The Walking Dead is one of the most well-known comics and television shows to date. The amazing storylines, unforgettable characters and immersive world has pulled in fans for years. In the board game world, nothing has really captured that experience yet. Today we are going to look at a new card game that tries to do just that and answer the question: do you have something to fear?
The Walking Dead Something to Fear Card Game is published by Skybound Games and designed by Derek and Lizzy Funkhouser with illustrations by Justin Chan.
Overview and Gameplay
In Something to Fear, players work to survive nine rounds of walkers and assorted villains while working on collecting weapons and supplies. After the nine rounds are up, players determine in they have survived the damage in their person stash and the Mob as a whole. The survivor with the highest score will win!
Each player has a total of nine Character cards, each with different characters from the show and a number. An Encounter deck is set up with cards that are appropriate for the number of players in the game. The Encounter deck is set up in the middle of the table and cards are revealed for the number of players plus one face up to form an Encounter row.
Each player shuffles their nine cards, places them facedown in front of them and draws a hand of three. The tie-breaker card goes to the player who most recently read a comic book.
The Character cards are all identical for players and each has a special ability you can use for the benefit of yourself and the group during the round it is played. The number on the Character determines player order, highest first.
Encounter cards are the bad times you are going to run into in the form of people or problems trying to survive. These are meant to be collected in sets in your personal stash and ones that you cannot grab make up the mob that you have to check yourself against at the end of the game.
The game is played over nine rounds with the following order each round:
1-Select and reveal character cards
2-Encounter the enemies
3-Remaining enemies to the Mob
4-Cleanup
In Select and reveal Character cards, players will take one card from their hand and place it face-down. Everyone reveals at the same time and then you move to the next step. In Encounter with the enemy, character cards are revealed and played for their abilities from highest to lowest number on the card. Some have immediate effects that take place on reveal as well. Each character either uses their special ability or secures a card from the Encounter row instead. These cards become part of your Stash face-up in front of you. The tie-breaker card determines which player gets to use their Character ability first-closest to it goes first.
Cards either deal Personal damage if they are in your Stash or Mob damage if they are in the Mob to all players at game end. The cards still in the row after Character abilities are completed are moved to the Mob.
Each Encounter card scores differently, some giving straight up points and some are set collection. Others can pull in some good points at the cost of possibly dealing you more end-game damage, so you have to be careful with what you pull in!
The game will end after the ninth round and players then assess the damage from the Mob plus their personal damage from cards in their Stash. If you have more than 20 damage, you did not survive the game and cannot win-if you survive you count up your Stash points and the player with the most points wins!
Impressions
What could be better:
Box size. I know it’s a silly complaint, but this is a huge box for a card game. I would love to see a smaller footprint for this game, specifically one that was more of a deck box size container that would be more portable in the long run.
What I liked:
Art. The Walking Dead is a dark show with some fairly non-PG rated, graphic scenes that make for a game theme that isn’t probably the most family-friendly. However, the art in this game is perfect to play with a wide variety of people and ages. My family and kids can still enjoy this game without it being too gory. The style is smooth and brings a new look for the Walking Dead characters we haven’t seen up to this point.
Speed. I love a good game that plays quick. This game checks both of those boxes-it is easy to set up and plays pretty quick. We have used this one as a good opening game or as a way to catch other players up into game timing at game groups.
Gameplay. Set collection and hand management/action selection aspects of gameplay rolled into one make this a stellar choice in a small package. This game is well-balanced with each of the characters and no one really seemed to be the “OP” character compared to the rest.
Overall:
The Walking Dead is one of my favorite shows in recent television. The suspense, the sense of dread and constant fear that encompasses that show are what drew me in each episode. In this game, the Funkhousers gave us an amazing representation of that condensed down into a card game that is quick and easy to play. Card art and design really shines here, making this a game I want to get to the table over and over. This scales well with a variety of players and really presents a tougher challenge based on the number of players fighting to survive. If you like hand management games with some fun and combative player interaction mixed in, then The Walking Dead Something to Fear Card Game is bound to be exactly what you’re looking for!
Be the first to comment