Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
This review continues my series of detailed reviews. I have tried to cover every aspect of the game and as such you may prefer to skip to the bits of most interest.
Summary
Game Type - Board Game
Play Time: 45-70 minutes
Number of Players: 2-6
Mechanics – Co-operative, Combat, Roll & Move, Scenario Based
Difficulty – Moderate (Can be learned in under 30 minutes)
Components - Excellent
Release - 2007
Designer <PERSON>( Conquest of Planet Earth, Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhangar Game, Invasion from Outer Space: The Martian Game, Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients, A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game)
Ok this game does have many a review already but sometimes a person just needs to review a game because it is so damn cool. I do it because my review collection needs a review of a game like this.
The Theme
Welcome to the world of B-Grade Horror Movies, where small towns can suddenly become overrun with hordes of zombies with only one thing on their minds.....BRAINS!
LNoE is a really cool concept that allows a band of regular townsfolk to work co-operatively in order to survive a given scenario. Other player(s) then take on the role of the zombies who stagger their way to brains, brains and more brains in an effort to stop the heroes from achieving success.
In my experience the theme will either grab you or leave you cold. I'm yet to find a gamer at our club that hasn't been drawn to the table when they see what's on offer. Personally I can’t get enough B-Grade Shlock! Then again our club isn't the average Euro haven that some groups are either. That's not a put down, merely a comparison so you know where I'm coming from.
The Components
Flying Frog Productions should be congratulated for the quality of the components, in what is, their 1st production. They have obviously taken great pride in their work and it helps make this game all that more engaging.
Boards - LNoE uses a modular board system to create the town featured in each play. A central board represents the town centre. It consists of 9 large squares. The game then comes with 6 L-shaped outer boards and 4 of these are chosen at random and placed around the town centre. Each of these outer boards contain a range of buildings from the Hospital and Bank through to the Diner and High School. Overall the variety of locations is really quite good and they depict many of the places seen in classic Horror Flicks.
Image Courtesy of tallghost
The boards themselves are not mounted but they are suitably thick to stand up to many repeated plays. The artwork is featured using a top down perspective and is rather 'kitsh' in places, which fits the theme beautifully.
Character Templates - In all there are 8 characters to choose from. 299
Each template features the name, gender and type of character. Many of these terms are actually keywords that are used to activate certain cards during the game. The templates also outline the starting position of a character, their skills and how many wounds they can endure before dying.
The most notable feature of the templates however is the character image. Flying Frog decided to use real actors and photographic art throughout the game. This is really a brilliant design decision as it lends the game an added level of realism and invokes memories from your favourite B-Grade horror movies.
Image Courtesy of franklincobb
Scenario Templates - In all there are 5 unique scenarios to play. Each scenario comes with a template that includes all of the specific rules and objectives that are in play. I'll analyse each of these in more detail later.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Figures - Each character comes with a figure and there are also a total of 14 zombies. The figures are made from a soft plastic and stand about 35mm in height. I'm no expert on miniatures but the detail is far superior to that found in Marvel Heroes and Memoir '44.
The zombies come in two colours (brown and green) to allow for 2 zombie players when required. Most cool is the fact that the zombie figures come in 3 different sculpts or poses. This may be a small thing but it is not something that a start up company usually considers. for the effort.
Image Courtesy of ChildeRoland
Hero/Zombie Decks - Each side gets their own deck of cards, which they can draw from in order to influence the scenario. These cards all feature photographic artwork and they really add to the theme and atmosphere of each card and the game as a whole. The cards themselves have a glossy feel (in fact most of the game is high gloss). So far I haven't seen any real wear and tear after 10+ plays. 336