Board Game Review: The Walking Dead: Don't Look Back Dice Game (2014)

Designer: Matt Hyra

I like THE WALKING DEAD universe. The comics, the novels and the television series. Even Season 2. What I haven't found yet is a good board game based on the intellectual property.

After playing Cryptozoic Entertainment's THE WALKING DEAD: DON'T LOOK BACK DICE GAME, I'm still looking for a fun, entertaining game based on the property.

The game is for one to four players who take on the role of one of the television series protagonists; Rick, Michonne, Daryl or Carl. Fans of the show may wonder why only four character choices and why fan favourites are missing. I wonder the same thing. Which character is picked to play doesn't matter much as they only differ in their special ability. The object of the game is to score more points than anyone else in the allotted time, marked by how many locations are to be used. Points are scored by killing zombies (walkers in the parlance of the series) and by being the first one to exit the location. It's a very simple scoring mechanism. Kill a walker get one point.

Components

Inexpensive is the best way to describe the board, cards and character standees that come in the game. Even the dice aren't that great. Much of the art work are screen captures of the television series. The character cards and standees are a head shot of the actors in character dress. Walker tokens, cardboard tokens not miniatures, are a poorly rendered medium shot of a group of walkers. The cardboard board that is the game board is original art and all that is are six numbered blood splatters on top of what I think is supposed to be a grassy field.

Don't expect much from the cardboard and plastic that make up the game's components.

Rules

Rules consist of sixteen pages (the last page being credits) in a fold out mini booklet. They are easy to follow with ample illustrations and examples of play. At times the rules are a bit verbose but that is understandable as the game's target audience is a mass market one.

The game is simple. Draw a search card. If it is a weapon put it in your hand otherwise follow the instructions on the card. Next your character can pass, move, or kill walkers. Movement is moving to an adjacent space or the one named location on the board. To kill walkers roll a number of six sided dice matching the weapon rating. If attacking a numbered space you want as many multiples of the same number with each one counting as a hit. For example, if Rick attacks with an improvised weapon he rolls three dice. Pick one number and the number of times you rolled that number is the number of walkers killed. If attacking a location you want to roll a straight. Roll 2 - 3 - 6 that's two walkers killed as there are two dice making up the straight. There are additional rules to press your luck when making an attack. The last segment of the player's turn is moving walkers into the location and taking hits from walkers. Take hits equal to your health your character dies and you are out of the game.

 

There is a lot of dice rolling in the game. The meat of the game is drawing a card and chucking dice. The only strategy is picking which weapon to use and if you want to re-roll attack dice which could lead to failure. Otherwise, you are waiting for someone to draw the exit card from the search deck so you can move to the next location and get the game over with.

Player interaction is almost non-existent. There is no reason to co-operate with other players as there can be only one winner so you won't gain anything by it. From time to time someone will pull a card from the search deck that allows them to steal a card from another player. If you have the knife as a weapon you can stab another player. If someone has more points than you, instead of killing walkers and gaining points you can attack another player with the knife in hopes of knocking them out of the game. However, dead players can still win the game if they have more points than all other players so I'm not seeing the point of attacking other players.

 

Is it fun?

No. Little player interaction, throwing dice over and over at the same enemy turn after turn combined with next to no player agency leads to a dull game.