Solo Chronicles – After the Virus

You know how some people just HAVE to be time travelers? I’m pretty sure that Jacob Fryxelius is a time traveler. Maybe not a full-on Doctor Who, but to publish a game dealing with a virus that takes over the world two years before the outbreak of COVID-19 is really something. Granted, in this game the virus turns people into zombies, and that didn’t happen with COVID, but the similarities, amirite? I will have my complete thoughts at the end of this review, as always, but let’s learn how to play After the Virus.

After the Virus is a cooperative hand management, deck building game for one to three players. I will just be reviewing the solo rules, as they are basically the same as the multiplayer rules, except that in multiplayer you have access to your neighbors’ zombies. It can be played as a campaign game, and I am featuring game 1B from the campaign booklet for this review. There are 16 campaign scenarios in the booklet, and I need several more wins to complete it.

To setup for a game, decide which character you will be playing. Every character has a specific board that notates what the draw deck needs to include upon setup. All characters are dissimilar in this regard. After assembling their deck, shuffle that deck and place it beside the character board. The scenario will tell you how to place your wave and saved markers (the green and white discs pictured below, though I think I may have mixed up the colors in my head). Place the zombie cards in a deck above your draw deck with the highest value cards on the bottom of the deck and cards of decreasing value on top. The remainder of the cards are shuffled together to form what is called the “Area Deck,” and is placed above the zombie deck. Any cards that begin the game “unprepared” are placed beside the character board near the three red wound discs. The game may now begin!

The game is played over several turns with each turn consisting of two phases. The Draw phase begins with the player drawing five cards from their deck. Any zombie cards drawn will be placed face-up next to the zombie deck and are now threatening to attack. On future turns, when the deck runs out and you need to draw more cards, increase the wave number on the character board using the appropriate disc and add that number of zombie cards to the discard pile before drawing cards to reach the five card draw.

Secondly, the player performs action during the Action phase. These actions can be completed in any order as many times as able. The player can play an event card from hand and take its action. This could be avoiding zombies and discarding the zombie card to the discard pile, or other various event cards needed for the scenario. The player could also place a card to their Play Area next to the character board in an “unprepared” orientation (horizontal). Many times unprepared cards will require an amount of cards to be discarded in order to become active, or “prepared.” Any card can be discarded in order to Scout the top card of the Area deck and place it face-up beside the deck to act as a market row. These cards will all have a number icon to determine how many cards need to be discarded in order to Retrieve them from the Scouted Area into hand. The player may also Use an action on a prepared card, but eventually the player will want to address the growing zombie problem, if any.

Some cards Scouted or in hand will have combat abilities that can be used to fight off the impending zombie attack. Some cards will have the player simply discard the card in order to either discard the zombie to the player deck or to kill the zombie by placing it back to the zombie deck. Some weapons allow for cards to be used as Ammo and therefore converted into a projectile to help fight off and kill zombie cards. Each zombie only needs one hit to be killed, and similarly, each hero that is attacked by a zombie will receive one wound per zombie. These wounds are placed on the character board on the arm, leg, or brain. A wound on the arm will limit the player to one active prepared weapon, instead of the normally allowed two. A wound to the leg prevents the player from using the Run event card, which allows the player to avoid battle with one zombie by placing the zombie card directly in the player’s discard pile. A wound to the brain sadly ends the game with the zombies winning.

The game continues in this way until the scenario win objective is met or the player has been defeated by the zombies. Continue on with the campaign, restart the mission, or ragequit and come back later. The choice is yours!

Components. This game is a smaller square box (like Patchwork, 7 Wonders Duel, and Draftosaurus). I like this size box, and wish more games came in this size. The quality of the components is very good overall. The cards are nice, the player boards are nice, but I think the wooden discs are a bit too big. I really only mean the green and white ones because they track numbers on the character boards, and when they are right next to each other in sequence, they tend to just obscure other numbers as well. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would rather have cubes for that purpose.

Next I really need to address the art. I hate it. It’s completely an opinion, I understand, and mine may not match yours. AND THAT’S OKAY. For a very good game, it sure could use a refresher on a future reprint. I noticed that the designer and artist have the same unique last name, so I get it, but dang is it unattractive. I really don’t mind games with ridiculous and charicature-ish art (like in Escape the Dark Castle, Belfort, or even Mr. Cabbagehead’s Garden), but this is just NOT my style.

All that said, the game itself is pretty good. I don’t think there is anything too groundbreaking here, but I do enjoy the different scenarios presented for replayability. It’s pretty easy to setup and tear down as everything has its own little deck, so it will be staying in my collection for now. I will have to revisit my final verdict and placement in my collection after I have completed the campaign and attempted to come back again. For now, though, I enjoy this quite a bit, but REALLY wish it looked better. If you are looking to get a smaller deck builder with a zombie theme and good solo play into your collection, try to find yourself a copy of After the Virus. It isn’t terribly available, so good luck, but do let me know your thoughts and how far you got through the campaign before your first loss suffered.