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Hello all of you board gamers out there. My name is JP and I will be doing my review on Last Night on Earth. Hopefully this will help you with whether or not you want to get the game. So here we go!!!!
Unboxing:
There are many components to this game. The first thing you will see our the 6 "L" shaped board pieces. Next there is the center board which is two sided (one side is the Manor and the other is the center). You will also see good size card board with characters and scenarios. All of them look fantastic. You will also get a bag of zombies as well as figurines of the characters. Plenty of dice as well as alot of extra pieces for designing your own scenarios (example: Bio Canisters, Skull, Book and LNOE Numbers) that our small cardboard pieces to be placed on the board. It also comes with different cardboard buttons (Lights Out and Overrun) to be used for the games. You also get two decks of cards: One for the Hero and the other for the Zombies. And last but not least is a soundtrack to play while you are playing the game. Everything is very high quality and beautiful to look at.
Basic Gameplay: (Die Zombie Die)
This is what the game recommends you play before you get into the advance version of the game. You need between 2-6 players (For this example we will be using 2). This scenario just wants you to kill 15 zombies in a certain amount of turns. Otherwise the zombies win. The first thing you do is decide who is going to be the Zombies and who is going to be the Hero. Once that is decided you then pick your 4 characters. There are a number of characters to choose from like The Drifter, High School Sweet Heart, Country Girl, Nurse, Priest and a few others just to name a few. Each one has there own abilities to use during the game such as healing, +1 to movement, heal other heros, start with a gun and so on like this. Some also get bonuses depending on where they fight. So after you pick 4 of them now its time to set up the board. Pick 4 random "L" shaped boards to use. Set them around the center piece and now we are getting closer. You look at the board and if your characters starting point (ex: High School Sweetheart starts in the school) then place your characters in that area. If not you start in the center of the board and get a free Hero Card.
Zombie Turn:
The zombie player rolls two dice to see how many zombies start the game. Once that is complete you put them (as evenly as possible) on the red "X"s all around the board. Now you are ready to begin. The zombie player always starts the turn. The first thing they do is put the Suntracker marker in the correct spot (15). Then the player rolls to see if they spawn zombies at the end of the turn. Third they draw four zombie cards. If they say "Play Immediately" than it must be played during the turn. It could be anything from "Lights Out", "Overrun", "Add new Spawn Pit" and so on. Fourth thing is that the zombies must move one space. That is all they are allowed to move unless they use a card to speed them up (which there are). Then they fight if they are in the same square as a hero. And last they roll a die to see how many more zombies get added on to the board. These zombies do not move but stay at the "X" spawning points until the next turn. That is pretty much the zombie turn. The next zombie turn they move the Suntracker down one spot and redraw until they have 4 cards (ex: You used 3 cards. Then next turn you draw 3 cards to complete your hand.
Hero turn:
Now the Heros turn. First you roll one die to see how many spaces you will move. Then you either decide to move or to "Search" a building. You must be in a building to search it. If you are decide to "Search" then you give up your move action and draw one hero card. If you draw an item card you put it on your character face up. Hero's also have "Play Immediately" cards that need to be played during the turn. IF its an event card you keep that in your hand. The Heros are only allowed 4 items (2 weapons and 2 items such as Fire or Gasoline). Then if you have a Range Weapon (ex: Rifle or Flare Gun) than you can use it. And last is the fight stage when you are in the same square as a zombie.
Fight:
When fighting a zombie the hero rolls two dice and the zombie rolls one. You want to roll higher than the zombies and zombies also win on ties. Ex: Zombie rolls a "4". Hero rolls a "4" and "5". The Hero has successfully fended off the zombie because he rolled a "5" which is higher than the "4". In order for you to kill a zombie you must roll higher than the zombie and roll doubles. Ex: Zombie rolls a "3". Hero rolls two "4"s. You have successfully killed the zombie. There are also cards you can play such as Combat Bonuses that can be used after you roll. These can be the ability to re-roll and win on a tie. These help you turn the tides in your favor. Also if the zombies have a "Fight" card they are only allowed to use one per battle but the Heros can use as many as they have and sometimes as many times as you want during a fight. There are also cards that add to your attack meaning if a zombie rolls a "3" and the hero rolls "4" and "3". You can add +1 to a roll and now you have a "4" and "4" which means you kill the zombie. You don't need to roll a natural double to kill the zombie.
Searching:
Some buildings will have items you are able to "Pick Up" without drawing a hero card. So instead of drawing a hero card from the top of the deck you can put a certain card in your had. In order to do this the cards must be in the discard pile unless it says "Search the Deck" for a certain card.
