This time around at Origins, I had two items in my sights, both of them cooperative board games in very different millieus: Ghost Stories by Repos Productions (distributed by Asmodee), and Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not. While I only found Ghost Stories at Origins, the PlatinumChick was kind enough to pick me up a copy of Zombicide for my birthday, so we spent the past Saturday giving a run through each!
Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories takes on an area of mythology that I'll readily admit, I'm not particularly familiar with. In Ghost Stories, players take on the role of Taoist kung-fu monks, defending a tiny village from an onslaught of ghosts, brought forth by Wu-Feng, lord of the Chinese Hells. And, when the game's in full swing? There are a ton of ghosts invading that tiny little village! At times, the feeling of hopelessness and dread is palpable around the table while the ghosts are marching in, haunting village tiles and slowly eroding your defenses.
 |
| Ghost Stories Created by Antoine Bauza (Repos Productions) Distributed by Asmodee. |
Luckily, the monks aren't chumps at defeating ghosts. Each monk has its own special abilities, providing an edge against Wu-Feng's army. The red monk, for instance, is the master of movement: he can either grant extra movement to other monks or (as an alternate ability; you don't get both!) teleport anywhere in the village as needed. The green monk is best at manipulating dice and can potentially outright ignore the dreaded "curse" die, which certain ghosts inflict when being exorcised. Further, each village tile has its own unique abilities, which the monks can use instead of directly exorcising a ghost. The Sorcerer's Hut can instantly kill any ghost on the board...if the monk is willing to sacrifice the Qi for it. The Night Watchmen's Beat pushes back "haunter" ghosts, buying the monks a little extra time before losing some precious ground.
The components for Ghost Stories aren't much to speak of--the minis that are present are fairly nice, particularly the "haunter" miniatures, which appear as creepy, lurching robed figures, advancing on the village. The art, however, screams theme at maximum volume. Each ghost is lavishly illustrated with horrific details, and even mechanically identical ghosts have unique art on each card. It's a great detail that significantly improves the game quality. I will admit, the copy that I purchased at Origins did not come with all of its complete components, though a quick email to Asmodee had the missing tiles in my hands within a week--definitely points in their favor!
Overall, Ghost Stories is a great, if punishingly hard, game that really tests your ability to work cooperatively around the table. At times, Ghost Stories almost feels puzzle-y, with the group trying to figure out, "Okay, we can't give up that tile, but we lose it on Green's turn. Red, can you move Blue over to the Pavilion of Heavenly Winds, so that he can attack and use the tile to move Yellow into position to take on Green's ghost?" That's some intense gameplay, but the puzzle nature takes you out of the kung-fu theme of the game a little bit. However, the art puts you right back into the fray very quickly and the game itself is fabulously fun. If there's one true knock I have against Ghost Stories, it's that it only hosts a maximum of 4 players. With our game table usually filling up to 7 or 8, 4 just doesn't cut it! Aside from that, though? Give it a run--Ghost Stories is a blast!
Zombicide
Okay, so this one's not quite fair. I've actually played Zombicide before, at one of the Wittenberg Game Nights. But, having received my own copy, it's quite a bit easier to review!
 |
| Zombicide Created by Cool Mini or Not |
But as a game? It's still fairly solid. Survivors walk that balance between feeling like epic heroes (mowing down droves of zombies with a chainsaw is not only possible in this game, but encouraged!), but are simultaneously fragile, only able to absorb two wounds before succumbing to the zombie hordes. Melee weapons seem to have a slight edge over ranged weapons in the base game, though they come with the disadvantage of having to actually get close to the zombies! Further, the game has an in-built mechanic that escalates the zombie threat as the survivors gain experience.
Zombicide does have few odd rules that just don't seem to make sense in the context of the game. Cars, for instance, provide no actual cover or protection against zombies. Further, while they're typically a welcome sight--allowing a driver to run down numerous zombies in but a single action--cars are almost a bit too common. The scenario we played had four, just sitting in the street! In addition, there's no way to shoot zombies that lurk in the same square as another survivor. Unless you have the "Scoped Rifle"--an item that you have to actually assemble during the course of the game from a "Scope" card and a "Rifle" card--any shot into a mixed area automatically targets survivors first! That's a fiddly rule that really tears down the fun of the game and doesn't make sense, outside of giving melee weapons another edge (you can choose your targets with melee weapons).
That said, there's a ton of replay value to be had in Zombicide. In addition to the numerous scenarios in the rulebook (and the possibility of entirely random scenarios, based on simply throwing down tiles and the like), there are a plethora of free missions and promo survivors ready to be printed on the Zombicide website. Further, Zombicide already has two major expansions out, centered on a mall (echoing Romero's Night of the Living Dead movies) and a prison (echoing The Walking Dead). A fourth expansion is actually being Kickstarted right now, centering on player-vs-player combat within a ruined hospital. I'm on the fence about this expansion--the prior two instituted zombies that felt "cheat-y", such as ones that were just outright immune to melee or ranged attacks--though this one does have some appeal.
With a few house rules and mechanical tweaks, Zombicide is absolutely the best, most thematic, most tactical zombie miniatures game on the market today. That said, it does need those few tweaks for playability, and a would-be collector should be well aware of power creep (both on the survivor and zombie sides) as the expansions go on. But, the replay value alone should keep you mowing down the hordes for months to come.
