Game: Last Night on Earth Special Edition Soundtrack CD

Thread: Re: For the Undead

jcb231 — 2008-09-05T02:15:38+00:00

So the cards don't match?

I had an opportunity to get this for a dollar and change from a local game store that wants to be rid of it....I hate the music so I'd only be buying it for the cards, but if they don't match it isn't even worth the buck. How bad is the contrast? I have second edition base game so I can't compare on my own.

And is there any rule regarding an item being "music" type?

As a thought on the music itself...it seems like it would make far more economic sense on Flying Frog's part to just release soundtracks on iTunes or a similar service or direct from the website. They could maybe knock a little bit off the base game and still come out ahead after the savings of not producing a CD with full-color insert and jewel case. Just seems like it work out a lot better and would create a nice level of online involement. Soundtracks to games are a nice idea in theory, but it takes a special kind of boardgamegeek to enjoy it, and even then it's got to be great music. Plus it really seems like double-dipping to sell something that is 90% the same as what came in our games...feels like they're just trying to frisk the fans for extra cash by including those two bonus cards.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

energizercoony — 2008-07-23T11:50:50+00:00

Go to their myspace page for some samples. I quite like the music.

http://www.myspace.com/thezombiegame

Thread: Re: For the Undead

kiwisoup — 2008-07-19T22:12:20+00:00

The CD is a slight improvement as it has 5 new tracks and all the artwork is redone, but I noticed that all of the inserts are printed on a matte finish paper, when the original was printed on a much higher quality somewhat glossy finish like most CDs are. Also, the 2 new cards included are using the older darker colors of the first printing, so they will appear slightly darker when compared to the "Growing Hunger" expansion or the second printing of the base set.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Jester333 — 2008-06-19T00:14:09+00:00

Can anyone point me in the direction of a sample?
I am curious how this sounds.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

mussels — 2008-06-15T17:08:16+00:00

If you're looking for more atmospheric music (I agree the soundtrack is a little un-scary) then I suggest Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They did a lot of the music which was used in "28 Days Later," specifically the song "East Hastings."

You can download their music on emusic.com.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

dsfloss — 2008-06-05T17:11:16+00:00

I agree that the soundtrack is pretty flat. I like to listen to tracks by Midnight Syndicate. Also Cheesy but I created a playlist of songs that fit a certain mood to avoid the sudden changes in tempo on the Last Night on Earth soundtrack and it adds that campy zombie theme which I think does add to the overall fun and flavor of the game.

The game is well made and I think of the CD that came with it as nothing more then a little "extra" they threw in just for fun.

As far as buying another version with 2 new cards, not worth the money I say. The expansion (I just ordered it) looks to add some actual content, cards, and scenarios, so if you like the game, go for that instead.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

ArsLoqui — 2008-06-05T16:33:47+00:00

franklincobb wrote:
It definitely is the love theme, and is probably a scene of Jenny and Johnny knockin' farm boots...and that is RATHER hard to reflect in-game. Unless you've got a pretty active imagination.

Or "This Could Be Our Last Night On Earth..."

Thread: Re: For the Undead

franklincobb — 2008-06-05T16:04:10+00:00

Springheeledjack wrote:
I was really excited about Last Night on Earth when it first came out. We played it several times. Even used the soundtrack CD.

Was considering getting the Growing Hunger Expansion, along with any other products they came out with, but when I saw this cheesy rip-off of a product, I completely lost my taste for the game and the company that produced it.

I now have no plans buy any Flying Frog products in the future. I refuse to support a company that uses cheap marketing practices to soak me for every last dollar they can get.

If it were all new music, professionally done, this wouldn't have bothered me, but I refuse to re-buy a product I already have for a couple of additional poorly done tracks and two exclusive cards.

It's a slimy marketing trick that just permenantly lost them a customer.

Don't worry PC, we'll pick up your slack as far as future Flying Frog products are concerned.

Ah...indignance, that finest of crops to be found of the internet, and certainly the easiest grown. I'm just disappointed that you didn't give the governor his HARUMPH~! My motto: TRY HARDER.

The original CD to me isn't bad--in fact, it sounds as though it was actually ripped from one of those B-level horror movies from the 80s and 90s, such as Subspecies. They were movies made on a low budget and the soundtrack reflected this.

Pretty much anyone can take GarageBand and make more 'professional' sounding tracks, so I'm pretty sure the "cheesy" motif is intentional.

