There are also hundreds of other miniatures in the box. Walkers (the most basic enemy) come in five dynamic poses, and then the more threatening brute and runner enemies come in two poses each. One unique addition to Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance is that of bystanders. These side story characters were clearly not deemed important enough to get their own character card, but can play an important role in the game if either eaten by zombies (bad) or rescued (good.)

Their step is the enemy spawn. Scattered around the edges of each mission are spawn points where enemy reinforcements appear. Players draw a spawn card for each spawn point and space the designated enemy type and numbers there. The higher the threat level, the more enemies are likely to appear at a spawn point. Some spawn cards can also give enemies extra action, meaning the difference between victory and defeat in some situations. Next comes a total of 87 miniature game pieces. Broken down into 6 types, including 6 zombified heroes, 6 survivor superheroes, 12 bystanders and 63 S.H.E.I.L.D agents made up of troopers, Specialists and Guards. Including Zombie Hulk and Spider-man, all well-sculpted and a lot of fun to paint, but if painting isn’t your thing, each type of game piece is moulded in a different colour plastic, making it easy to tell who’s who and what’s what on the table. Like other ‘Zombicide’ games, as players complete objectives and defeat enemies, their zombie heroes gain experience and new abilities. But with each time a level is gained, so does the threat level, taking us into the next round, the enemy phase. In Marvel Zombies, there are actually two core product lines and two modes of play. The one I am reviewing today carries the “Resistance” moniker in its title, meaning that you’ll be playing a team of heroic characters who are still human. In a parallel release, simply titled Marvel Zombies, the players will actually control a team of undead heroes as they devour their way through countless human soldiers. The content in both boxes can be combined to add more heroes (living or undead) to either mode.

The Marvel iteration of ‘ Zombicide‘ is different enough from previous versions to warrant giving it a go for ‘Zombicide’ and represents the Marvel universe well with its lore-friendly rules for both comic book and MCU fans alike. But being a superpowered zombie isn’t as easy as it sounds. Standing between you and your banquet of famous faces of the Marvel Universe are some of Marvel's most powerful surviving heroes and an army of specially trained S.H.E.I.L.D. agents. Bystanders make up about 20% of the miniatures in the box and in honesty, I would rather have had half the number of additional heroes (on both sides of the fight.) Bystanders are fairly static, moving only at the end of each round and simply fleeing towards the nearest hero. This could easily have been represented by a cardboard token, but if nothing else it does serve to highlight how keen the designers are to make the importance of bystanders very clear. The whole setup takes around 15 minutes at most for the larger games and is made super easy with the instruction, clearly stating what tiles are used and where and the location of all tokens. Game Play Inspired by the 2005 ‘Marvel Zombies’ comic book series, ‘ Marvel Zombies – A Zombicide Game’ not only puts you into the shoes of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes but also takes a unique spin on the Zombicicde formula by having you play as the ravenous flesh eaters.

Gain zombie trait’ is the closest equivalent to ‘search’ action from previous games. Rather than searching for weapons and equipment, zombie traits give zombie heroes special abilities that can be used to give them an advantage, such as free actions and bonuses to dice rolls. The Marvel iteration of ‘ Zombicide’ is different enough from previous versions to warrant giving it a go for ‘Zombicide’ and represents the Marvel universe well with its lore-friendly rules for both comic book and MCU fans alike. Additionally, there are 140 cards. 116 of which consist of Zombie Hero IDs, zombie traits, spawn, bystander and Superhero cards. The remaining 24 cards aren’t usable in the game on their own and are intended to be used alongside the upcoming Marvel Zombies – X-Men Resistance.On that note, Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance captures the theme of both IP’s that it draws upon at the same time. It feels like Zombicide right from the outset, and at the same time, having reviewed the original Marvel Zombies lore, it covers that base extremely well too. Whilst some missions are easier than others, all of them convey a feeling of desperation from the outset.