Last Night on Earth

Great fun and a great game system! There are very few things (if any) that are not covered in the rulebook as the rules are very simple and straightforward. Heroes or zombies can "always" or "never" do a particular action, so it leaves little to interpretation or arguing once you have read the rules (very important!). And the cards are clearly worded as well.
The map variations, cards and differing hero abilities make for a different game experience even if you play the same scenario each time (the game comes with five scenarios and there are currently two scenarios available on the website in PDF form).
So if you love or even just like zombie flicks, this game is for you! The material is high quality (art and photos) and the soundtrack adds a great final touch.
Cheers,
John

I love this game, it is very atmospheric, and reflects the zombie horror movie themes brilliantly, while still being a fun game to play. I came to it having been disappointed with Zombies!!! This plays completely differently. The zombies are really dangerous and the heroes will want to run from them unless they are tooled up with weapons.

There can be one or two zombie players, and up to four heroes players. Its a co-operative game, zombies vs the heroes. There are various scenarios, that can be played which reflect aspects of zombie horror movies. Like find the keys and gasoline for a truck so the heroes can escape town, or burn the spawning pits to stop the zombies coming, etc. Each scenario has a limited turn count, so it won't drag on indefinitely (a common problem with Zombies!!!), so a game usually takes a few hours at most, while learning, probably less time once you get the hang of it.

These multiple scenarios combined with multiple possible board layouts and mixture of different heroes and two random draw decks (hero and zombie) means lots of replay without it feeling the same.

Main drawback is if the heroes don't well work together then it can seem a little one-sided and the random hero and zombie deck can make things difficult if the card you need don't come up, while the other players cards do come up.

Last Night on Earth
A challenger for the Zombies!!! crown has finally emerged and it looks like LNOE is reaching up a desiccated hand to take the top spot. Set in the sleepy, rural town of Woodinvale, the dead have risen and the town residents must get themselves tooled up and band together to fight the undead horde.
At least one player gets control of the zombies, whilst the rest control the pitifully small band of townsfolk. The Heroes range from the Lovely Jenny the farm girl, Becky the nurse, Sally the school girl.. Ahhh you got me that’s all the crumpet, the rest are a pretty rugged bunch of dudes including: the Local Jock, Sheriff, High School Drop Out and Spooky Priest. After the characters are assigned, the board is set up. The town square is the only permanent feature. The game comes with six L-shaped boards, only four of which can surround the town Square, adding a bit of randomness to the map.
Far from being a random monster bash, the game comes with five varied scenarios, where the Heroes have to complete the tasks by the allotted time or become one with the rampaging hordes of maggoty fiends. The truck Scenario has the Heroes hunting for Gas and Keys to escape the town, Die! Zombies Die! Requires them to dismember 15 Zombies before dawn, without loosing two heroes, The Manor is a basic defend the building for 15 turns.
Movement for the Heroes is by Die roll, though they can choose to stay put and draw a card from their present location. Zombies stumble ‘George Romero’ style at a groaning one space a turn. This may not sound like much, but characters in a building or the centre of the map, can quickly find their escape routes blocked off.
Combat is what makes the game. It is elegantly resolved with the zombie rolling one die and the heroes rolling two, Zombies win on ties. But these zombies don’t die easy. Sure, you can win combat, but this only fends them off for a turn, the only way to stop them permanently is to roll a double-hard to do without any weapons. Baseball bats, Chainsaws and Farm Tools can up the Hero’s dice count making a kill more likely, also event cards give them more bonuses, but the Zombies get these too! Taking them out at a distance is the only way to stay safe, but guns are few and far between and quickly run out of ammo. Plus if a Hero succumbs to their wounds their mutilated corpse gets to rise and join the Zombies, as a powerful Hero Zombie,
To get cards Heroes must be in a building and skip their move to draw. The locations on the board also let the Heroes fish for cards form the discard pile depending on where they are. The Hospital for instance lets them search for First Aid, while the Sheriffs Office lets them get a Revolver from the discards.
The game is realised in almost movie quality, with photo art and character cards, it also comes with a sound track to set the mood. The production values are very high and card stock, boards and counters are very hardy. Photos on the cards are filled with cute models, but the gore itself is 12A rather than full on Zombies!! carnage. The 14 Zombie figures come in three varied moulds and the eight heroes are individually rendered in plastic, to a high standard.
The game doesn’t take itself too seriously and is just genuinely a good fun blast whether you win or loose. Play time doesn’t really go past an hour due to the specific scenario goals and the ‘Dead By Dawn’ 20 turn sun track, that counts down the game. Scenario balance does vary though, if you find the right Items you need fast enough ‘The Truck’ can more or less be completed in three turns, whereas ‘Defending The Manor’ can be nigh impossible unless you can get tooled up with some shooters pretty fast. Overall this is gaming goodness at its B-Movie best and I recommend it to any Horror fan with all my torn-out, blood-dripping, still-beating heart.

