The chair creaks as you settle onto it. The candlelight flickers. All around you the ravenous faces of your so-called friends twist in delight as you slowly open the box laid out on the table. Welcome to Dangerous Games! Each week, we'll feature a horror/thriller/monster tabletop game you should be playing. Don't be scared… roll the dice… what's the worst that could happen?
'Texas Zombies'- Moonster Games (2012)
It's another boring field trip for you and your classmates at the University of Texas. Just off to visit an abandoned military base in the middle of the desert. But as soon as you arrive you know something's not right here. The smell is the first thing you notice; a sour mixture of chemicals and rotting flesh. And then you see the operators of drug cartel, and then you see the zombies shambling along lifting boxes and crates, and then you see… something even worse.
In 'Texas Zombies' you and your friends have to think on your feet to stay alive and survive this terrible field trip. By quickly creating small stories about your survival you'll earn points from your friends and foes alike. At the end of this raucous party game the person with the most points wins.
Gameplay Mechanics
The goal of this game is simple: tell the most interesting story in this party game for three to six players. Each player starts with three item cards. They could be weapons, they could be useful items, or they could be totally ridiculous items. Your job is to work those items into a story about your survival. On your turn, you'll flip an event card. The event card could depict a situation where you're locked out of a room or being chased by zombies (or any other number of bad scenarios). No matter the event, you have to work in a certain (predetermined) number of item cards from your hand during the explanation of your escape from the situation.
Each player then votes on whether they like your description or not. The voting process is simple, a thumbs up or a thumbs down. To keep everyone honest, and to keep people from voting for or against players not on their team, each player is issued a team card. Those two teams are kept secret. No one knows who's on their team, so it's best to just vote honestly. At the end all team cards are revealed and the team with the most points wins!
Replay Value
Because of the "party game" nature of 'Texas Zombies' it's as playable as the people you play it with. If you and your group always stay the same, you'll get bored of this game after a while. But if you have a constantly shifting group of gamer friends this is a fun one to roll out every once in a while.
Overall Impressions
Moonster Games, the publisher of this game, touts it as "the first horror party game." I'm not sure if it's the first, but it certainly is a fun one. This is definitely more fun with more creative people playing it. You'll end up in tight spots describing how you used a banana peel, tweezers, and a shotgun to get away from the mutated freaks roaming the facility. It's an easy game, a simple game, and exactly the type of party game horror fans yearn for (because it can get as gory as you want it to).