Winning:
The zombies win if they successfully kill 4 hero, get rid of all the hero cards, and or all the turns expire (except for "Defend the Manor"). The heros win if they fulfill there objectives
Overall: 4 out of 5
There are alot of components to this game as well as alot of rules that are a little confusing. The game comes with a 20 page rule book but they should have gone into more detail. But... this game is still amazing. Definitely my favorite zombie game I have played and a must have for people that love horror movie board games. I wasn't a fan of the soundtrack at first but I played it in the background during a game and it just went so perfectly with the scenarioss. It just adds another element to the game which makes it like a horror movie. Also the different scenarios make for a different gameplay everytime. The two I hardly play are "Defend the Manor" and "Die Zombie Die". These are the basic ones but the others like "Save the Townsfolk" "Burn Em Out" are so amazing and definitely give it alot of replay value. Flying Frog also gives you the ability to make your own scenarios. Which to me is great because you can make even twice as many new scenarios. Flying Frog also has scenarios they have come up with that you can download and play with the game. Some scenarios they came up with need the expansions but a few have alternate modification you can do to play with the LNOE original board game. One thing I recommend is getting alot of zip lock bags because there are alot of parts. Get about 4 or 5 of them ready so everything can have its place. The cards are amazing quality and should last you a long time. I'm looking forward to getting all the expansions which will add depth, new scenarios, extra game pieces, new zombies and zombie cards, new hero's and hero cards and new zombie and hero figurines.
I hope you find this helpful and if you have any questions please let me know. Thanks for reading my review. Leave comments and questions.
JP
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Celebrating 5 years with a wonderful woman and worthy opponent at the game table !
United States
Middletown
Pennsylvania
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Hello JP ! Welcome to BGG
Hope you're okay with some constructive criticism 
Firstly, I am a huge fan of LNoE. One of my favorite games and is always well met by new players.
Having never actually written a review myself , maybe I am not the best person to be critiquing your review, but I am gonna offer some advice anyhow.
I have read tons of reviews as well as the inevitable comments that follow. One thing I can see that will be mentioned about your review is that it's not really a review as much as a description of the game and an overview of the rules.
Spend some time looking around at other reviews and you will find some great ones to use as "guideline" type stuff. Generally the reviews with more thumbs are good ones to check out.
You will find that the best reviews, while have their own "style" mainly cover a few general topics. And, most of these are based on how you liked the game and why. Not so much "here is how you play".
Things that a good review should cover. ( some of which yours does )
Quality of Components
Rules - How well they are written, if there is many errors etc..
Fun/Challenging - did you enjoy the game ? was it too easy/hard ?
"Feel" - Is the game deeply themed , how does it compare to other games in the same genre ? What should a player expect out of the game ?
All that being said - again I have never actually written a review ( although I am working on it ) so , meh, what do I know ?
Hopefully some others will chime in here and maybe even offer a couple links to some of the really great reviews that you can find here at BGG.
Welcome Aboard and keep 'em coming !
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Brian Gomez
United States
Bellevue
Nebraska
No more confusing me for tickmanfan. I swear I got more thumbs when I was him!
The $wingin' Utter$ are a kickass punk band from California. Look em up.
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Wouldn't reviews that emulate another reviewers style be at best, redundant and at worst a blatant rip-off?
Everyone should be allowed the opportunity to review games the way they prefer.
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Jay Voorhees
Canada
Montreal
Quebec
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He Jesse! Welcome to BGG! Love this game. This was my gateway game and it still hits the table every time we get a new addition to the group. Look forward to seeing you around the Geek.
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Celebrating 5 years with a wonderful woman and worthy opponent at the game table !
United States
Middletown
Pennsylvania
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hskrfn822 wrote: Wouldn't reviews that emulate another reviewers style be at best, redundant and at worst a blatant rip-off?
Everyone should be allowed the opportunity to review games the way they prefer.
I wasn't suggesting that he copy other reviewer's styles, merely that he consider what content makes a good review.
From what I have seen the general concensus is that a reading of the rules is not a review. Of course anyone can do a review however they see fit.
Was only trying to offer some possibly helpful advice to a newer member...
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Brian Gomez
United States
Bellevue
Nebraska
No more confusing me for tickmanfan. I swear I got more thumbs when I was him!
The $wingin' Utter$ are a kickass punk band from California. Look em up.
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Mulligans wrote: hskrfn822 wrote: Wouldn't reviews that emulate another reviewers style be at best, redundant and at worst a blatant rip-off?
Everyone should be allowed the opportunity to review games the way they prefer. I wasn't suggesting that he copy other reviewer's styles, merely that he consider what content makes a good review. From what I have seen the general concensus is that a reading of the rules is not a review. Of course anyone can do a review however they see fit. Was only trying to offer some possibly helpful advice to a newer member...
There isn't anything remotely close to a concensus considering that "good" is an abstract term and very much subjective.
For instance, I myself find that posts containing a game's rules stated in clearer "layman's terms", to be quite helpful, but not a review. I find most "reviews" to be devoid of any rational critique. Many of the most highly regarded reviewers receive compensation from game companies for their efforts and don't disclose this. So guys like Endersgame, Drakkenstrike, Tom Vasel and others receive much acclaim for their reviews, but how much confidence can we have that we're getting an objective and unbiased review? We can't.
Reviews of any sort are just one persons opinion and each of us should be allowed to post as many reviews of any sort we want. BGG is a place for all sorts and all sorts of contributions. I'm not saying your advice is wrong, just perhaps a bit misguided as it assumes that what makes a review "good" is some sort of list of concrete things that can be defined.
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Celebrating 5 years with a wonderful woman and worthy opponent at the game table !
United States
Middletown
Pennsylvania
-
hskrfn822 wrote: perhaps a bit misguided as it assumes that what makes a review "good" is some sort of list of concrete things that can be defined.
I agree. Misguided By Voices.
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