I like both games very much. I bought LNOE in hopes that its greatness would replace ZP at my gaming table. It did not. I have played Zombies!!! and found it to be quite broken, and I have also played Mall of Horror and found it to be a good game, but not a good "zombie" game. I've found that Zombie Plague is still my number one zombie game. I've compiled the strongest points of ZP as compared to LNOE.

As ZP has many house rules, I'd like to first clarify the primary variant rules that I use: humans must secure one room instead of the whole house, zombies bite on 5 or 6, two zombies spawn per zombie turn, and the zombie turn is autonomous (each zombie moves towards the nearest visible human).

Zombie Plague is better because...

1. Barricades.
The whole idea of frantically securing the house is very intense. LNOE has zombies walking through walls, something I could never quite get over. One of my favorite moments in ZP was when a fellow player managed to: land two BODYSHOTS on a zombie, forcing it backwards through a door, and then run up and slam in a barricade to win the game. I like LNOE's flavorful scenarios, but, nothing feels quite as thrilling as boarding up that house with all those zombies outside (or inside!).

2. Small-scale.
In ZP, the feeling of movement and time is on a small-scale, compared to LNOE. For example, a player must maneuver around a kitchen table in order to reach the refrigerator and search it, or a player must turn around in order to swing his wrench at a zombie lunging at his back. In LNOE, all the spaces and rooms are much more "macro," or large-scale, especially in the center board. There is no facing, there is no maneuvering around board elements (except walls), rooms can be searched from anywhere within the room. You can move quickly from one side of the board to the other, whereas in ZP movement is much more realistic. In my opinion, LNOE's large-scale diminishes the tense interaction of the player to the board elements. One of my favorite moments in ZP was at the very last moments of an arduous session: All the humans except Thad had managed to make it into the cellar. Thad was separated from the cellar door by a throng of zombies. In order to make it, he would have to hack his way through the zombies. He tried desperately for a few turns, while a few of the players in the cellar were demanding that Thad simply be barricaded out and left to be eaten, so the rest could win the game. Finally, I managed to pick off a zombie or two from behind with my rifle, and Thad managed to kill a zombie on the first swing of his kitchen knife, leaving an open path to the cellar. Thad has exactly enough actions points left to run to the cellar, barricading the door to win the game. In LNOE, though tense moments like these can be conveyed through the interaction of the cards, I feel much of these small tense moments are lost in the large-scale of the game.

3. Action points.
First of all, action points makes learning ZP pretty easy. Instead of having phases like in LNOE, in ZP a player simply decides how to use his 4 actions however he/she wants. LNOE's phases feel regimented and unrealistic. In LNOE, I can either move OR search (not both), and then attack, etc. To me, ZP's action points offer more freedom of decision. Should I use 4 actions points to run and barricade the window from the zombies right outside, or should I use 2 action points and search the square right next to me?

4. Realistic game board.
ZP's game board looks like an actual house, with relatively realistic scale. LNOE "is a courtyard" (to quote Yib-yab's review). To me, the layout of the town is not convincing enough. Where are the roads and the abandoned cars? Why are these building sitting randomly on this grassy expanse? Also the buildings are somewhat off in relative scale to each other. I know this isn't a big deal, but to me I want to feel like I am running frantically around a real town.

5. Better "board" game.
In general, board games have the potential to be more "realistic" compared to card games because there are playing pieces that can move and interact with a visual landscape. LNOE often feels like a card game to me. Yes, your player does move on a board, but the fun of the game comes in the interaction of cards. That's where LNOE's zombie-ness comes out, in the very well-written cards. I like ZP because I can face down a zombie and fire away (roll the die) without having random cards be played against me. Both games are very luck-based, but I feel the hands of cards in LNOE make the game much too random. There is randomness in ZP's "event" search cards, but it can only occur during searching.

I use the word "realistic" often in my analysis of ZP. I know this word is somewhat relative. But I feel that the relative realism of ZP really helps to convey the intensity of a zombie environment. I strongly feel that the many house rules and variants as well as the print-and-play aspect scare many away from a brilliantly tense and fun game.

~Kwanchai