Stats:
No. of players: 1-6
Amount of time to play: 45-60 min
Age requirements: 8+
Set-up time: 5 min

Night of the Noxious Dead is the first expansion for Zombies Keep Out. It adds a new type of zombie, more contraptions and more cards to the Deck of Terrible Things.

Night of the Noxious Dead Rules Description:

If you have never played Zombies Keep Out read my overview and review to get a basic understanding of the game. This post will deal with the new things added in the Night of the Noxious Dead expansion.

This expansion introduces Stinkers. These zombies shamble based on the card drawn from the Deck of Terrible Things. If moved because their row or column shambles, they move straight ahead like Runners. Other zombie types will not stay in the same space as a Stinker. When you resole shoving you must move other zombie types first. Though revolting they are weaker than the other zombies. They only remove on barricade token when smashing a location.

The new cards in the Deck of Terrible Things mostly add Stinkers to the board and tell them how to shamble. Sometimes they tell you to shamble zombies adjacent to one or more Stinker. This includes spaces diagonally adjacent to Stinkers.

Some of the new contraptions give you options for being more efficient. They let you get a destroy zombies and take a part of a normal action. One lets you heal bite tokens and another makes you discard 2 cards to take two normal actions.

The setup is different too. After placing all zombies you replace 2 Runners with 2 Stinkers. You also shuffle the new cards into their appropriate decks.

Quick Review of Night of the Noxious Dead:

Night of the Noxious Dead is a fun expansion for Zombies Keep Out. This expansion adds to the challenge. It is easy to incorporate into the base game and everything is well-marked so it is also easy to remove if you want to play just the base game.

The components for this game are in line with those from the base game. The expansion just fits into the original box which is nice. The rules are easy to read and follow. And the new Stinkers glow in the dark. They are great.

Zombies Keep Out is hard. After adding the Night of the Noxious Dead the game is even harder. The Stinkers really give the other zombies momentum toward your barricades. The new contraptions can help your cause but their position is determined randomly and some are more useful near the center of the board.

If you enjoy Zombies Keep Out and want to up the difficulty of the game, buy the Night of the Noxious Dead expansion. It might be hard but it doesn’t stink.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6