All Things Zombie, designed by Ed Teixeira and developed by Mark H. Walker’s Lock’n Load Publishing, will look weird to those inexperienced with this genre of board games. Instead of loads of plastic minis like Zombicide, this box contains two sheets of punch out cardboard chits. But don’t judge: This is not only one of the prettiest collection of chits you’re going to find on the market, but the gameplay in this box is rock solid.
You and your friends will take on seedy roles way out in the Nevada desert. You can be a hooker or a steel-jawed Navy retiree, a scientist or an assassin. Some are hardened veterans of the zombie wars, cool and calm under any circumstance. The rest are city folk who should not be allowed around sharp objects, let alone firearms. They’re fun roles to play, and the desert setting is an open landscape to fill with your imagination. The game comes with solo play rules, cooperative skirmish rules, a multiplayer campaign, and a competitive multiplayer mode, making it one of those rare Swiss Army games that can be bent to your needs in any given social situation.
The game mechanic is fairly straightforward, but will benefit from a single person learning the rules ahead of time and just telling people to throw dice for a few rounds and narrating to them what happens. You’ll move around hexes on a bird’s eye view map of an urban area, searching for loot and dodging monsters.
Delicious, nutritious drugs. Beck found a handful of pills inside this dollar store and popped a few. She’ll have an advantage to her tests for the next round.
Essentially the game is a series of tests. You round a corner and see a pack of undead heading your way. Do you stand fast and snap off a few rounds, or do you turn and run for your life? Another survivor is firing on your position in the hospital. Can you stand up to the fire and shoot back?
Tonya is a crafty veteran of the zombie wars, denoted by the star on her marker. She can dish it out as well as she can take it. That’s a stack of about 20 zombies she’s going to melee this round. Zombies are attracted to survivors, and to gunfire, so sometimes shoving off a mass of undead is the better move than unloading your gun into a crowd a few spaces away.
Rating: 9.0 Deep strategic game play, including solo, cooperative, and competitive matches. A solid base mechanic that is flexible enough for many unique situations. Big learning curve, but well worth the time invested.
~pastemagazine.com
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