Trashdome - Last Night On Earth vs A Touch Of Evil

I don't want to vote since I haven't played a Touch of Evil

It might distort the ratings similar to another popular boardgame site's ratings

(slight smile)

Touch of Evil does win the prize for the worst picture of a vampire of ALL TIME!






Give me a break!!!

Well, over the Easter weekend I manage to squeeze in two six-player games of LNoE and had a total blast. I was the only one who had played before, so we started with the Die Zombies Die! scenario, but using the "advanced" rules. I was on the Zombie side and we got royally blitzed by the heroes with the game ending after about 10 rounds. Second game we played Escape in the Truck and I was a hero this time around. This game was on a knife-edge until the very last round, but alas the Zombies prevailed and feasted on our brains.

There was so much interaction going on during these games, at times it felt almost as if we were playing an RPG. There was a wealth of scheming on both sides and the tension that built up during the second game was palpable.

We played a four-player game of Nexus Ops straight after LNoE and despite the often extolled virtues of this game, the atmosphere was really flat compared to earlier games of LNoE.

I'll admit that I haven't played AToE, but after some lengthy online research, it hasn't even made my hitlist of games.

vote: Last Night on Earth

Thanks a lot Weeks...seeing that STUPID FUCKING ARTWORK was almost enough to make me change my vote based on that alone.

The vampire is bad enough...but Cap'n Hootie McBoob, piratess, is almost as bad. She looks like some trailer trash dressed up for RenFest.

I can't believe anybody looked at that art and said "yes, let's go with that". The bad thing about Flying Frog is that they come across as the kind of guys who just get their friends and family to do everything- art, music, dressing up like a hooker-pirate. That's fine, but it's not professional and it gives their games an aura of cheapness.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Cap'n Hootie McBoob, piratess

She's hot!

The photo-style artwork doesn't work as all for AToE. I think it works pretty good for LNoE though.

I'm still weighing my final verdict.

Last Night on Earth is the single most successful game I've ever played with non-gamers. They LOVE it. My non-gamer friends beg me to bring it to every party. We've had so many great stories and tense moments...best game ever was using a Growing Hunger scenario (by the way, that expansion is worth it if for nothing else than the scenarios). Fantastic moments included Sam,the diner cook, being holed up in the diner with one life left as a sacrificial lamb. With a cleaver and like 4-5 zombies descending on him. First of all, I mean, diner cook in the diner with a cleaver. But then he manages, despite fantastic rolls from the zombies, to not just fend off but KILL all the zombies with the cleaver. Every roll was met with huge cheers, people were freaking out every time I (as the zombies) rolled a 6, only to be beaten by his cleaver 6. Then, the moment he leaves the diner? Killed by a single zombie.

In that game we also had a player beg the dice gods at the beginning of the game NOT to draw Father Joseph as his character, which of course he drew. So then every time I played a card, no matter how innocuous, he offered to use his power to cancel it, trying to get himself killed so he could get a new character. Watching him try to convince everyone that every card I played was threatening...but of course, by the end of the game he was the powerful character on the board (maybe the powerful hero I've ever seen), a freakin' zombie lawnmower, and now that player loves Father Joseph.

And then the game ended with Kenny's last stand, as he performed cleanup on aisle 7.

All in ONE game.

We haven't had a single fun game of Touch of Evil yet.

Vote: LAST NIGHT ON EARTH

Vote: LNOE

I actually bought ATOE and I do love it (and I actually like their cheessy artwork, mainly because it makes their products... defintely theirs, in a good way).

LNOE we have more fun with when we have 3-4 players. ATOE works better with any other number (well, 1-2 and 5-6). The co-op version is only fun if you mod it up, in which case in can be quite good. One thing I can say about ATOE is it's the only game I've ever had fun playing with only one player... I've actually done that 3 times with this game, a complete oddity for me as I normally only play alone once to learn the rules and that is it.

I would vote for ATOE if there were more minions to fight during the game (and we in fact have modded it for this... but that isn't the game) because I do think it is a better design, and the elder mechanic is pretty damned cool.

That said, I like Flying Frog and I think that Jason Hill is doing a good job publishing some small AT games. I'll continue to support them.

My vote: Last Night on Earth.

I've had fun every game I've played of LNoE except for the game that Euro Phil played the zombies and tried to hide the whole game.

Touch of Evil was so-so. I did like the idea of playing it co-op or competitively.

Hands down: Last Night on Earth...

Jeez, I feel like the one guy who liked HUDSON HAWK in here!

There is a good point to made about LNOE, and thanks to Dragonstout for pointing it out- it is very accessible and it has a similar appeal as BETRAYAL AT THE HOUSE ON THE HILL did. That counts for something, I think. It has that mainstream attraction that most hobby games completely miss. I think LNOE, with less stupid looking artwork and more professional sheen, could be a mass market game. Too bad it never will be.

LNOE roxorz. Nuff said?

LNoE for me, no contest. I was pretty excited about ToE (preordered it and everything), but my group played it once and hasn't asked for it again.

LNOE for me as well. The game just builds a story around the actions and card play. The games are remembered because many of them come down to a die roll or two. I haven't gotten the same things out of AToE -- the cards try to build the story, but don't qutie succeed and suffer from the problem Michael always cites of theme doesn't come from reading paragraphs off of a pile of cards.

The artwork in both is substandard, but it really is substandard and out of place in AToE, where I think it fits in LNoE.

this blow out is going to be worse than WotR domination.