Game: The Walking Dead Card Game

Price: $15

Players: 2-10

Time: 10-30 minutes

Age: 15+

In April Cryptozoic came out with The Walking Dead Card Game. The game is based on the game 6 Nimmt! if you are familiar with that but was easy enough to learn without ever knowing about that game too.

There are 104 walker cards and 6 hero cards included in the game. Each point value has a picture depicting a number of zombies on them. The single point cards only having one zombie and the seven point card having a swarm. The six hero cards are Maggie, Daryl, Rick, Andrea, Glenn and T-dog. Each have an action shot from the show.

There are two different modes or ways to play the game.

Hero Mode

In hero mode each player will get to choose one of the hero cards to start in their hand. Each hero card works the same way so there is they can be handed out at random if wanted. The goal of hero mode is to kill more walkers than the rest of the players by collecting more points worth of walker cards. The points are shown on each card based on the number of bullets printed on each card. Game play is simple enough to learn and to teach to new people. Each player starts with 15 walker cards dealt to them plus their hero card. Then four more cards are lined up in a column. Each player will choose one or two cards from their hand and place them face down in front of them. When everyone has set down their cards you flip them over and follow the rules for placing the cards into rows. Starting from the lowest card, each card is placed next to the closest number that is lower than the card played. So if you played 51 and the cards out are 10, 20, 53 and 100, your card would go next to the 20, as that card is lower than your 51 and closer than 10. If the card is lower than all the cards at the end of the rows, then you place it after the highest card. Once all the cards are placed, you start the next round. When the card is forced to be played on a stack with five cards, your card being the sixth one, you collect the five cards on the table and leave your card as the new starting card. If a player wants, they can place their hero card as the second card when placing two cards down. When this happens, your walker card is placed before any other card regardless of its number, giving you the chance to collect a stack of zombies without it being stolen away by another player. When all the cards are played by each player, the game is over and the bullets are counted up. You can play one time or keep track of your score and play a set number of matches, three being recommended by the instructions.

Survival Mode

Survival Mode plays out almost the opposite of hero mode. You only get 10 cards each and no heros are used this time. Each player will choose only one card but this time the goal is to not be overrun by zombies(to not collect points). The card placement rules are similar to hero mode, except if you play a card lower than all the cards at the end of the row then you have to pick one of the rows to take and place your card as the new starting card. After the ten rounds of playing cards, you count the bullets the same way and either choose single game or multiple games and the person with the lowest score wins.

Both games are quick and easy to pick up after the first game or two. I personally like the feel of survival mode more. The game starts off a little slow but after you have played about half your hand, everyone seems to be a little more panicked about which card they are going to play and trying to figure out if someone else will steal the pile before their card gets played on it. Overall its a fun party game for people whether you have seen The Walking Dead or not. I would say the 15+ years on the age is about right because of the strategy and almost bluff like tactics to the game.