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Last One Alive

[Last One Alive]

Author:
Ole Steiness

Publisher:
Ares Games
2021

No. of Players:
2-5

EVALUATION

[Complexity]
[Design]
[Interaction]
[Strategy]
[Evaluation]


G@mebox author Ralf Togler writes about the game:

Since the incredible success of Zombicide, the boardgame scene can`t be imagined without the apocalypse zombie theme. I must admit that – after I first showed restraint – I regularly check for new games with those ugly creatures. Although I am still no fan of TV-series like The Walking Dead, I like fighting against zombies in boardgames a lot.

There are quite different games on the market, full-evening’s brainkillers and short fun games. Last One Alive from ARES GAMES belongs to the latter category. It’s a small push-your-luck dice game that plays quickly, is explained in 5 minutes and is suitable for boardgame parties (up to 5 players) and for families likewise. However, it`s mean!

It’s the players goal to survive (as the name suggests) with the last player still living winning the game. The player to your left is your declared enemy, you spend all your power to send her the nasty zombies, making the apocalypse her sole pain in the neck. The only problem is that the player to your right thinks the same about you, sending you new zombies every round of the game.

[Last One Alive]

Click on image to enlarge!

You see, unlike a lot of other zombie games, here you don’t combine forces, you don’t play as a team. To the contrary, you want to see your fellow players dead or better turned into zombies. Fortunately, you don’t have to encounter the zombies unarmed, at least if you are lucky. All depends on the dice of which we have four different types:

First of all, there is the zombie die with four sides showing one or two zombie heads, one a rotten zombie arm, meaning an ambush, and one a blank side. When you throw these dice, all dice showing the zombie symbol are placed in front of the player to your left. That are her new threats when it’s her turn, you don't have to care about these dice any more. An ambush result on the other hand is placed in front of yourself, next to threats that might be there already.

At the end of your turn, there mustn’t be any more zombies or ambushes in front of yourself, otherwise you will end in the apocalypse yourself, ending the game for you, you definitely won’t be the last to survive. But, of course, you want to prevent that. So, it’s always wise to take some other dice for your roll. Each round you take at least one zombie die and add four other dice to your choice. Shot dice are very nice to get rid of all dice in front of you, one rolled bang killing one zombie. But often it is quite clever to choose a barricade die instead, because a rolled barricade on these dice gives you the choice to move one of the zombie dice in front of you to the player to your left again. The only annoyance is that there is one ambush side on these dice too. As a result, instead of barricading you can end with more threats in front of you, at least if you are unlucky.

[Last One Alive]

Click on image to enlarge!

Last but not least there is an item dice. If you roll the item symbol, you are allowed to draw an item from the token bag. You can find quite useful items in this bag like a chainsaw, a gun or a medikit. All items can be used once in the game and - without going into detail – all are useful in the one or other situation. All? Well, almost. Four zombie apocalypse tokens are added to the token at set-up and whenever such a token has been drawn, each player must at least roll two (three, four, five) zombie dice next to the four other dice the player can choose.

Choosing the dice, rolling the dice and resolving the dice, that’s already all of the game. There is not much to decide or to do. I mean to choose four dice can also be a hard choice for the one or other player, but for the most part there is nearly no down-time. That’s why dying is no big deal, the game normally ends quickly after. But you better don’t play with cowards. Adding more zombie dice to your rolls makes the game funnier. Ok, it’s a risk, but four sides of the zombie dice are bad for the player to your right, and remember, you want to see her turn into the next zombie, not you.

For me the game is overall a good six in our evaluation system. I like to play the game, my son loves it, my wife hates it. Tastes differ, but if you are looking for a fast push-your-luck game with the zombie theme, you should check it out. There are two smaller variants to adjust the game to the player number, but to my mind the game is best with four or five players. Be armed, go out and send those zombies to the apocalypse or – even better – to your fellow players…


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