Hey Look! An Abandoned Military Base! ‘Texas Zombies’ Reviewed

Elliott MillerJun 20, 2012

Game Name: Texas Zombies

Publisher: Moonster Games, Asmodee Editions

Designer: Ryo Kawakami

Year: 2012

Players: 3 – 6

Ages: 14+

Playing Time: 15 Minutes

Retail Price: $24.99

Category: Horror Party Card Game

Components:

30 Event cards
50 Object cards
6 Team cards
2 Gosu promo cards
Rule book.

From Asmodee Editions:

Texas Zombies is a party game that combines an atmosphere of horror movies and the terror of zombie movies. A group of students from the University of Texas decide to visit an old military base, but are surprised by how they are greeted! They come face-to-face with zombies and a Mexican drug cartel. To get out of this terrifying situation they must use the tools that they have at their disposal, such as a cucumber, a knife and a deck of cards!

Texas Zombies is an Americanized version of Cat & Chocolate which was published in 2010 by Qvinta Essentia. This time it is being published by Moonster Games and distributed by Asmodee Editions.

The game comes in a fairly small box filled with 88 cards and a fairly short set of rules. The cards are of good quality with some very creepy artwork by Stéphane Gantiez. Two of the cards are actually promo cards for another game called Gosu, so there are really only 86 cards in Texas Zombies.

This is a kind of horror improv mixed with MacGyver type of party game. The object of the game is to be on the team with the most number of event cards when the last event is played.

There are 30 event cards and each one of these describes a situation that the player who draws it must escape from, but let’s get set up real quick before we get into that. First you check the rulebook and determine how many event cards you will use in the game based upon the number of players you have. These are shuffled and placed face down in the center of the table. Note that each event card has a number from 1 to 3 on the back.

Three object cards are then dealt to each player, and the remainder makes a draw pile next to the event cards. The object cards are simply that, objects that you will use to help escape the dangerous situations that you find yourself in.

Lastly, a team card is dealt to each player face down. There are two teams you might be assigned to: The Beta Lambdas and the Darwin & Dragons teams. However you do not know what team you are on until the game is over; the reason for this becomes apparent later.

The last person to have seen a zombie goes first. The player draws an event card and reads it aloud then places it in the center of the table. He then looks at the back of the next event card to be drawn and notes the number shown. He now has one minute to describe how he will deal with the situation described on the event card, and he must use as many objects from his hand as is shown on the back of the next event card.

The player rattles off his explanation and then the vote takes place. All of the other players vote on whether or not the explanation made sense and was convincing enough. The vote is in the classic Caesar style with a simultaneous thumbs up or thumbs down. If the player wins the vote he gets to add the event card to his score pile. If there is a tie, then the Yea’s have it and he still gets the event card.

Let’s do an example, just because it is fun. The event card I draw read “Put your imprint here or be disintegrated, but what is this imprint?” The object cards that I was holding were Sunglasses, A Coat Hanger, and A Tube of Super Glue. I had to use two of these objects in my explanation.

Looking at the card I see laser beams shooting everywhere, so my access to the imprint machine was limited. Thinking quickly, I devised this story: “I can see that it is a retinal scanner device, and the body of an important looking person is lying near the machine. I gouge out one of his eyes with my fingers, which is fairly simple as he is a bloody mess. I poke the eye onto the end of the coat hanger and hold it near the scanner, but it keeps sliding off. I wipe off all of the gore and blood and dry off the eye the best that I can and use the super glue to attach the eye to the end of the coat hanger. It works, and the machine shuts down. I am safe for the moment.”

This little story got “Yea’s” all around, and I earned my event card. I realize there are holes in the story, but on the spur of the moment it was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

At the end of the game the players flip over their team cards to find out what team they were on. The teams add up their event cards and the one with the most is the winning team.

That’s all there is to it. I realize that finding out who is on your team at the end of the game doesn’t make much thematic sense, but if you knew who was on your team from the start it might influence your voting during the game.

Winning or losing really isn’t the main gist of the game anyway. The fun comes from playing it. We had a lot of fun playing Texas Zombies. The goofy stories that everyone would come up with was really entertaining. You have to be able to think quickly and your ability to BS plays a big role. This is the kind of game that can easily be played with non-gamers. If fact non-gamers flourished at this in the games I played and enjoyed it more than the hardcore gamers.

Texas Zombies gets a big recommendation from me. In fact I really want to see the original Cat & Chocolate, as it takes place in a haunted mansion. The only real criticism I have is that there are only 30 event cards. This will cut down on the replayability, as you’ll start seeing repeats after only two games in a six player setup. I would have preferred a full deck of 60 event cards.

This is the kind of game you would pull out after a dinner party, or after the kids are in bed. It is fun and fast. You can play a full game in less than 20 minutes, and you could play it basically anywhere. I pulled it out at the drive-in last week while waiting for the movie to start. Overall, Texas Zombies is a good time.