The board game community has come to the rescue at this point. Something Zombicide: Black Plague should be far from ashamed of. It means players love the game enough to weigh in with “house rules”. My favourite way to get around this player elimination is, potentially due to my love of video games, the ‘Left 4 Dead’ method. This sees eliminated players respawn with no items, bar a piece of starting equipment, in a locked room somewhere on the game board. Before they can re-enter the game the team must make their way to the room and unlock it. This punishes the team as they are distracted from the objectives which will win them the game. It also has the potential of the team having to fight their way through a horde of zombies to save their comrade.
Zombies and hero miniatures aside, component wise Zombicide: Black Plague can simply not be faulted. From the small noise tokens all the way up to the plastic player mats and the double-sided map tiles the board game oozes high quality. This is a necessity for the game as these tokens are constantly being used and you’ll want them to stay pristine. The tokens for items such as door and vault entrances add to the individual map tiles to give the board meaning, without obscuring the epic little details in some of the rooms. It all adds together to become one a believable map to wander around.
The Zombicide: Black Plague game box isn’t exactly on the small side, and it isn’t overly light either. The box segments allow the map tiles to comfortably fit in the box. The zombies box with plastic inlays is perfect for the storage of the miniatures, it has room for all the cards, dice and player boards. My only issue if the remaining pieces such as noise tokens, vault entrances, zombie spawn tokens, etc. have nowhere special to be put. These are left to float around the box. I’d highly advise picking up some small plastic bags just to stop them rattling around the box and it also means you don’t need to scoop them all out of the box before you want to play.
The games quests are helpfully denoted from easy to hard, a rating which feels accurate. The suggested game length however seems largely vary. Game lengths will always vary from gaming group to gaming group, with experience shortening games such as this. After the tutorial, Quest 0: Danse Macabre, lasted almost bang on the suggested 45 minutes things looked promising. This accuracy in timing was unfortunately not always the case. A prime example would be Quest 2: The Black Book, which despite its 60 minute suggested length took approximately 2 hours.
There are a few reasons for this and maybe we were just unlucky when it came to zombie spawns from the very beginning of the game. The first zombie to spawn was the Abomination, a huge zombie which can only be killed with two specific looted items. The second spawned the Zombicide: Black Plague new unit the Necromancer, which results in a new zombie spawn point. Things didn’t look overly promising but we scrapped through. Yet, it still hit 2 hours. Just for the sake of knowledge potentially just tweaking the suggestion to 1-2 hours would be better. This was however, agreed by all players, 2 hours of incredible, action lead, zombie fun (and madness)!
When hordes of zombies start to congregate on the board, moving as one towards the players, every decision starts to become tense. Do you risk getting into that building, breaking down that door and finding out what’s inside? Dashing down a street away from an oncoming horde may be a good idea at that precise moment, but it may cut another player off from the rest of the group. This tension means that despite the game being turn based players automatically start to rush and forcing almost snap decisions. It’s this tension that draws players further and further into the game make Zombicide: Black Plague a truly immersive board game experience.
Zombicide: Black Plague is made for a gaming group. It can be played by 1-6 players but the game is balanced for 6 characters. It is relatively easy for players, though not necessarily new players, to play two or more characters to make up the numbers. I would have liked to see a couple of the pre-made quests built for 2-4 survivors. At least some of the 6 survivor quests being adapted with objects and zombie spawns flagged in the rules to be removed for a game with less players. This would just change the dynamic of the game slightly making it important to pick the right survivor.
After a few games, most players would be able to take up a sort of Dungeon Master (DM) role. When you reach this point the enjoyment only continues to grow. It’s helpful to have someone as the designated DM that plays as a character but helps the quest roll on, spawns the zombies and can add flavour to the game. Here’s an example of how by adding details the game is elevated. (Player successfully rolls to break open a door) “So you break the hinges off the door, it clatters to the floor splintering in two (adds noise tokens to the board). You discover (flips zombie spawn card) a group of 3 walkers ready to devour you.”
It is not needed in the slightest but Zombicide: Black Plague allows players to play like this. Getting more out of the game the more they add in. It is a long way off the full hardback rulebooks of D&D. Yet, there are similarities with unique character abilities, tiles and miniatures. Zombicide: Black Plague is a D&D Lite. I wouldn’t advise new players to jump into the hobby with Zombicide: Black Plague, unless they are particularly obsessed with the undead. Those whom certainly consider board games a hobby of theirs however should go out of their way to become a survivor and take on the hordes! It is far from a sit back and relax game but every element in the box adds excitement and will draw you back time and time again.
[Editor’s Note: Zombicide: Black Plague was provided to us by Esdevium Games for review purposes.]