New Zombie Board Game...

[Utrecht]

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/29368

Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game is a survival horror board game that pits small-town Heroes head-to-head against a limitless horde of Zombies (players can play on the Hero team or as the Zombies). A modular board randomly determines the layout of the town at the start of each game and there are several different scenarios to play, adding lots of replayability. Fast Paced Game Play with Easy To Learn rules allows players to jump right into the action, while Strategic Depth and Strong Cooperative Play keeps the game interesting.

To achieve a horror movie feel, all of the art for the game is photographic and the game comes with a CD Soundtrack of original music

It has been getting pretty good reviews - being called the best Zombie board game ever....

[Bagpuss]

When is it available, I've tried searching on my usually online retailers with no success?

[Varaj]

Thanks for the link!

[Utrecht]

It is available - was released at GenCon (online retail places like Funagain are temporarily out of stock)


Here is the official link - http://www.flyingfrog.net/lastnightonearth/

[GreyOne]

Yeah, I was reading about this on BoardGameGeek.

Looks interesting.

[Keeper of Secrets]

Boy do I have a story about this game.

Wednesday night at GenCon I am at the Embassy party and I went out for a smoke (and to cool off as it was really hot). I strike up a conversation with this guy who is also having a smoke. We get to talking and he asks me what I do and where I am from. I tell him Dayton and he says (I think) Cincinnati.

He asks what I do and I tell him I am a lawyer who sort of does copyright. He flips out and gets really, really excited. He proceeds to tell me that he is Todd Breitenstein, the creator and designer of Twilight Creations' Zombies! board game.

Man is he pissed! He starts going on and on about Last Night on Earth and how it is a total violation and how he and his attorneys are writing letters and so on. The game is a lot of fun but man this guy went on and on (asking me for free legal advice at which I told him he should really work with his lawyer, etc.)

[Bagpuss]

Looks very different to me other than both being board games and both involving zombies.

Last Night on Earth while it also has a modular board looks like it is very limited in size and all laid out before play begins, rather than Zombies which expands, as players as play progresses. I could be mistaken.

In Last Night on Earth there seems to be two sides, with the Heroes co-operating to beat the zombie player(s). In Zombies each 'hero' is out to win on their own and actively screw over other survivors by putting zombies in their way.

In Last Night on Earth there appear to be at least two stacks of cards one for zombie team one for the hero team. In Zombies there is only one.

In Last Night on Earth each hero has individual traits, in Zombies all survivors are the same.

In Last Night on Earth the miniatures appear different, both hero figures and zombie figures, with multiple different versions of each type. In Zombies there are only two figure models survivor or zombie all identical.

Last Night on Earth seems to last 15 turns (sundown?) where as Zombies tends to end up going on forever and a day or until everyone gets bored.

To me the guy doesn't have a leg to stand on unless he actually managed to get a really board patent on modular boardgames and zombies. Although it does seem someone might have gone... hmm this Zombies game is okay but I could do one a whole lot better. Copyright doesn't cover inspiration, as far as I'm aware.

[Utrecht]

Boy do I have a story about this game.


This is all the more humerous since the general consensus is that it is a better zombie game than Zombies!

[Bagpuss]

It would be hard to be worse. Zombies!!! is fine for about 2 or three plays then it gets really repetitive and you realise that it just goes on and on, with no real end in sight.

[Keeper of Secrets]

I always kind of liked Zombies . . .

But the developer was a little obnoxious and I was a little offended at his pushing me on free legal advice. I always feel a little uncomfortable in situations like that because the answer to most questions is usually "it depends" and "I'd have to look into it." Which, I do not want to look into it unless you are a good friend, member of this board or willing to pay me.

[Bagpuss]

(Thread necromancy, on a zombie game thread no less)

Just to say I bought this, and found it highly enjoyable, I recently purchased the expansion "Growing Hunger" which adds new heroes, boards, cards and new rules that can be used to adapt the old scenarios.

I recommend this to anyone.

It is really atmospheric, easy to get into but still offers levels of tactical game play. The cards and heroes make it really feel like you are in some zombie movie.

If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them.

[Utrecht]

How is the Expansion?

I will admit that it can be luck dependent game - but the ride is as much fun as the destination.

[Bagpuss]

I think the expansion much improves the game.

It contains 4 new heroes, an out of town cop, a cook (ex-military), a supermarket shelf stacker, and the prom queen. All are worth editions. Disappointingly there are only 2 extra scenarios (although they are good ones), and two extra corner board pieces it would have been nice to have more. You get additional cards for Hero and Zombie decks, to stop scenario needed items getting lost in the larger deck some of these help with drawing, like flashlight (discard and draw again) other let you search the deck or discard pile for items, and others are more gasoline, etc.

You get 7 red zombies, these can be additional normal zombies, or "Grave Dead" or "Plague Carriers" depending on the scenario.

The new rules are the best bit, they are give a points rating some are worth extra points for the heroes others worth points for the zombie player. By balancing the points you can add these variant rules to the LNoE scenarios, giving them additional replay. Some of the new rules "Free Search" tokens and the additional search the deck cards, help remove some of the luck, from a bad draw for the heroes. I've generally found the last few games I've played the game was only won or lost in the last couple of turns, so I think they have the balance about right.

Production values are the same standard as the original game, although if you have the early edition of LNoE then the boards look lighter in comparison to the darker boards of the first edition print run. It's a little off putting, but not enough to make you not want this expansion.