When Zombies Attack! is a zombie dice game where you take the role of a poor, pitiful soul running from a horde of hungry zombies. It immediately conjures up memories of Zombie! Run for your Lives! In theme, at least. However, while they do share some elements they are different games.
The dice are made from fairly standard material. They’re black with rounded edges and green ink (or paint or whatever it is) for the indents. Also included are the rules, printed on a nice, sturdy, glossed card. The art on the card isn’t amazing, but I really like it for some reason, I’m not sure what it is exactly. Also included is a dice bag just large enough to fit the dice into. The dice bag is that kind of cheap faux velvet, or whatever it is, that you find everywhere. Personally, I can’t stand that stuff. It’s like the tactile version of nails across the fingerboard. I hate this stuff, but it’s EVERYWHERE. That’s why I’m glad my wife makes dice bags out of chainmail.
Anyway, the game is very simple. You start with 16 dice and divvy them up among the players. I’ve found that three or four players is best. Fewer players than that feels like too much dice for everyone, and more players than that gives everyone too few dice. Then in turns everyone rolls their dice. Each die represents a single zombie chasing you. If you roll the biohazard, that means that zombie is still chasing you. The gravestone means that you killed that zombie and you put them into your graveyard. The walking zombie means that the zombie wandered off somewhere else. You then choose to either put them in the quarantine zone (where they are chasing nobody) or in front of another player. If you roll nothing but biohazard symbols (yes, even if you’ve only got one die left) then you get all of the dice in the quarantine, since the zombies there start chasing after you. If there are no zombies in the quarantine, you take the zombies in your graveyard instead. First person to start a turn with no zombies chasing them wins. (There are also additional, optional rules, that you may or may not wish to implement.)
Very simple rules, really and that does make the game play fast… Usually. I’ve played a few games where it seems that everyone has just one die left and nobody could ever roll anything but biohazard. On the other hand, I’ve played a couple games where the first person to play gets rid of all their zombies on their first roll, which gives them a big advantage. In the end, it’s one of those games that’s very dependent on the group you’re playing with. A good group gets some good-natured competition going, while a less-good group will probably try to “play nice†and not get much accomplished.
Bottom Line: When Zombies Attack is another one of those games that I classify as break-the-ice party games. They’re meant to be played with a small-ish group of people, finished in a few minutes, and played a few times in a row as a way to break the ice. The times When Zombies Attack works it does what it’s trying to do reasonably well. However, I hesitate to recommend it. It’s got nice components and isn’t a bad game. And with the right group it can be fun. But there are better games out there that fill the same niche.
You can find When Zombies attack at Amazon.com
Update: The original version contained errors relating to the rules and win conditions. Those have been corrected.
