So we recently took a look at the new WWZ movie-licensed card game, by University Games, but what self-respecting franchise passes over having a board game too? Not WWZ, that’s for sure.
It’s pretty obvious just by glancing at it that the board game is made by the same people who made the card game. The packaging is almost identical and the board game has some assets that are identical to the card game. (Some of the pictures, as well as the card card stock, so watch your fingers when shuffling.) That, however, is where the similarities end. The card game is competitive whereas the board game is cooperative. Instead of trying to infect the other continents, you are all members of an elite group of soldiers sent across the world in an attempt to keep the zombie hoards in check. There’s no way you’ll be able to ever destroy all the zombie hoards, but that’s not the point. The point is to keep them small enough to be manageable until the game ends. There are a set number of turns, and as long as you have 10 or fewer zombie hoards above a certain size, then Humanity is saved. (I’m assuming because they find a cure, or something). Otherwise, the Earth is overrun and everybody loses, unless you were “lucky” enough to get killed and become a zombie. The game is actually rather simple. You start by randomly choosing one of the soldier types, which will give you a certain bonus, and several equipment cards which can give either permanent bonuses or temporary bonuses. You set the board up according as the rules instruct and then you go at it. You fight hoards by rolling a six-sided die and adding any bonuses you have while somebody rolls one of the zombie hoard dice. Now, zombie hoards range in size from one to four. (A hoard will never get larger than size four.) The smaller the hoard, the smaller the die rolled. So a size one hoard rolls a six-sided die, size two an eight-sided die, size three a ten-sided die, and size four, a twelve-sided die. Higher roll wins, humans win on a tie. If the humans win, the zombie hoard is reduced in size by one (size one hoards are destroyed), if the zombies win, the human fighting it must have cards to discard (which ones depend on a couple variables) otherwise, if the player has no cards left to discard, they are killed and, as mentioned earlier, become a zombie. (More on that later.) After each roll, the human may choose to keep fighting or not. If you won your first fight against the zombie hoard, it’s usually a good idea to keep fighting until it’s gone, since each roll will usually get easier, eventually resulting in the complete destruction of the hoard. Don’t worry, there will be plenty more to destroy soon enough. After you’ve gone through movement and fighting, you have to draw an escalation card, which usually results in hoards appearing or growing, or both, in certain zones, decided by either continent or color. This often results in cleared continents suddenly resurging into hotzones full of size three and four hoards. If a player was killed and turned into a zombie, then they always roll the dice for the zombie hoards. Also, during their turn, they work to help the zombies win. They do this by moving around zombie hoards. Normally hoards never move. But a zombie player can move one hoard to an adjacent territory a turn. If this moves the hoard into a zone with a player, they fight. If this moves the hoard into a territory with another hoard, they combine in size. (Remember, hoards never get bigger than size four. So moving a size two hoard onto a size one hoard will get you a size three hoard, but moving one size three hoard onto another size three hoard results in a single size four hoard.
The components are decent. They won’t be winning any awards, but they get the job done. The human pawns are plastic and most everything else is represented by a cardboard token. The cards, as mentioned above, are the same stock as the card game, which means they’re a little hard to shuffle, and have very pointy corners. The dice are pretty standard. My only real complaint is that I wish they had chosen a different background color for the board itself. It’s black, which by itself isn’t all that bad. I mean, it’s meant to be a dark, bleak game. The problem is that the zombie hoard dice are also black, so if the zombie hoard dice are lying on the board, it’s surprisingly hard to see them and it sometimes takes a couple seconds to locate them.
As for the gameplay itself, that’s probably where it’s weakest. I may be a bit biased, though. You see, I’m used to playing cooperative games that, simply put, will not just kick your butt, but rip it off your pelvis and sew it onto a soccer ball. Most co-op games out there are just downright unfair and will practically crucify you for the slightest error in judgement. World War Z is pretty manageable by comparison. I mean, it’s feels as if it was balanced just right so that it’s just easy enough to win, if you don’t make many mistakes. But it is still possible to lose. In the games I’ve played so far (it plays surprisingly fast, I don’t think I’ve had a single game last so much as an hour) we’ve never lost. In a few games one person died and started playing as a zombie, and in a few games it was very close (with the zombies only needing one or two hordes of the appropriate size more), but the humans have yet to lose a single game I have played. So it’s a bit on the easy side. Which might be a selling point, if you’re not interested in an incredibly difficult game.
There were also a few minor rule ambiguities that I still haven’t figured out, but they’re so minor that I just haven’t bothered to seek an official answer. You can figure the answers out on your own and whatever you choose, you probably won’t be wrong. (Still, it would have been best if the rules were a little bit more clear from the get-go.) In the end, I’m not really sure I enjoyed the game that much. It wasn’t that I thought the game was boring, I just wasn’t expecting it to be quite so easy.
Bottom Line: For a co-op game it’s surprisingly simple and fairly easy. People who are used to such cooperative games as Pandemic or Lord of the Rings won’t find much to enjoy. However, if you’re new to co-op games and aren’t looking for a trial by fire, then World War Z should be right up your alley.
You can find it on Amazon, as well as plenty of other stores.