More involved than other zombie games I could mention “Last Night on Earth” perhaps takes the crown for top zombie game on the market at present.

New publisher ‘Flying Frog Productions’ has really gone to town on their first and what I’m sure will be the flagship game for some time. Packed with beautifully sculpted miniatures, lovely, sturdy components, and amazing photographic artwork the game certainly looks really impressive. However it also delivers elsewhere.

Perhaps the main draw of the game is its (successful) attempt to put you in your very own zombie B-movie. All the game’s mechanics, rules and artwork are designed to create a sense of narrative that utilises staples from zombie films whilst not detracting from the gameplay. The rules themselves have some role-playing hallmarks, but are simple and based on keywords, with cards altering rules of anything with a matching keyword. Match the words, apply the new rules. Dead (hah ha) simple.

The addition of a soundtrack for the game is further proof that Flying Frog really enjoy their subject matter and have made every effort to present something new and wonderful to horror fans. The best part is they’ve succeeded.

Last Night on Earth is the most awesome zombie game I've played so far and Flying Frog productions did really good job with this one. Illustrations and simply whole graphic design is stunning. Using photos for both zombie and hero cards was great idea and added certain 'feel' to the gameplay. Board is also a clever piece – or to be specific pieces – one, big, central part and couple of 'L' shaped ones that can be arranged differently, depending on scenario you want to play. They have comic/ hand drawn look, they are divided into squares (on which our heroes and zombies move) and they have little buildings and places in which you can perform different tasks and search for equipment. The game relays heavily on dice, so that can be a problem for some people, but the mechanic is simple and quite fun this way. If you don't mind randomness, or just want to 'kill'em all' this is a game for you.

Ok, first things first: this is a game for lovers of Zombie flicks, people who either resent horror movies or dislike the theme in general might have a hard time getting into the setting of the game.

That having been said, LNoE is really, really awesome. Let's have a short look at the components:

Plastic fantastic: The game comes with plastic miniatures representing the zombies and the heroes. The minis a nicely detailed and all the heroes have different looks which is nice.

The cards: The art work is nice, and very very campy. I must mention that it took me ages to sort the cards out since they were all stuck together for some reason.

The board: very nice and oozing with atmosfear. The only drawback is that the oversized middle section has the game's title printed on it in huge letters. A little distracting.

Dice & chits: Nice, no complaints.

The game itself has several players (or one player controlling several heroes by herself) competing against the zombie player to complete certain objectives. The game comes with a handful of scenarios; all very good and of varying difficulty.

The rules are easy and straightforward. There wasn't much looking up stuff in the rule book after the first one or two games.

There are loads of expansion to this game, which is good since it won't make it boring in the long run. The game is also makes it easy for players to invent their own scenarios and house rules.

A real winner!

This is the game that inadvertedly got me back into boardgaming ..I was looking for miniatures for a zombie/urban horror rpg I was going to run. and I noticed that the miniatures were really good so I read the rules and checked the game out. The theme, game mechanics, not to mention the design job Flying Frog did on this game, I knew I had to play it.
This game carries its theme very well,anybody with a passing knowledge of zombies and B movies will recognise the familiar tropes and archetypes involved, from the very subtle too the downright obvious and the mechanics reflect the theme perfectly. It also plays very fast, although the optimum set-up would probably be with one zombie player. There isn't much downtime either, players can take there turns fast and if not playing there watching the zombies moving in. Large player groups seem to have the benefit of additional event cards which are powerful in knocking out the zombie cards.If you like AT games then this probably one of the best.

Last Night on Earth the zombie game is a fantastic boardgame by Flying Frog Productions which eerily recreates the atmosphere of the zombie theme. Slow but steady hordes of zombies slowly encroach upon the heroes who in turn are determined to keep them at bay.

The rules are simple yet leave plenty of options available (mostly for the heroes not quite so much for the zombies). A hero moves or searches (if in a building only, by taking the top card of the hero deck or a specific card from the discard pile depending on the building). Zombies just move. Hero cards give the heroes weapons to fight off the zombies or actions to use. Each hero will also have different special abilities that they may use. Zombie cards give the zombie player actions to use. The scenario being played determines the victory conditions for each side.

Fighting meshes well with the theme, zombies are usually just fended off if the hero wins, they are only killed under certain circumstances (usually rolling a double, certain weapons permit kills as well). Thereby leaving the heroes with the feeling that they can't quite get away from the zombies.

Overall a very exciting game, straightforward rules, lots of fun, excellent production value (glossy cards, miniatures, plenty of tokens, swappable boards) and a number of exciting expansions available to increase the options and replayability.