I had seen the kickstarter for this and was really looking forward to enjoy this setting, already having plans to combine it with another book in my collection for some awesome Suicide Squard like sessions, but as I slowly flipped trough the pages was it really disapointing to see how the writers dosn't really catch what there makes SW so special, them scrapping all of the ordinary character creation for example, and dosn't really understand how finicky and sensitive a system SW is, examples will follow.

Things that I noticed in order.

The medical corp picture on page 18 is way pixalated and should really have been caught in pre-reading.

A lot of different careres get the option to choose a combat edge, but it does not seem like there are any limitations, so you could choose an improved edge or one that you ain't high enough rank to reach. And the Naval Crew get to choose any one edge which is even more broken.

When we come to "Zombie Squard roles", this books way of putting classes into a classless system does it really show how the creators didn't catch how SW works. A freshly generated charcter that takes the first role in the book "The Booster" do they both get +2 on all fighting and shooting rolls (no conditions for said bonus), +2 to parry as well as the Dodge edge and the Charismatic edge and +2 to all Persuasion rolls, on top of some bonuses to stealth as well. Getting +4 on all Persuasive rolls right out of the bag is really broken, one only being able to fail a standard roll on a critical failure, and you do even have a pair of bennies to redo that if it should happen.

I stopped reading closely here, but "+2" was a really common orcurance, and in SW does that mean that you get a 50% bonus on quite a lot of rolls.

I do think that the writers have a nice idea, but the excecution is terrible.

I want to make it clear that this review is based on an initial, and not overly in-depth reading. I think its still valid but read it in that context.

Zombie Squad is a splendid idea and a decent setting. Unfortunately, I think there may have been a bit too much of the mindset of other systems used for the setting (PbtA and D20 respectively) brought to the Savage Worlds version.

Not only does this mean the game is desperately trying to force Savage Worlds to behave like a class system (which it pretty avowedly isn't), its also set-up so some things turn into traps or intelligence tests that may have been sequestered away in classes or PbtA playbooks in the other version. As an example, in one of the early parts of character generation, you get a choice of one of several possible backgrounds, each of which provides a free bonus. But the bonuses vary pretty wildly in value, from +2 skill bonuses to narrow applications of a skill, +2 bonuses to whole skills, to other abilities comparable to full Edges (or, indeed, getting Edges themselves). Now, SW is hardly lacking in good and bad choices, but a number of these things are a bit more extreme than you'd normally see in a Savage setting, and I think it can be traced back to not really thinking in terms of what SW basically is--a relatively light and slightly (but only slightly) constrained build and advancement system. Bringing a class/playbook mindset to it really just doesn't work well.

Its unfortunate, as the idea of playing the Dirty Dozen in space is a cool one, and one I'm surprised nobody had thought of before. But as it is, I don't think I can say the Savage Worlds version sticks the landing.