Zombicide: Gear Up

The hordes of zombies keep on coming. In the distance you see the big bad zombie boss. You are a lone survivor fighting for your life. Do you have what it takes to bring down the hordes and defeat the big bad? Zombicide: Gear Up is a cooperative flip and write game set in the Zombicide world. You will select a character to play at the start of the game that will have four different weapons/attacks represented by four different colours. The player or players will select one of many bosses to face and a difficulty level.

Nine turn order cards are displayed with seven spawn cards underneath these (the first two round cards don’t have a spawn card underneath them). On a player’s turn they will flip a round card, activating the corresponding coloured weapon and drawing the relevant polyomino shape on a zombie card. This may cover up bullets or armour which are marked on the player’s character sheet. If a zombie has all of its squares crossed off they are defeated and players can “upgrade” one of their weapons.

Depending on the turn card revealed certain zombies may advance closer to you or attack you if they can’t advance further. If applicable, a spawn card is then revealed and a new zombie will be added. After all the cards have been played the cards are shuffled and the boss monster cards are revealed instead of the standard spawn cards. When a boss spawn card is revealed these will usually involve some form of boss attack. Players can cross spaces on the boss or zombies when a turn order card is revealed with the ultimate aim being to kill the boss.

If you cross off all the squares on the boss before the last card is flipped you win the game. If the last card is revealed and you haven’t defeated the boss, well, the boss captures you and eats your brains for breakfast.
Hopefully the above gives you a good enough idea of how the game plays. The above explanation is not intended as a full rules teach.

Final Thoughts

Zombicide: Gear Up is another small box flip and write game. It has a ton of content with a bunch of characters to play, several bosses to fight and a wide range of difficulties. The component quality is pretty top notch as well. But how does it play? Lets find out.

I am absolutely loving this game at the moment. It is quick to play, has a lot of replay-ability and I just really enjoy crossing off polyomino shapes on a zombie and blasting a crawler with my minigun. There are a bunch of different characters to play each one having different weapons (i.e. different polyomino shapes to draw) with a range of different abilities.

The big bad bosses range in shape, size, difficulty and offer different ways to interact with them. One of them, you can only draw shapes next to already drawn shapes for example. They are different and how you approach to defeating them is different. Throw them in to the mix with the different characters and the replay-ability is pretty high.

I enjoy the way the game is played in two phases (or rounds) with the first round fighting the low level zombies and trying to defeat them to upgrade your weapons. Once the deck is empty, the big bad boss comes out and you go again. I enjoy the build up and the upgrading phase and it feels like you are getting ready to take for the epic final.

In the second phase when the boss shows up, you still have to (potentially) deal with the zombies as well as fighting the boss. There are some interesting choices to be made as to when to kill zombies which may give you armour or bullets and when to fight the boss. You have a limited number of turns to defeat the boss so balancing these two is quite fun.

I like the addition of the bullets – which let you cross off a single space – and the armour – which can absorb some damage. How you get these is kind of odd however, crossing off a certain space on a zombie to gain a bullet. But it is what it is and it doesn’t really bother me. The game is essentially a puzzle. How do you best use the shapes you have been given to defeat what has been placed in front of you and that is rather enjoyable.

In the solo mode (which is the way I have predominately played) you have two additional “friends” to come and help you. These are activated when a smiley face is revealed on the turn order card and they have smaller polyomino shapes to cross off on your enemy. Each can only be used once per round and are refreshed at the beginning of the second round.

Zombicide: Gear Up is quick to play, has a ton of replay-ability, packaged in a great presentation and plays great solo. All the cards are dry erase, so you can keep playing this time and time again. Gear up has been hitting my table a lot recently, I love it. Good fun and enjoyable even if the dreaded Zombiphant stomps all over me and eats me for dinner.