You’re stuck on a barren, debris strewn street with 5 random strangers who may be the last friends you’ll ever have. Under every manhole cover, behind every door and around every corner lurks slobbering monsters who want to chomp on your brains.

It’s a movie, it’s a graphic novel and now it’s a board game!!

I know, I know. Some of you may think that the whole zombie trend is getting waaaaay old. And that is as may be. You know the genre is plucking at straws when they make an adorable Romeo and Juliet tale out of it. (Warm Bodies is actually a pretty good date movie except I couldn’t get Garden State out of my head for some reason). But anyone can admit that moving little zombie tokens across a game board and trying to decide whether to take them out with a chainsaw, a sawed-off shotgun or a frying pan is too much fun. Especially when most of the crowd has a couple beers and starts making all the sound effects. (Braaaaiiiinns!)

This board game is not cheap, but playing even one scenario is totally worth it. At around $100 for the basic box, which includes six characters, a whole mess of zombies, a bunch of double-sided game boards, a stack of weapons cards and a whole pack of other useful goodies, the price made us a little squeamish. But when the smart gaming store doesn’t put a price on the box there’s not much you can do when you get to the register but uphold your geekdom pride and hand over the debit card.

One of the things that makes this game entirely worth it, besides the chainsaw, is the fact that it is 100% cooperative. Six players face a world full of card-controlled zombies, trying to accomplish the scenario objective without getting eaten. Kill too many zombies and the game becomes increasingly difficult. Kill too few and your brains become lunch. Try to be a hero and you’re whole team might be a goner (Trust me, we’ve seen it happen…Rob). Because the scenario cards are double-sided, they can be put together to create a huge variety of different games. Throw in a shuffled deck of zombie spawn cards and your fate every game rests on the fine line between strategy and luck.

Although I doubt it will ever take the place of Apples to Apples as a casual Saturday game night, I think all lovers of anything zombie would enjoy this game. And it avoids the enemy-making traps of Monopoly, which I am formally boycotting since Hasbro decided to vote the iron off the island. How could you! Don’t you know that was the only piece that couldn’t be knocked over!!! Shame on you!

Am I a nerd or am I a nerd?