Card games have always been a major segment of gaming from the days of cribbage and whist through the collectable card gaming craze set off by the success of Magic: The Gathering, all classic games in their own right.
Now there seems to be a new sub-genre of card gaming, games which come ready to play, but with expansions added later on, ones which are not packaged randomly as in collectable games (an aspect which added to the cost of competitive decks, and turned a segment of gamers off).
Chaos Isle: Zombi Deck is one of those games.
From the back of the box we get a feel for the game, where it states "Chaos Isle is a Mission-Based Card Game (MBCG) that can be played solo or by 2-6 players using just a single deck. Expansions are also available to add to the fun. The Zombi Deck has each player taking on the role of one of the characters, who attempts to complete his mission before the other players complete theirs, all the while fending off Zombi enemies. If you are killed, you become the Zombi that slew you and now you attack the other Characters!"
The most intriguing aspect of the game might be the option for solo play. That is a handy option when an opponent is not happy, and provides the ability to learn the strategies of the game when they have down time.
Chaos Isle can actually be played in several different ways; campaign - playing to a certain number of points given for completing missions and killing characters as zombis, Single Mission - play just one hand -- the first player to complete their secret mission wins, team and solo play, and the old favourite live or lose, last-man-standing.
Now card games often get judged by their art, and Chaos is sort of a mixed bag on that level.
The character cards have somewhat cartoon-influenced art which reminds a bit of Fluxx.The enemy cards are dark artistically, with creepy critters like the corpsemare and flesh reaper. The art hit is great.
Character and enemy (Zombi) cards each have four stats which of course influence outcomes; speed - who goes first in battle and also if a character can outrun a zombi; life - total hits the character/zombi can take before being destroyed; protection - minimum number that must be rolled on two d6 dice to make a successful hit; and fate - a fate roll determines whether a character is lucky or not -- a successful roll is less than the fate score.The game is expanded by small packs of additional cards; included packs under the titles 'fresh meat' and 'lunatics', with both just sounding like a lot of fun. The expansions add a different feel, and objectives to the game.
The game play options, expansions, and straight forward play make Chaos Isle one to check out. A solid game to have around for some fun, with a game-time of about 30-minutes.
If anyone is interested in this game, or other boardgames feel free to contact calmardan@sasktel.net
Past reviews are collected online at calsboardgamemusings.blogspot.com
