System Analysis – The Last Night on Earth

This is an analysis of the board game Last Night on Earth. A game where you play either the heroes trying to survive and complete the scenario, or the zombie horde trying to kill and stop them. I will first go through the different systems the game has and summarize how all of them work with each other. Then I will move on to things I did/didn’t like about these systems and the full game. And lastly discuss what audience this is targeted towards.

Objects & Systems – Culminations

This board game may look complex at first, many tokens that may confuse, card that do different things, scenarios that change the game play and so on.. Luckily, it is one of the most simple board games I’ve ever played, and it is extremely enjoyable.

This is a 2-6 player game although there should always be 4 heroes on the board and one zombie player. If you break this rule then you will find the game to be very one-sided. If you are less than 4 heroes the zombie player will have a much easier time to advance towards and  kill you, if you are more than 4 then it will be very easy to spread and and pick on the zombies one at a time.

This game captures the b-horror feel that they are clearly aiming for. All from the text and images on the cards and the character heroes available to the very game play itself.

Game Board – The Ever Changing

The game board consists of one static middle piece with two sides depending on what scenario is played. And then there are several different corner pieces that randomizes at the start of the game and are placed randomly or by the use of dice. This makes sure that almost every game of Last Night on Earth you play is played differently outside of new scenarios.

Hero Sheets – All Stereotypes Included

The character sheets are given out randomly at the start of the game so you never know what you might get. Every character has special abilities that can be used throughout the game, they also have differing amounts of health and some characters even have weaknesses. Every hero also has a start location on the board.

Hero and Zombie Cards – Items and Events

There are two different decks of cards, the Hero Deck and the Zombie Deck.

The Hero deck has items and events helpful to the Heroes. A Hero may draw a card from the deck by standing in a building on the board and give up their move action for the search action(draw a card). Items must be placed face up by their character sheet, and you can only have four items on you at any time. You can also trade items with Heroes that are on the same square as you.

You can also draw events from the deck, these can be used to prevent certain Zombie cards to be used or help other heroes in fights.

The Zombie Deck is filled with events that the zombie can use to his advantage. There are also some rare ones that stops the zombie player from becoming too powerful. These cards can really screw with how you play the game as a Hero.

Some of the cards in these two decks are labeled Play Immediately meaning you have to play them right of the bat as you draw them.

Scenario Cards – Change of Game Play

The scenario cards are the deciding factor when it comes to the heroes and zombies objectives. The basic one is called Die Zombies, Die! and is a simple kill x amount of zombies before you run out of turns. There are also ones where you have to collect four townsfolk from the Hero Deck and keep them in your hand until the turns run out. And one where you have to get gas and keys to the car in the middle to escape before you run out of turns. These are very nice and sorely needed as a single game play objective would make the game stale after a while.

Tokens – One for Everything

There are several different tokens, whereas most are used for special cards that can be drawn in either the Hero or Zombie Deck.

The wound token is used to show how many wounds a hero has taken. They get a wound every time they lose a fight. The amount of wounds the hero can take is displayed on their hero sheet.

There are also tokens for cards that stop heroes from searching a specific building. Or tokens for a dog that can stop zombies from moving from a square without rolling a D6.

Turns and Fights – How to…

When everything is set up the zombie is the first to take his turn. First the zombie rolls two D6 to see how many zombies he can place on the board; they must be evenly distributed among the zombie start locations. Then he draws four Zombie Cards from the Zombie Deck, and since it’s the first turn he is now done, unless he wishes to play a Zombie Card that is in his hand. And if a zombie is in a square also occupied by a hero they will now have to fight.

What is also worth mentioning is the mechanic of brain hungry zombies. A zombie must move into a square occupied by a hero if they are standing in an adjacent square.

The Heroes turn. The Heroes can decide themselves in which order they are going to take their turns. First the hero rolls a D6 to see how many squares he can move, if he is in a building he can forfeit his move actions and instead draw a card from the Hero Deck. after this has been done he may shoot a zombie if he has a ranged weapon and is in range of a zombie. At the end of the turn if the hero is in a square also occupied by a zombie they will now have to fight.

Fight – A Simple Roll of Dice

I would say that it is during fight that everything culminates and connects. You move to be able to fight, you draw cards to fight better. But what it really comes down to in fights is being good at rolling dice.

The zombie player get one D6 for every zombie he has occupying the square the hero is in, and the hero get two D6 by default but may add extra die depending on items they have or event cards being played. The player rolling the highest on one die wins the fight (if it is a tie then the zombie wins unless the hero has a card that says otherwise). To kill the zombie, the hero must not only win the roll but also roll two of the same number. When a zombie loses and the hero rolls two of one number all zombies in that square are sent back to the zombie player’s hand.

Correlations and Game Core

This game is rather beautifully made, because it really feels like everything affects everything. Nothing in this game seems to be tagged on and not useful in any way. There are not many systems and it is rather simple, but they use those systems very well.

The cards you draw either as a zombie or hero can affect the board in some way wither by blocking buildings or allowing heroes from moving through walls. There are also cards that affect how heroes are played, negating their move actions of giving them an extra fight die.

The hero you are affect what kind of cards/items you can use and you can gains certain bonuses from being on certain places on the board.

The D6

Rolling dice is a big part of this board game but you can’t really call that a system. I as well as the group have found it quite difficult to find the core system in this game. My thought was that because everything culminates in the fight part of the game that it would be the core, but then again, fighting is die rolling.

It is so difficult to find the core of the game because everything is weaved together so beautifully and almost everything involves a die in some way.

In the basic scenario of Die Zombies, Die! The heroes’ main goal is to kill zombies, and the zombies goal is to kill the heroes. Wouldn’t the core be to fight here? But the fighting is just rolling die. Or is it? Wouldn’t you also be able to say that the fighting also involves drawing cards used when fighting, and moving to fight, to position yourself? Using mechanics such as two heroes on one square can split the zombies attacking them so it makes it easier to fight them, or forcing zombies to attack them by standing in an adjacent square. Like I said, everything culminates and resolves in fight.

Maybe it’s a stretch, maybe there is no right answer when it comes to this game. And as I said, I feel this only applies to the Die Zombies, Die! scenario. So to recap, I think the core of the game is the fighting system, not the die rolling in particular but the use of hero/zombie cards and special abilities during this phase of the game.

Likes and Dislikes

If there is one thing I dislike about this game it is the need to play 4 heroes even if you’re not enough people to play those four heroes. I got into it more easily when only being in control of one hero. Other than that I don’t have that much bad to say about the game. It is a random game and there’s not much that can be done about that because that in turn would break the feeling of the game.

I love the aesthetic! You really feel like you’re in a b-horror movie of sorts. Silly portraits and stereotypes, cards that makes things go crazy, and weapons that can be ridiculous.

Target Audience

The game is recommended for ages 12 and up. And I can see that being correct, it is simple to learn and quick to play with around 60 minutes of game time depending on scenario.

I really feel that any person would be able to enjoy this, but then again, there’s no demographic that is called everyone.

Playing a hero you really need to have to play with the other heroes, you can’t be a loner and win, you need to work together and develop a strategy that works for everyone. The team player would really enjoy playing as a hero.

Playing as a zombie on the other hand. If you like being a pile of feces and strategize how to best destroy the hero players then this is the role for you. The zombie player is really a force of destruction and you can get infuriated with the lucky cards he draws.

When it comes to movement for both the heroes and the zombies there are some element of strategy that needs to be applied. But perhaps not enough to draw in strategy players into the game.

I could see this game being the game of choice when playing something at a party or get-together with friends and some alcohol. It is an enjoyable party game.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Have a good one!