Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game

Customer Reviews

Guy with a Girlfriend: Last Night on Earth Review Review by Stephen

Price
Value
Quality

Intro:

14 days ago I heard about and researched a zombie game called Last Night on Earth. 13 days ago I bought it. And 12 days ago I tried "the big sell" on my skeptical girlfriend. After some debate about the validity of zombies and why she should care, a date was made and we met in our kitchen later that night.

First Impressions:

Me: "Neat! Miniatures and a randomized game board! Multiple scenarios and great production values!"

Girlfriend: "Little plastic men and dice? I'm not so sure about this any more."

Basic run-down:

Last Night on Earth pits four human characters against an ongoing flow of zombies. There's a limit of 14 zombies that can be placed on the board at once. When starting a game you decide from which of the five provided scenarios to play through. For example, one has you trying to find gas and keys for which you use to escape in a truck. For the humans to succeed they usually either have to complete an objective before the turn counter runs out or wait for it to run out while maintaining a victory condition.

First Play Through:

From reading the rules I figured that it would be best to let my girlfriend play as the zombies as there would be less for her to keep track of. I took control of four humans characters. It's a little daunting keeping track of and controlling four characters but it becomes more manageable the more you play. Game play has the Zombies drawing/using cards, moving, and spawning new zombies on their turn followed by each human character individually taking each of their turns where they can move/search for items, trade with other humans, and fire ranged weapons. When either team's or character's turn ends with both sides in the same space then they have to resolve a fight through dice rolls.

My girlfriend slowly started getting into the flow of the action throughout our first game. We both enjoyed the surprise element of using our cards to affect fight outcomes and other things that we took for granted (like the mistaken assumption that zombies could only ever move one space per turn). Speaking about the cards themselves, a number of them had my girlfriend audibly laughing because of their humorous nature and aggravating results.

After fourteen rounds the human side came out victorious. And then I heard something that I never thought I'd hear: "Let's play again, I want to win this time".

Final Breakdown:

A week or so has gone by and we've played another 8 times. My girlfriend really likes this game and even requests to play it. We've had the opportunity to play this as a four player game but that just spreads out who controls what. In the case of four players, two people control two humans each and two people control 7 zombies each. Although playing this way is fun for the social aspect, we pretty much prefer the two player version. I highly recommend this to people who enjoy the zombie genre and to those that can stomach a fair bit of randomness in their gameplay. (Posted on 11/29/09)

A Zombie Movie in Board Game Form Review by Keith

Value
Quality
Price

I'm a huge fan of anything with zombies but was a little hesitant about getting this game but eventually caved. I have to say that I'm glad I picked it up. The game does a great job of capturing the feel of cheesy zombie movies and putting it into board game form, from the pictures on the cards, the different game scenarios, and even the characters themselves.

There's a large element of luck to the game. Sometimes the heroes will pick up a string of good cards that let them make huge progress in a scenario or beat back part of the advancing horde. Other times, the zombies my luck out and eat the heroes rather quickly. Even when things get a little one-sided, it's still fun to see everything unfold.

The game itself is well designed. All of the card pieces (playing cards, the boards, hero cards, scenario cards, and counters) are made out of thick and durable material. The rulebook is well laid out and is easy to understand. The zombies and heroes each get their own deck of cards that are well balanced against each other. The board itself is 7 pieces - 1 large centre board that can be either the town square of a manor house depending on the scenario, and 6 corner pieces of which you pick 4 to use in your game helps add some replayability to the game by making the buildings you get and their placement random. The only disappointment in the box is the music CD. Most of the tracks sound the same and don't feel like this belong in a horror setting at all. I've found that my Midnight Syndicate CDs do a much better job of capturing the mood of the game.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with the game and would strongly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of zombies, zombie movies, zombie apocalypses, or brains. (Posted on 5/1/09)

Why don't you own this game yet? Review by DK

Price
Value
Quality

I bought this game on a whim, and right after that I was worried I might regret it. As soon as I got some friends together (along with a few cases of beer) all doubt was gone, as this was one of the most fun games I had ever played. The rules cover pretty much all ground, and should there be a part that is a little unclear, this is a great opportunity to make your own rule.
The quality of the game amazed me, and the advanced rules brought in whole new dimensions to gameplay. The only part that was kind of a let down was the CD that comes with it. Yawn. But other than that, it is perfect. It captures the B-movie feel of the zombie genre, and every time the sheriff is a playable character, I can't help but picture Michael Beihn from Planet Terror.
On a personal note, there is nothing better than being the zombies and eating your friends. One of them damn near cried. (Posted on 1/24/09)

Let me state that I'm not a huge zombies fan from the start. So the theme for Last Night on Earth just did nothing for me. It's definitely a better game than Zombies!!! with some interesting additional scenarios and the introduction of Zombie and Human te Review by TR

Quality
Price
Value

Let me state that I'm not a huge zombies fan from the start. So the theme for Last Night on Earth just did nothing for me. It's definitely a better game than Zombies!!! with some interesting additional scenarios and the introduction of Zombie and Human teams. It's good, I'm just not into it because the mechanics are 'roll and move' and 'play cards' pretty much. (Posted on 12/6/08)