Review: The Walking Dead: Surrounded from Button Shy Games – a Zombie Apocalypse in your pocket

The Walking Dead: Surrounded

1-4 Players
Recommended age: 12+
20 minutes
RRP: Main Game £10 (CLICK HERE), Under Siege Expansion £4 (CLICK HERE)

Last month, Button Shy Games announced a licensing agreement with Skybound Tabletop to produce The Walking Dead: Surrounded, the latest in their series of “wallet games” which takes the iconic world of Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead and compresses it into a portable card game experience.

Designed by Jason Tagmire, the game sees the player(s) drawing from an 18-card deck, adding Locations and Occupants (Survivors, Leaders and Walkers) to a rapidly growing map while trying to meet certain conditions depending on which scenario they’re playing.

Each card features a Location on one side, and a unique grid of four Occupants on the other. Every turn, the player can either choose to “Explore” (place the top Location in the deck adjacent to an existing Location, then flip over the next card and place the Occupant side so that a Walker is adjacent next to the new location) or “Occupy” (flip the top card and place it Occupant side up adjacent to an existing location).

You essentially end up with a checkerboard of Locations and Occupants, with the aim being to try and keep the Walkers away from the existing Locations, or funneling them into Locations where they can do their thing without harming any Survivors or Leaders.

Trying to surround a location with Survivors is usually the way to go, as each Walker eliminates a Survivor at the end of the game (again, depending on which version of the rules you’re playing) during the Scoring Phase, and you only score points for Survivors who… well… survive.

Leaders like Rick Grimes, Michonne, Maggie, etc. are extra valuable as they boost the points you score for each Survivor, although in true Walking Dead fashion they immediately start scrapping with each other if they’re at the same Location, removing each other from play during the Scoring phase. Oh, and to spice things up even more, Different Locations have different effects that have to be considered, from doubling the number of Walkers to imposing harsh penalties if the Location is “overrun” (essentially having more Walkers than Survivors/Leaders).

It’s an intriguing tactical experience that is designed to work as a solo or cooperative game, and the replayability factor is provided by the inclusion of 18 different scenarios which provide different (and sometimes fairly abstract) winning conditions, from ensuring the map is at least 5 spaces wide to trying to destroy humanity by getting as low a score as possible. Full disclosure, I’ve only played the sol0 version at the time of this review, but I honestly can’t see a multi-player mode adding much new to the proceedings, as the only real change is that players alternate playing cards, which may actually end up bogging down the flow of the game.

Also, for players looking for a little extra variety, Button Shy have also published a 6-card expansion called The Walking Dead: Surrounded – Under Siege that introduces new “Mercenary” Occupants (who can wipe out every Walker at their Location), Locations, scenarios and scoring conditions to mix things up and keep the game feeling fresh.

Overall then, while it’s not exactly what you’re going to reach for if you’re in the mood for an in-depth gaming session, as a ‘pick up and play’ experience that makes great use of the Walking Dead license, this new release comes highly recommended. So much so that we’re definitely going to be checking out a lot more of Button Shy’s “Wallet Games” in the future. Keep your eyes peeled!