The only one I have ever had a problem with is Jenny and Johnny's theme. It definitely is the love theme, and is probably a scene of Jenny and Johnny knockin' farm boots...and that is RATHER hard to reflect in-game. Unless you've got a pretty active imagination.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

Springheeledjack — 2008-06-05T15:31:13+00:00

I was really excited about Last Night on Earth when it first came out. We played it several times. Even used the soundtrack CD.

Was considering getting the Growing Hunger Expansion, along with any other products they came out with, but when I saw this cheesy rip-off of a product, I completely lost my taste for the game and the company that produced it.

I now have no plans buy any Flying Frog products in the future. I refuse to support a company that uses cheap marketing practices to soak me for every last dollar they can get.

If it were all new music, professionally done, this wouldn't have bothered me, but I refuse to re-buy a product I already have for a couple of additional poorly done tracks and two exclusive cards.

It's a slimy marketing trick that just permenantly lost them a customer.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

dbc- — 2008-06-05T07:56:37+00:00

To me it was not the music itself I disliked.
The problem is that there is no consistency. They have tried to put every kind of zombie theme, they could think of, on the cd. So when you play the game, you'll be put through all kinds of moods that are not necessarily present in the game at that very moment.
It would have been far better if they had kept to one kind of theme, like the action part or the haunting one. This would have helped develop a special atmosphere during play, that could have raised the enjoyment of the game. As it is now, the overall impression is just a mess.
I really hope their next game will be featuring a more tight soundtrack. Otherwise this trademark of theirs will just be feeling like a cheap gimmick, however a cool idea it was in the first place.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

GhosterlyGus — 2008-06-05T00:00:31+00:00

Maybe your wife has been listening to these folks, instead?

Thread: Re: For the Undead

Aging One — 2008-06-04T23:47:15+00:00

Well, my wife wouldn't touch the game, but she loves the CD.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

Hendal — 2008-06-04T23:11:58+00:00

I want the 2 new cards, but do not see my self buying another CD, I have never even listed to the one that came with the game, although I keep saying I will.

Thread: Re: For the Undead

jrbentley — 2008-06-04T21:57:21+00:00

Would you say you got "stiffed"...?

Sorry, just couldn't resist.

Thread: For the Undead

GhosterlyGus — 2008-06-04T21:31:45+00:00

I love the game, Last Night on Earth, but this separately purchased add-on is not worth anywhere near the $13 it costs. The "special edition" includes a CD with 16 tracks of zombie-inspired music and two new playing cards.

The playing cards are nice and in keeping with the components of the original game. One card is the "guitar" and it allows a hero to make the zombie reroll dice. The other card is "dance of the dead" which gives the zombies a chance to redistribute and move an extra space. Both cards are useful and fun. They are also in theme, having been released with the music CD.

Now, let's deal that CD. The music, produced and performed by Mary Beth Magallanes, in the original game was, frankly, bad. It was electronically synthesized and custom to the game. It was, at best, innocuous. At its worst, annoying. Overall, I never found it enjoyable. The soundtrack was mostly keyboard and uncompelling. Occasionally, however, some life was introduced when a track would include Magallanes chanting something religious sounding, in Latin or in some other language. One track (#6?) actually included a background moan (was that her?), as in a Zombie wanting meat, which proved to be a tid-bit entertaining. Overall, though, that was it; the CD in the orginal game was a grand idea but, ultimately, a throw away.

Why am I describing the CD in the master game? Well, because the "special edition" cd is, essentially the same thing. It has eleven tracks from the disc you already own and adds another five equally noxious new tracks. Now you have 16 tracks of terrible "zombie" music...play it long enough and expect nothing, except that you MAY just wake the dead.

What Flying Frog needed to do was (1) pay up to include professional soundtracks from known zombie/horror films, (2) include more cards in the package, or (3) include some version of the boardgamegeek faq for the original game [a must have!!]. Any of those would have had enough value to justify the buy.

Give them an "A" for inspired effort but an "F" on the final product.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

TigerTailz — 2008-04-20T14:52:59+00:00

This one is a pass. This is completely out in Left Field. Unless you like playing zombie games with techno/dance music this one really detracts from the mood completely. The original game comes with a cd so this one only has 4 new songs not included with the real game. Unless you like the mood of zombie's breaking into choreographed danced routines right before they attack.....I'd let this one "RIP"

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Paxe — 2008-04-05T02:38:14+00:00

Special Edition Insert

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Paxe — 2008-04-05T02:37:19+00:00

Special Edition Back

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Paxe — 2008-04-05T02:36:41+00:00

Special Edition Cover

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

donkst — 2008-03-08T16:33:51+00:00

Reashi wrote:
If you're really dying for scary music, there is plenty out there, midnight syndicate is good, as well as nox arcana as far as atmospheric mood is involved.

