The History of Zombicide Part 3: Zombicide Goes Interstellar

The first three Seasons of Zombicide set the game in a modern, contemporary city. The Green Horde games took it into a medieval fantasy land of orcs, elves, and dragons. For Zombicide: Invader, the development team had another opportunity to change the setting of the game, this time opting to take players to the distant planet of PK-L7. As we prepare for the launch of Zombicide 2nd Edition, we conclude our look back at Zombicides of the past, delving into the sci-fi iteration of the game.

The story of Zombicide: Invader put players in a mining colony on a planet far from Earth. There, they had been trying to extract Xenium from the soil so they could useit as a powerful energy source. The planet had been home to an alien species that, at first, really didn’t interact with humans at all. They were passive and shy, keeping to themselves. Then, something changed. The once shy creatures became murderous, slathering beasts. It was death in the dark reaches of space as players raced back to the surface of the planet with hopes to escape.

Mechanically, Invader made several changes to the game. First off, Survivors were broken into two categories: Civilians and Soldiers. Civilians had only two wounds compared to a Soldier’s three. However, Civilians could search in any room on the board, barring Xenos (the name for zombies in this version) being around of course. Soldiers, on the other hand, could only search in designated rooms, making it a tradeoff of versatility vs. durability.As the Survivors were now loaded up with high-powered weapons, the Ranged Attack rules changed. Survivors in Invader had learned to concentrate their fire, instead of attacking into a zone and hoping their bullets/lasers/slashes hit where they wanted. With the ability to go full-in, this allowed them to increase the chances of hitting and take out high-priority targets first. With the addition of SentryGuns and remote-controlled Robots, Survivors could better take on the waves of enemies that come knocking at their doors.