Board Game Review: Last Night on Earth
Photo: Boardgamegeek.com
Zombies, Zombies, Zombies…Who doesn’t like zombies? Well this guy sure does. I was thrilled when surfing my FLGS’ shelves for a new boxed delight for our weekly game night that I was directed to Flying Frog Productions’ Last Night on Earth. I actually had in my hand another zombie game but the guys there at the Complete Strategist recommended Last Night instead, and it was a glorious find. Already it has moved to the top of the requested game play list and Tammy and I already bought the first expansion.
So Last Night on Earth is a very unique board game as it is made up of a large center square board section and the four “L” shaped segments that complete the game play area. So in the end it looks like a square board but the outer sections are interchangeable with the eight or ten “L” shaped sections and the revisable centerpiece. Last Night is published by Flying Frog and can play up to six people with two being the zombies and four playing our stalwart heroes. An average game lasts roughly 90 minutes of zombie smashing, movie tension filled fun. It received two nominations in 2008 from Golden Geek Awards for best board game artwork, and best party board game.
The game in general is a lot of fun. There are all kinds of cool and quirky characteristics brought to the game by the funny quotes on all the character notes and hero cards. While the game has a definite overlord element where one or two players are going against the rest of the players, it still allows for great amounts of teamwork between both zombie players as well as the four hero players. There are some really awesome possibilities for both sides to chain together special skills and card effects to buff characters or mash the living.
Each scenario has a couple of criteria for victory, of course, which group wins is based on what criteria is met. Both sides have changing conditions based on which scenario is being played. Some scenarios require defending the Manor house from zombie invasion, others require rescuing townsfolk, and still others require elimination of “X” number of zombies by daybreak. And the Sun Track is a unique turn counter element based on how close daybreak is. Contrary to popular thought, just because morning comes doesn’t always signal the end of the nightmare and relief for our heroes. Oh no, morning at times will reveal more mindless hoards of the undead in search of human brains.
The turn begins with the Zombies checking to see how many, if any, respawn based on a die roll. The game uses multiple six-sided dice for all the checks made in game, though occasionally they implement a D3 (half of a D6 roll). The Zombies then replenish their hands by drawing cards from the Zombie deck. These cards allow special events and effects to take place through out the game. The undead horde then makes their moves and any zombies in squares with heroes then fight.
Heroes then get to go. They individually get to move or search, shoot any ranged weapons, then handle any close combat that needs to happen. The only way heroes get new items is by searching buildings, so it’s not like you can just sit around and wait for zombies in the game, you have to do some exploring. While fending off zombies may not be the most difficult, killing them certainly isn’t easy, so you really need weapons and items to help out.
Photo: Boardgamegeek.com
Photo: Boardgamegeek.com
The parts in the box don’t exactly fit the best when they’re being returned to the box, or at least I couldn’t figure it out. So instead I removed the plastic insert and used bags to organized things. This allowed more space for me to combine the expansions we bought later all into one box. Speaking of expansions, this game has a handful ready to go! We already purchased the first expansion, Last Night on Earth: Growing Hunger, which includes new board sections, new “Red Zombies” which are even more dangerous, as well as new scenarios and cards for both sides. In addition to Growing Hunger, there are a number of smaller expansions that each typically includes more heroes, zombies, scenarios, and cards.
One really unique function to the game, though I haven’t tried it out yet, is that Flying Frog has another game with essentially the same game mechanisms called Invasion from Outer Space: The Martian Game. And I am told that you can combine both Invasion and Last night for a combined game for up to twelve people and utter mayhem! They even have an expansion pack of Zombie-Martians, the undead alien miniatures. How awesome is that?
Over all Last Night on Earth is a super fun, relatively quick playing game that has resulted in numerous, highly cinematic games already. There is a real tongue-in-cheek element to the game that’s fun for sure, you can’t help but take on the role of your hero and toss around fun quotes every time it’s your turn. Every time we’ve played we thought early in the game things were going one way, only to have things turned on us, then turned back at the very last second. Numerous times the heroes have won or lost at the last possible moment. Last Night on Earth is a great game and I highly recommend it. If zombies aren’t your thing, go check out Invasion from Outer Space.
What games are you playing or have you wanted to try?
