While I was at AX and Comic con this year, I had a person every hour come up and go “When is Outbreak going to be released?” September 30th is the date I’ve been hearing, so mark it down everyone! It’ll be a nice albeit late birthday present for me (the 19th for all you who want to send some love).

The one question I hardly ever got though, was “How does Outbreak work?” Outbreak was a game about becoming the infected, turning on your friends in a dire circumstance or situation and biting into their neck, infecting them in the process. Many of us in the office believe that the Outbreak Mode is the best way to play, bar none. There is definitely a huge change when your playing this mode, so lets dive right into it!

New Card Type

Of course we have a new card type, didn’t you see those disgusting colored cards in the unboxing pictures? These are called “Infection” cards, and represent a few things in your game.

Remember Me?

 Aside from having the worlds most disgusting smile, this card is one of the first Infection cards that was made. Infection cards represent how infected your Character is while they are alive, and become the source of your power when you are Infected. This card allows you to heal yourself by feasting on your former comrades flesh, while at the same time dealing a little bit of Damage. We will go into how exactly Infection cards are used a little farther down.

The New, Infected Me

So now your Infected, but you can’t just roll around in just any pile of flesh. No, you need to travel in style, with chunks sloughing off by the pound, muscles degrading with every step, and sharp enough teeth to do all kinds of Damage. What you need, is an Infected Character!

The Cadillac of the Undead

 Much better. The Infected Character is a bit of a step up in terms of your original Character. Not only is your Health excessively higher, but you have a brand new effect that doesn’t require any Decorations, and some of them are even sporting Base Damage, meaning that when people fail to kill you, you strike back, just like the Mansion Infected. I always knew I wanted Infected Characters in the game, and it took a lot of testing before we finally settled on exactly how they worked. I think they came out great, what about you?

The Nitty Gritty

So what exactly is “Infection Mode”? Infection mode is a replacement to the Story Mode which provides players with a fast, frantic race which tests your ability to make the right decisions in close situations. Not only will you have to protect yourself from the Infected in the Mansion, but you’ll also be contending with not only your own Infection Level, but also your friends, should they turn into an Infected themselves.

All of the typical rules from Story Mode apply. In addition, we have added a few new rules to keep the game moving. Don’t be surprised if the majority of your games end with every player dying. I know it happened to us quite a few times, not by choice either!

The goal of the game is the same: Defeat the Boss in the Mansion. However, there is one caveat: Should every player permanenty die (max health reduced to 0 or less), and/or are an Infected, the game ends as if the Boss had been Defeated.

There is a new Deck, the Infection Deck, that is shuffled up and placed face down above the Mansion. This has all of the Infection cards, like the one you saw above, shuffled in, and are used to not only assist you as an Infected, but are also used to keep track of how Infected your Character is. All Characters have a maximum Infection Level of 10. At the end of a Player’s turn, if they did not Explore or Attack an Infected Character, their Infection Level is increased by 1. In order to do this, take the top card of the Infection Deck, and place it face up next to your Character. Do the opposite if you manage to decrease the level. If at any time a Character’s Infection Level hits 10, even if it isn’t their own turn, they instantly die, and reanime as an Infected Character the next turn.

In order to reanimate, you remove your old Character from the game, then randomly choose an Infected Character. Trash any non-Infection cards that were attached to your old Character, and shuffle all of your cards, including all of the Infection cards that were next to your old Character, into your Inventory. When your turn comes around, draw 5, don’t skip your turn, and continue play as usual.

So what can the Infected Characters do thats so different? Infected Characters follow these basic rules:

o Have 0 Buys                                o Cannot play Weapons unless stated otherwise.

o Have 0 Actions                          o Cannot play Items unless stated otherwise.

o Have 1 Explore

So what do you do when your an Infected Character? You have the effect on the Character itself, as well as the Base Damage, which is added to your Damage when you Attack, and is dealt to Characters who fail to Defeat you. You can, however, attack other non-Infected Characters. When you do, you declare who you are Attacking, and play all Infection cards that you wish to play (there is no limit) from your hand. Add up the total Damage your dealing by adding your Base Damage, plus the Damage on all of your Infection cards. Most Infections have an effect thats applied before Damage is dealt. Once this is done, the Character you attacked takes Damage, and you proceed through your turn as normal.

Should an Infected Character kill a living Character, whether by Infection or Damage, the Player controlling the Infected Character randomly chooses an Infected attached to the Character and Removed that chosen Infected from the game, effectively lowering the living Character’s Decorations. However, should the Infected Character be killed, the controlling Player is now out of the game. The Player controlling the Character who dealt the killing blow takes the Infected with the highest Decoration value that was attached to the Infected Character and adds it to their Decoration amount.

Om Nom Nom

 Pretty easy? You would think so, but don’t forget that you still have the Mansion to contend with, along with your fellow survivors trying to escape. We will have more previews in the upcoming days up until the release of Outbreak so stay tuned!