“Zombicide: Gear Up” is a cooperative board game set in the world of “Zombicide” – as the name suggests, you will have to survive in a savage post-apocalyptic reality overrun by zombies.
The game bucks the traditional miniatures and board-fueled gameplay and partially replace it with the flip-and-write mechanic, where on each turn or round, different cards are flipped and players use the cards to determine possible actions, which are then written on their respective scoresheets.
Players need not worry, most cards in the game are wipeable with dry erase. Yes, you can actually make amendments to the zombie apocalypse as you go along!
Sharpen Your Pencils, It’s Zombie Killing Time
To set up the game, each player takes a survivor card, which shows four weapons, along with damage, armor, and ammo tracks. Then, players need to decide which level of difficulty they want to play “Zombicide: Gear Up” on – ranging from easy to nightmare. Each player then gets a selection of random regular and special zombie cards. If you want to beat the game – you will have to introduce them to their final death.
After the setting up process is done, you may begin! During the first respective turn, the players flip a card, which reveals which weapon they will be using. Every weapon in “Zombicide: Gear Up” has a polyomino-shaped hitbox, which players need to match up with the outline of the zombie cards in order to deal damage to them. Note this must be done without covering any areas that have already been damaged. Once a zombie’s entire outline has been shot, burned, or blasted – its final death is at hand.
If any zombies are left standing at the end of a turn, they advance toward the player. If it happens to be located on any player’s closest street and would advance, then that player takes damage equal to its unmarked red stars. Players may avoid a hit by expending all of their armor. That is, if they have any on them. If not, they can use all of their ammo to damage a single space on a zombie’s outline. If a player chooses to use ammo or armor, they must circle those symbols on their survivor card.
Epic Boss Battles Ahead and a Pound of Flesh
After the third turn, the first spawn card is revealed. This will flood the field with zombies, and players will have to organize quickly how they want to handle the horde of walking dead. Some will have to take more zombies than others. If the players manage to handle the entire horde – they will be rewarded with an upgraded weapon with extra stats and effects.
And they will certainly need them – on the ninth turn, they will have to deal with a collection of bosses. They need to be defeated before the end of the turn to win the game. If they can’t, or if any player dies during this encounter, the game is lost.
“Zombicide: Gear Up” is developed by the designer duo of Jordy Adan (best known for the “Cartographers” franchise) and Marco Portugal. It will be published by board-game giants CMON, the same studio behind the original “Zombicide”.
The game does not have a concrete release date as of yet. It was estimated the game would arrive between July and September 2022. Since we are now in September, it is bound to be sooner than later. The price for a single copy is expected to be $23, a significant scale down on the miniatures game.