I invited a buddy from work to game night this evening who was a boardgame virgin. I didn't want to throw him into the deep end -- I've made that mistake before. So he got some gentle, gentle foreplay with Love Letter before we got Zombie 15 to the table.
Since we had an apprentice in our midst we only played the first two scenarios, which to be honest, any experienced gamer would have to suffer some sort of organ failure to not effortlessly complete. Still, it was a great way to ease someone new into gaming as the first scenario is basically "learn how to move, fight and search", while the second is "do that again, but this time zombies spawn at 60 second intervals. Oh, and you have firearms now, which attract more zombies".
I'm really looking forward to advancing into the tougher scenarios -- we didn't use a ton of cards and NONE of the countless tokens, so it looks like the rabbit hole will open up a bit more. Nevertheless, this brief taste reaffirmed my earlier suspiciions: This game is way better than Escape. Building the temple while on a timer is so damn clumsy. I much prefer these pre-built areas. Plus it allows for varying goals. Not all of the scenarios are "complete X before 15 minutes is up", there's actually "survive for 15 minutes". I didn't spoil myself further, but I did think that was pretty cool.
From what I understand there is also a scenario generator out there/coming soon. Makes me almost wish the game wasn't so damn expensive (the gumption to include 100 zombie minis is pretty badass though) so I could have a second copy and make some mega city sized romps.
Worth a look.
