Zombies Keep Out: A Six-year-old’s Opinion
Privateer Press’ newest boardgame, Zombies Keep Out, is a co-op for up to 6 players ages 8 or older. I decided to test the age limit and enlist the help of my son to review it.
He’s no stranger to games (or Privateer for that matter, having insisted on getting a metal Warmachine Cryx battlebox set for his birthday several years ago). His current favorites are X-Wing miniatures, Pokemon, and the DC heroes deck building game, so you know he’s an informed consumer when it comes to boardgames. After playing several games of Zombies Keep Out over the past week, I interviewed him to see what his thoughts were:
First, for people who don’t know anything about the game, how do you play it?
You draw a terrible things card, you choose one terrible thing, then you do it. You get one action, which can be work on a contraption, or scrounge for parts, or you could choose to repair the wooden walls. You could defend against zombies, push the button on the contraptions.
You were going to say something about the number of contraptions? How do you build them?
If you build and complete 3 contraptions, then you win the game. If you have certain parts cards, that match the ones on the design for the contraption, then you may discard that card and move the progress token on the contraption card one more space.
Is there a way to lose?
Yes. There are multiple ways to lose. If the zombies break all the wood walls on the door, then you lose. Don’t you lose if the zombies take over 3 of your locations?
That’s right. What kind of locations do you have?
You have 2 windows, a balcony, a door, and a cellar. And each one has a contraption behind it. There are different types of zombies, that move toward different locations.
So what kind of terrible things happen?
You have different choices. You can either move the progress tokens back on the contraptions, choose different zombies to shamble, but sometimes you have all of one kind of zombies shamble. Or you could take bite tokens. Or you could discard cards. Sometimes you have to put more zombies on the board. And terrible things like that happen.
Tell me more about bite tokens, what do they do?
If each player gets 2 bite tokens, then you lose. And each time you take a bite token, you have to talk more like a zombie.
More like a zombie? What does that sound like?
Brrrrrraaaaaaiiiinnsss!!!!
What do you like about the game?
It is interesting. You can do different things. Also, I find it quite interesting that there’s an endless horde of zombies, so whenever a zombie gets destroyed, it goes back to the zombie pool.
Anything else you like? What about the contraptions?
The contraptions do different things, most of them to kill zombies. Some of them like the scrounge – o – matic are to draw more cards. I haven’t seen all of them yet.
What don’t you like about the game?
If you don’t cooperate then it goes very badly. And also the zombies have multiple ways to win, and we only have one way to win.
Do you have a rating for the game on a scale from 1 brain to 5 brains?
Uhm, 2 or 3 brains.
