.
This leads me to the zombies. The reason there is a Zombicide board game in the first place.
To begin talking about the zombie, I will focus on the “Walkers”. A classic breed of zombie, the “Walkers” move one space at a time. Their speed is on par with traditional zombies who are easy to evade.
Then there are the “Runners.” The “Runners” are the bane of any zombie-game player. Their ability to move at double the speed of any other zombie makes it super challenging to play.
The “Fatties” are next in line. “Fatties” are harder to take down, requiring weapons that deal double the damage. On top of that, they are usually accompanied by two “Walkers.”
Last but not least, there is the “Abomination.” The “Abomination” is unlike any of the other zombies. It can only be taken down by some of the most advanced Zombicide equipment. This includes a combination of gasoline and a glass bottle, which creates a Molotov cocktail in the game. Yes, a Molotov cocktail.
Overall, the gameplay is fantastic.
Recommendations to Improve Your Zombicide Experience
When it comes to Zombicide, I only have two overall recommendations for gameplay:
- Space – My first recommendation when playing Zombicide is to have space. The title of this article alludes to where my brother and I typically play the game. We play at the kitchen table for more space. Space is ever more important when you start to include other players. The last thing you want to do with Zombicide is play it in a cramped environment. And with all of the little pieces, you don’t want to play anywhere close to the ground where an animal or child might accidentally swallow something.
- Storage – Make sure you have proper storage for all of the items! Please consider everything from cards and character tokens to zombies and board pieces for storage. One of the worst feelings I ever had was seeing the leg on one of the zombies snap due to poor storage on my part. My best tip for storage, especially for tiny pieces, is to use any lingering bags. Instead of trashing them, put them to good use!
Final Thoughts on Zombicide
As you can probably tell, I love Zombicide. And that is to say the absolute least. I have loved it since the moment I purchased the game. To this day, I have yet to play a tabletop game as enjoyable as Zombicide.
The game came into my life when I was looking for a challenging game for my brother and me to reconnect over. Zombicide quite literally brought my brother and me back together as an adventuresome duo.
On the TAG scale, Zombicide deserves a 5/5 stars rating. If you want to connect with some of your closest friends and family in a way you haven’t been able to in a long time, I highly recommend playing Zombicide. If you want to try out a new tabletop game because you are sick of playing games with the same dynamics, play Zombicide. And lastly, if you just love good ole fashion zombie-games, go play Zombicide!
*Go to www.zombicide.com for more information about this amazing game!
