Zombies 2 Zombie Corps(e) Review

Zombies!!! 2 is – unsurprisingly - an expansion for the original Zombies!!! game, set on a Government Military Base, with obvious inspiration taken from George Romero’s classic zombie flick, Day of the Dead. The game is played exactly as in the original, but with the Military Base Front Gate added into the map tile deck - when this is drawn, players can choose to add tiles to either the town or the military base. The main advantage of adding tiles to the Military Base is that the second Helipad should theoretically be placed quicker as it is a smaller deck. Military base specific event cards are also included, and can be used when inside the base area. Another addition is the Motor Pool card - when this is drawn and a player reaches it, their movement roll can be increased by taking a jeep from the pool, and this continues until they enter a building.

Another addition comes in the form of the Government Enhanced Super Zombies, six of which come packaged with Zombies!!! 2. These are placed on the Top Secret Lab tile when it is drawn, and require a 5 or 6 to kill. Plus, due to their enhanced abilities, they can move two squares every turn instead of the usual one. As the Military Base is quite small, there is potential for these zombies to spread out rather quickly and make nuisances of themselves.

The whole point of Zombies!!! 2 seems to be to provide players with a new environment to roam and new zombies to kill, as well as slightly speeding up gameplay with the addition of the extra helipad. This is not necessarily accomplished however, with the Super Zombies often slowing down progress and the map sometimes getting increasingly out of control and therefore harder to traverse.There doesn't seem to be a lot of point in engaging the Super Zombies as the risk is so high - but we added a variation of our own by declaring that each Super Zombie a player kills is worth two regular ones. The only way we found to give players a reason to go towards them as well as engage them in combat was to make each Super Zombie worth 2 regular ones when killed by a player.

The fact that only six extra zombies are included is very disappointing. Often when playing the main game without an expansion the main supply of 100 zombies can run out very easily, so it would have been nice to have added an extra 20 or so to this set, especially considering its price in relation to the only slightly higher price of the core game - and much more is included with that set! With the military base growing in size alongside the town as play progresses, more and more zombies are required, and there simply aren't enough to go around.

On the whole though, Zombies!!! 2 does add just enough to the experience to make it a worthwhile purchase for fans of the original game who are hungry for more zombie killing fun. Obviously, those players turned off by the dull gameplay of the core game will not find anything to redeem it here – this really is just more of the same, albeit with glowing dead guys rather than grey ones.

Summary

Presentation:

Twilight Creations have a reputation for high standards with regards to visuals, and Zombies!!! 2 is no exception. The box does seem a little empty for the price though!

7.8/10

Clarity of Rules:

Considering this is just an expansion with minimal rules changes or variations, you’d think that the rules would be easy to understand and digest, right? Twilight Creations once again drop the ball with poorly worded rules – which include an FAQ that really should have been in reprints of the core game!

4.5/10

Game Length:

OK if used as a standalone game, but far too long if introduced into the already too long core game.

7.0/10

Value:

The glow in the dark zombies are excellent but there are only six of them. Not much else is included, although different coloured heart tiles do fix the problem of the tokens being hard to tell apart in the core game.

6.3/10

Overall:

A nice expansion for fans of the original, but those disillusioned with the core game will not find anything here that makes the experience any more palatable. Game length is just about right when used as a standalone game, and Zombies!!! 2 also fixes one or two other issues that the original game has, but expansions should not be used to correct problems in a core game – surely that’s what reprints are for?

6.4/10

(not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown