Welcome to the Jungle!

This week I tried out Zombie Island from The Flux Capacity.  My wife and I have taken turns playing the survivors and the zombie master.  The game has been reviewed on Board Game Geek, where is gets a 5.6 out of 10.  I'll try and give a complete review as well.

Cover of the rules, showing components

First, unboxing shows pretty good production values, I was impressed with the weight of the box and the tiles that make up the bulk of the components.  Both are of a good quality cardstock.  I was also impressed that they added a few tiles for future expansion.  That was a nice surprise.

Everything out of the box

There are not many miniatures, and they are a bit disappointing.  While they are made of decent quality plastic, they are very sloppy casts or prints.  It's too bad, they could have been a good feature for the game.

Mold lines and spatter!  Too bad

 I tried to show the best figs I could find, they are all about the same quality.  Very sloppy looking, but they are a hard plastic.  I may still paint them up, if I feel ambitious. 

Miniatures on a game tile

The game premise is pretty straightforward.  The 'explorers' move through the jungle, looking to discover 26 tiles.  Four of the tiles have zombie spawn points, marked with a 'Z'.  Humans can move an unlimited distance, where the zombies can only move 3 spaces, and can only enter one new tile per move.  All movement is straight line only (think the queen from chess).

Game underway

Once a survivor reveals all the tiles, they are trying to get back to the beach.  Meanwhile, the zombie master is slowly losing control of their minions, so the explorer can simply outlast the zombies.

Run through the jungle

The explorer gets up to 4 'machete tiles' to modify the board as they move.  These allow for movement through areas that are impassable.  It also allows for the game to change each time.  They can also be used for an escape from a bad situation...

Boxed in!

Zombie chow

Game play is pretty fast.  While the explorer has a machete, if a zombie makes contact, that's it.  No combat at all.  Playing as a match, with players trading sides has been fun.  There are a couple of scenarios, but they are all basically the same, with up to 3 explorers on the board at the same time.

The grey explorer makes a run

Zombies hot in pursuit!

Making a loop!

While the game is fun and quick, it is pretty limited.  I would have hoped for some additional missions, with alternate tile usage perhaps.  Overall I would say it's a fun quick game, but not one to replace something like Zombicide.  It reminds me of Twilight Creations Zombies!!! game, without the randomness of the various cards.

Great tag line!

I would recommend this game for a quick pick up game or if you want to have a zombie themed game with people who find Zombicide too daunting.  It really plays pretty fast so it's not a huge investment from that standpoint.  I wish the miniatures had been a bit better, but overall the components were good quality.

I'd score it about 6/10, we have been having fun this week with it.