I've never played "Last Night," but I must agree with Reashi about Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate. I've used some of their CDs in a mix while playing Fury of Dracula and it worked perfectly. They really captured the right mood and my gaming group really loved it as a soundtrack, particularly during the silences. If you are interested, you can see more about the CDs I used in my geeklist "Soundtracks" for Your Games: Suggestions to Put You in the Mood!!!!" located here

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/27368

In the list I also provide links to everyone else's geeklist--that I know about--that offer soundtrack suggestions for gaming. One of the links is to user Zordren's "Best Music to Listen to for ZOMBIE-themed Games"

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/24239

You might really find that useful.

edits: typos and fixed a link

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Zadok13 — 2008-03-08T15:52:14+00:00

Its not scary, but I feel it fits the game to a tea. I have plenty of soundtracks of scary music already, this CD was different, it really has its own identity.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

MoE NL — 2008-03-03T16:07:28+00:00

we suffered from the same. nice music for background but not scary. would have the same effect if we put norah jones in the cd player.

afterwards we downlaoded alot of zombie songs like zombie from the cranberries and songs from zombienation. altho, not scary but nice.

a nice song to recommend is the resident evil movie theme song by marilyn manson. thats a bit creapy sound.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Brund the Decrepit — 2008-02-29T23:02:59+00:00

Black Aria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Aria by Glenn Danzig is a really fantastic classical/instrumental album if you are looking for a 'dark' CD to play in the background for gaming.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

lagoonguy — 2008-02-29T22:12:21+00:00

Tonight is my first attempt at winning my friends over with the game (as well as me) - we're all virgins at it... i'm listening to the soundtrack now before everyone shows up and it's actually good music, imo.... it's not "Halloween" or anything dark, and i'm not even sure it'll work well when playing the game... but it's well produced and good music and Jason/Flying Frog should be proud of it... but we'll see if it happens to go well with actually killin zombies.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

willau — 2008-01-24T14:48:27+00:00

I was looking around for other suitable soundtracks, thanks for the heads up on Midnight Syndicate David.

I was thinking that maybe the soundtrack to 28 Weeks later might work well too as mood music.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Ice Hensley — 2008-01-13T03:30:06+00:00

My wife and I tried it but after about 5 tracks we turned it off. The game was so much better without it in our opinion. Didn't think of it as B-movie music, maybe in that respect it would have worked. I think we were expecting something more scary.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

crazyyog — 2008-01-13T03:09:51+00:00

I love the idea of a game coming with a soundtrack. Unfortunately, IMHO I do not think the CD is very good and actually detracts from the whole mood of the game.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Reashi — 2008-01-09T09:58:19+00:00

Yeah, the music really does help solidify the b-horror music score feel. If you're really dying for scary music, there is plenty out there, midnight syndicate is good, as well as nox arcana as far as atmospheric mood is involved.

Personally I enjoy the soundtrack, I would gladly pay for future installments.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Kengi — 2008-01-06T05:53:16+00:00

When my group got together with this game, we sorta wondered how seriously to take both the game and the soundtrack. What we figured out is that the game, if played with the right people, is more funny than scary, and comes across as a great B-Movie zombie game. The soundtrack, when played with this mindset, is a lot of fun and causes random laughs from all players.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Boromir_and_Kermit — 2008-01-06T04:18:07+00:00

We turned it off after skipping through the tracks. Nothing wrong with it other than it's not horror music and it kills the mood of the game.

Ben.

Thread: Re: Any scary music on this one?

Aging One — 2008-01-06T04:03:21+00:00

Well, my wife listened to it and thought it was great! I had to tell here it was a CD of 'horror' music.

Thread: Any scary music on this one?

tempus42 — 2008-01-06T03:56:02+00:00

We're enjoying the game, and while the soundtrack is a great, innovative idea, we were all really disappointed that the music just wasn't scary at all! We expected something super dark and moody, something that would induce suitably zombie-esque dread. Instead, we thought the music was much too light and synthesizery, and we had to turn it off because it was seriously killing the mood. I respect the talent of the composer(s), but it's just not zombie music.

Are the new tracks more of the same, or do they get scarier?

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Unasta — 2007-12-29T21:46:35+00:00

Guitar

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Unasta — 2007-12-29T21:46:16+00:00

Dance of the dead

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Unasta — 2007-12-29T01:19:04+00:00

The CD and Cards