OUR REVIEW

ZOMBIES HERE AND THERE AND EVERYWHERE

DARK DARKER DARKEST

COOPERATION VS. ZOMBIES

Zombie games are nearly as numerous as stars in the sky, but only very few of them do really offer long-term fun in playing, something that you really cannot say of DDD due to its enormous variability in setting up the game board, but also during the game, and a relatively long but coherent rulebook (33 pages). Originally initiated by Queen Games as a Kickstarter project, that was funded at 200.000 dollars and thus far exceeded the originally proposed 20.000 Dollars, the game is now available from open market sources.

In the cooperative game of DDD the goal is to locate the laboratory holding the antidote for the zombie virus in the house of Dr. Mortimer (yes, it does really exist, even if numerous films and series want to tell us otherwise) and to fetch the antidote from this locked room and then – in a final showdown - to eliminate the nemesis within a given time frame before he manages to crash the house by destroying one of the three remaining corner rooms.

The laboratory is protected by a code of seven or more colored code markers which have to be picked up in the course of the game in the guise of code chips (each comprising two or three colors) which of course have also to be decoded beforehand. This in turn means that you have to search nearly all the house, made up from 20 to 25 rooms in order to find the correct code chips. All this has to be managed under enormous pressure for time, with time represented by a time track, and of course in the middle of numerous dangers lurking in the house, for instance hordes of zombies, spreading fires and really veeeeeery bad zombie creatures what are much harder to kill, that is, needing more hits, than “normal” zombies.

Despite the stretch goals of the Kickstarter version missing in the general edition, the components in this game are so numerous that I only will look more closely at a part of them. For each one of the up to five heroes there is an individual board to mark their life points, and, relation to those life points, a number of actions and special abilities, that mostly have to be acquired by acquiring experience points (XP). Dozens of Zombie miniatures, spawn markers, fire markers, camera markers, virus markers, code chips and code markers, sundry dice and equipment cards plus ammunition cubes are in the box, too. The house is set up according to certain parameters by 4x5 room tiles (out of a total of 27 available) and camera markers are placed on locations marked accordingly, with which we have arrived at the first variable criterion of difficulty, as those cameras are enormously dangerous for our heroes. The more camera-supervised rooms there are the bigger is the danger that the heroes are detected and then the Terror Die is used and this surely bodes ill.

A round of the game comprises the so-called upkeep phase and the action phase. In the Upkeep Phase evil advances, to begin with. Depending of the position of a marker on the so-called Multimarker board you draw a face-down zombie spawn marker, representing between one and six lurking zombies, and placed at a position in the house that is determined by dice roll. Should this position be in line-of-sight for at least one hero the marker instantly provides the corresponding number of zombies that are placed into the room instead of the marker; as an alternative to this drawing of a zombie spawn marker a fire already raging in the house might spread. Should a room receive the third fire marker it is destroyed and the marker on the time track advances (so be always careful to extinguish fires or things might get tight).

A third possibility in the Upkeep Phase might be that the time track marker advances on the track that only holds five cases. Oh, by the way, should this marker arrive at position 5 and you did not manage to at least open the laboratory, our heroes are done for good – game over!

In the next stage players are sorted into groups on the multi-tracker, depending on their position on the board, as they – later – will do their actions in those groupings. This is followed by a camera check, you check if someone is spotted by a camera. Each player has a 1:6 (dice) chance to be spotted, which does not seem to be much, but if five players are in line-of-sight of cameras it becomes more probable and if only one of them fails in his dice roll the Terror Die comes into play, which means new zombies, a new zombie creature, fire or an interim activation of zombies and the creature.

The next step is an unconditional Zombie Spawn phase in analogy to the one already described, and finally you check if any of the heroes has by now been bitten twice, which advances the so-called zombification, that is, slow transformation into a zombie.

In the action phase, finally, it is the turn of our courageous heroes, according to the groupings previously arranged. Those groups of heroes have available a multitude of possible actions; most of those action either cost one or two action points, some of them are free, but you have only a maximum of three or four action points, depending on the number of players.

1. Movement: Over any distance for the cost of one action point, but not out of rooms in which there are zombies or a creature, and of course not passing code chips that are still locked.

2. Search a room. The more heroes are assembled in a room the higher is the chance to find one or several items (equipment like long range or close combat weapons, the corresponding ammunition, fire extinguishers, helmets, energy drinks, etc.), but for three heroes or more it might also happen that you must roll the Terror Die. Should at least one item be found in a room, this room cannot be search again, the room is marked accordingly. You can only open code chips that are distributed all over the house with the help of item cards that you find, because those cards show the necessary symbols and colors. So searching a room is very important at the start of the game.

