When I first heard the words Marvel Zombicide, I thought, hard pass. Nothing sounded more like a cash grab tie in than that. After all, Zombicide is about every day people who step up to become heroes in a zombie apocalypse, how do you put super heroes into that?
Then I read the comics... I started with the first issue and ended up reading everything else. Marvel Zombies flips the script on Zombicide, quite literally, by having you be the zombies.
Consumed by the hunger, your zombie heroes must rampage across the city, consuming innocent bystanders to stave off madness. While the game shares a not insignificant amount of DNA with the original Zombicide, it introduces a lot of other new twists.
First up we have the heroes themselves. Gone are the keywords of old, instead, each hero has a set power tree, but this rigid upgrade system makes up for the lack of player choice, with power sets that can be more unique and tailor made to suit the heroes. It also gives you a better sense of progression as skills always increase in power with each danger level.
Then you have the Hunger track. Here your zombie heroes become more powerful as their hunger increases. This happens automatically every round, but also every time they roll a one in combat. Every step on the hunger track adds a die to your attacks, but if your hunger ever hits the max you lose control and may only move and devour until your hunger returns to normal.
Gone are equipment upgrades, zombies don't need to search for chainsaws or uzis, instead you can gain zombie traits, one off powers that are discarded after use.
Then we have the enemies. Rather than unthinking zombies, the enemies are shield troopers, capable of more than just shambling towards you. They can appear from the skies on rocket packs or unleash a hail of gunfire. They can also even appear with bystanders, which add their own wrinkles to the system.
And of course, we also have the living super heroes. More formidable than abominations of old, these super heroes all have unique power sets tied to their comic book counterparts, which makes them very unique to play against. And you're not limited to just one on the board at once, meaning you could be facing an army of super heroes if you don't take them down!
Will Marvel Zombies fix the game for players who hated the original... no, probably not, if anything Marvel Zombies is even more of a dice fest than Zombicide. But if you're looking for a more up to date twist on the old mechanics, this one might be up your street, especially if you love Marvel... Or if you're a DC fan, well they've got you covered with that one too!
And did I mention you can play in Super Hero mode too...?