Zombies!!!

The author would like to first apologize for the lack of an update yesterday. There are excuses I could give, not the least of which involves a bottle of wine and a film from the 1930’s.

Since we began discussing board games Wednesday I want to take the time to analyze Zombies!!! published in 2001 by Twilight Creations.

Before we begin discussing the game as literature I would like to note that my family and friends find this game very fun and has been at the center of more than one night of entertainment.

As a game Zombies!!! comes packaged with tiles (which you use to make the board as you play), miniatures, cards, dice, chits, and the rules. That’s quite a hefty amount of items for one board game. All of these things can be seen as tropes, but having a lot of mechanics and tropes does not necessitate a good piece of literature.

Most of the pieces are necessary and very useful, although my friends and I find the cards to be of less use. most of the time they get discarded, forgotten about, or are never used. This is a good example of a game that has glutted itself on tropes and therefore undermines it’s value as literature.

As a simulation and a story-telling device Zombies!!! is both excellent and terrible. The chances for success and failure when fighting a zombie are 50/50 (although you have some small amount of control over the end result), which to me seems very realistic and it does add to sense of dread while playing. This is a great way to get people afraid and to represent the terror of the situation.

the objectives however make the game less realistic and less in keeping with the theme. There are two ways to win the game; first is by being the first to reach the helipad and the second is from killing 25 zombies. While the 25 zombie limit makes the game quicker to play, I find it weakens the the story-telling element. How does killing 25 zombies exactly secure victory for a person? It’s this question that casts doubt on this games legitimacy as high literature.

The rule book does come with a brief tale to set the stage for the game, all of the art is gruesome, which ties greatly into the themes and sense of foreboding.

Overall Zombies!!! is a great game (although it takes quite a bit of time to play and is very random)but a poor choice of literature. Keep in mind that the scores provided reflect the evaluation of the game as literature, not the quality of the game itself.

3/10 but your mileage may vary.