There are a lot of games out there with interesting mechanics, deep strategy, potent themes, and plenty of replayability. Flying Frog’s Last Night on Earth does not meet all of these criteria: the mechanics are fairly simple, and while some strategy exists within the game, luck can play just as big a role, if not a bigger role, at times. It does have one of the most well-implemented themes I’ve come across in a board game, and its modular structure and simple mechanics make it easy to modify and create your own content, making it extremely replayable.

First, a few words about the mechanics. As I’ve already said, they’re pretty simple. It’s a game that is easy to pick up and play quickly, and easy to teach. One or two players take control of the zombies, while one to four players take on the roles of the four heroes present in the game. Frequently the heroes have some goal to accomplish while the zombies are simply trying to stop them from reaching their goal, though sometimes this paradigm is reversed. There’s a lot of dice rolling, both for movement and combat, and there’s a lot of card play on both sides. Even the board is randomly generated, with a central Town Center tile and four L-shaped building tiles around the edges (six come with the game, so there will generally be two unused tiles during any given play).

Both sides have similarities, but it is the differences between the two that make the mechanics more interesting. Heroes are tougher and faster than zombies, but zombies are far more numerous. Heroes must search to get their cards (both events and items), spending precious time getting each one, while the zombie player’s hand is simply refreshed each turn. This encourages heroes to hoard their cards, saving them until they absolutely need them, while the zombies burn through their cards as quickly as possible, trying to get and maintain an advantage through relentless assault and constant de-buffing of the heroes. Combat is somewhat Risk-style, with zombies rolling one die and heroes rolling two (card play can increase this on both sides), and the highest single die roll winning the day (though zombies do win on ties). In play, zombies are relatively easy to fend off, but wind up being extremely difficult to kill; you see, if you simply beat the zombie’s roll, you fend it off and nothing happens. To kill a zombie, you must both beat the zombie’s roll and roll doubles, something that comes up rarely, unless the hero is able to roll more than two dice.

The mechanics, while interesting in their own right, are far from the strongest element of the game, however. Where this game excels is in the fact that it is thoroughly saturated with the theme that it sets out to capture: that is, the conceit that you’re playing through a zombie movie. While playing as the heroes, you often feel beleaguered and outnumbered, and sometimes downright hopeless. The zombies come in relentless hordes, and while heroes are more mobile than the zombies, the zombies are simply everywhere. The artwork and other components (including the CD soundtrack) all reinforce the zombie-movie feel; much of the artwork seems to be based off of actual photographs (though they are touched up somewhat), and it frequently depicts iconic zombie movie scenes. The cards, themselves, have great, thematic, and occasionally campy names, such as “Oh, The Horror”, “Braaiins”, “This Could Be Our Last Night On Earth”, and “Teen Angst”.

The game’s other chief strength is its replayability and ease of modification. The game is scenario-based, and comes with five scenarios out of the box. Other scenarios can be downloaded from Flying Frog’s website, as well as the fan community, and the game’s expansion packs also come with scenarios. It seems pretty easy to create your own content, and Flying Frog even includes a number of components that are not used in any of the scenarios that come with the game; these components are intended to be used for your own scenarios.

The components, themselves, are of very high quality for the most part. While I’d like the boards themselves to be slightly sturdier stock, they do the job, and all of the punch-out chits are quite sturdy, themselves. The cards are the thick, laminated variety, and while they can stick together sometimes, this is easily remedied by bending the cards back and forth before separating them for the first time. Also included are thick, attractive hero and scenario cards, an abundance of small dice, and a turn reference card for each player (six in all, double-sided).

One cautionary word, though, regards the high degree of luck in the game. The board is randomized, there’s a lot of dice rolling, a lot of card play, and you can even draw random heroes and a random scenario. With all this chance, it’s easy to see your best-laid strategies fall apart due to a lucky card draw or roll of the dice by another player. Some people may not like this. Personally, I think it reinforces the zombie movie theme, and typically the game doesn’t last more than an hour anyway, so having a high-luck game doesn’t, in my opinion, pose much of a problem.

The Good: Few games nail their theme as well as this one does. If you like zombies, you’ll probably love Last Night on Earth. The quality of the game components is also a huge benefit, as is the ease with which the game can be modified and added to. Not only that, but it’s just a fun game, period.

The Bad: Some may not like the abundance of luck-based mechanics within the game. If you’re looking for deep strategy, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, if you’re not a fan of the zombie genre, this probably isn’t the game for you.

The Bottom Line: I love Last Night on Earth. It’s a fun, quick-playing, theme-saturated game with an easy learning curve and a lot of great-looking bits. If you like zombie movies, you’ll probably like this game. Otherwise, it may not be for you. It is, however, clearly a labor of love.