Last Night on Earth

I had the opportunity to play The Last Night on Earth today, which is a newly released boardgame. The premise of the game revolves around players attempting to escape from zombies, whilst fulfilling required objectives. I had a blast playing this game, and I think it should be recommended to people who may have an interest in 1) a very thematic game and/or 2) zombies/horror genre.

There are a couple things that may hinder enjoyment of the game, but overall I think it is fairly well-designed.

Summary
The game is played on a play area that is put together with smaller modular boards. Players either play either as the human characters attempting to escape from certain death, or as the zombie hordes trying to inflict said certain death. The human characters have a limited number of turns to complete the objectives, ranging from killing a set number of zombies, to fueling a getaway truck. Zombies have to either try to kill off the human heroes, or try to delay them from completing their goals.

Components
The components are of extremely high quality, comprising of plastic models for the characters and zombies, and thick glossy cardboard for the character sheets, tokens and other game markers. The game also comes with a deck of cards for both zombie and human players, and these are of very high quality as well. Overall, the game looks very well-produced, and buyers will get a good deal from this purchase.

Rules
The rules are fairly simple, which leaves players more time to enjoy the game, and less time to ponder over fiddly rules. Human heroes get to move their characters, exchange items with fellow humans, and fight. Humans also get the option to search for items in lieu of moving, provided they are within a building or structure. Zombies get to pick up special cards, move and spawn zombies, and attack heroes.

Most of the rules are fairly streamlined. Human movement is based on one roll of a D6. Zombies move one space, unless there is a special card dictating otherwise. Fights are resolved between dice roll-offs between humans and zombies. Humans roll a basic of 2 dice, zombies get one; however zombies win all ties. Any special rules to fights are dictated by cards picked up by both sides. These cards modify fights either by adding dice or adding modifiers (e.g. rolls at 2+ automatically win fights).

Pluses
The game is very thematic, while also remaining fairly well-balanced between the both sides. Human players get a real sense of desperation when the zombie hordes closes in, whilst the zombies players are filled with an unnerving determination as their undead forces shamble forward.

Both sides have an equally good chance at winning the game, with the game swinging back and forth throughout the game. Zombie players start to feel a little triumphant as the board fills with their underlings, whilst human players may see a slight glimmer of hope as they start thinning out the enemies. I've only played this once, but I suspect that the endgame should be fairly close, and coming down to the wire.

Minuses
Some characters may be unbalanced, or at the very least, too well designed for their jobs. One character, Jake Cartwright, has the ability to draw two hero cards and discard one. This gives this character a huge advantage if the objective requires human players to search for specific items within the deck. In our game, Jake stayed in one spot for most of the game cycling through the deck while the rest of us kept the zombies of his back. While this may make some thematic sense, it doesn't lead to exciting gameplay, as that player sits back and continually draws cards.

Because the main rules of the game is fairly streamlined, and most of the rules exceptions comes in the form of the cards played, it creates the situation whereby contradicting rules are not fully explained, and players will need to resolve this using common sense. This could lead to situations where time is spent debating rules rather than playing. Thankfully, most cards are fairly well-written, but this problem is particularly apparent when dealing with the special event cards.

Overall
This game is very enjoyable, and with the right crowd, can be a downright blast to play. Best played as part of a Halloween event, or with a zombie movie playing in the background, this game will get your blood up! So if you have only a passing fancy for the zombie/horror genre, you should give this game a try. Recommended, and given my stamp of approval.