3. Hand on an item or pick up an item, as all necessary code colors to open a code chip must be with the same player and as there is also a card maximum applicable.

4. Open a code chip and pick up the marker to be able to open part of the laboratory later, provided the colors fit. All players score one experience point.

5. For two action points (not exactly cheap) you can remove one fire marker only from the room in which you are currently located, albeit entering the room already loses you one or two life points, depending on the number of fire markers in it.

6. Use the special ability of a corner room: Partially open the laboratory with a code chip, replenish ammunition for a weapon, remove a virus marker from a player or extinguish fire.

7. Attack a Zombie or a Creature. The more powerful your weapon the more dice are used for your attack. You can also manage to enhance the range of long-range weapons, force back a Zombie (best into the fire!), but of course missed shots are also possible. It is quite a shock when you roll five dice and achieve not a single hit, despite the UCI sitting in your hand so well, and unfortunately ammunition is spent all the same. For each killed Zombie a player scores one experience point, and two for a killed creature, even for all players.

When all heroes of a group have completed their actions fire spreads, if present, and all zombies present in the so-called trigger zone become active. Those Zombies can move up to two spaces and attack all heroes in a spot as a horde, simultaneously with up to six dice. You will do well to remember to never engage a large horde of Zombies on your own (a very good advice for life!) The best that can happen in that case is that you run away screaming to the next space (fleeing) or that you only lose one or two life points. It is a disaster if you are trapped (symbol on one side of the Zombie die) and not be able to do more than use one die for one chance to escape while there are still Zombies in the room. Should all players have been trapped, the game is lost for all.

It is also rather bad to be bitten, because you can never get rid of the first bite and with the second bite the zombification process begins, which slowly takes away the special character abilities that you have previously acquired. There is – depending on the number of players – a minimal chance that you can fend off one or several of the Zombie dice with a success icon on a six-sided dice, and this success icon is present on the die twice. The creature, if present, regardless where it is situated in the house, has of course a turn now, too, and when the creature reaches a group this is usually the end of all fun.

Then it is the turn of the next group of players. By the way, should a player lose his last life point or turn Zombie, he can enter the game again, albeit not in the final challenge, but the marker on the time level advances by one step and that usually means that there will not be enough time left and that the game is lost, too.

The actions that I have described so far do only explain the flow of the game very crudely. There are lots of details to pay to attention to for nearly every action or Zombie movement or attacks, so that the first game will be one to get acquainted with the game, as you will have to check the rules constantly in your first game how exactly this or that is working. I have dispensed with explaining the many equipment cards (several kinds of weapons, etc.) and the final showdown, as this would far exceed the scope of this review.

My opinion:

If you are looking for a Zombie game with really extensive rules, you achieve your goal with Dark Darker Darkest, but you must work to enjoy the game. I recommend strongly to download the new rules (currently only available in English) by designer David Ausloos, available from Boardgamegeek, and in addition to that read through the FAWs, as the game cannot be played with the original rules from Queen in the box. One of the players should prepare the game beforehand by familiarizing himself with the rules, because otherwise, as is the case with many games with extensive rules, the evening will turn into a “reading evening” instead of a games evening. And I want to mention, that, if you do not cheat, the game is very hard to win. I recommend that you ease things a bit for the first games, by for instance removing all of the 6-Zombie Spawn marker or to use the hero board with more action points also in a game for 4 or 5 players, as otherwise you could have a frustrating experience, because Zombies and Creatures are all everywhere all the time.

Gert Stöckl

Players: 2-5

Age: 12+

Time: 120+

Designer: David Ausloos

Artist: David Ausloos

Price: ca. 70 Euro

Publisher: Queen Games 2014

Web: www.queen-games.de

Genre: Cooperative horror game

Users: With friends

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr

In-game text: yes

Comments:

Enormous amount of components

Extensive rules, introductory games necessary

Very variable, even within a game

Compares to:

Complex (cooperative) Zombie games with extensive rules, for instance Zombicide or Last Night on Earth

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Gert Stöckl:

Zombies here, Zombies, there, fighting them is hard anywhere. Ideal for frustration-proof groups that like complex games! Zombie game fans should try it by all means!

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 2

Interaction (brown): 0

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0