When comparing Dead of Winter vs Zombicide, the Slant community recommends Dead of Winter for most people. In the question“What are the best scary board games to play around Halloween?” Dead of Winter is ranked 5th while Zombicide is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Dead of Winter is:
Dead of Winter is, on the surface, a cooperative game where players work together to survive an apocalypse. However, every game has roughly a 50/50 chance of a hidden traitor mixed in with the players, whose goal includes making all of the other players lose the game. In every game, regardless of the presence of a traitor, the players will also have their own secret objectives, many of which might look suspicious. So, even if you don't have a traitor in the game, if one of your friends seems like they are hoarding food, you're going to start questioning them. This environment of paranoia is extremely enjoyable.
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Pros
Pro Spreading mistrust amongst your friends
Dead of Winter is, on the surface, a cooperative game where players work together to survive an apocalypse. However, every game has roughly a 50/50 chance of a hidden traitor mixed in with the players, whose goal includes making all of the other players lose the game. In every game, regardless of the presence of a traitor, the players will also have their own secret objectives, many of which might look suspicious. So, even if you don't have a traitor in the game, if one of your friends seems like they are hoarding food, you're going to start questioning them. This environment of paranoia is extremely enjoyable.
Pro Great horror story
One of the core mechanisms of Dead of Winter is the Crossroads card system. These are cards that are read, in secret, by another player while you take your turn. If, during your turn, you take a specific action (maybe searching at the police station, or moving a character), play is interrupted, and a short blurb of story text is read. Then, the players are faced with a choice that has consequences in-game. Do you help out the band of survivors that showed up at your colony, adding more helpless mouths to feed but gaining more workers in the process? Or, do you send them on their way, knowing the chances of survival are grim? It's wonderfully thematic, immersive storytelling that, unlike many other random event systems in games, is directly triggered by the players' actions.
Pro Lots of expansions
There are additional sets available ranging from new survivor cards to different enemy miniatures, more game tiles, etc.
There is also a medieval version - Black Plague - which offers an alternate settings and slight rule/weapon changes.
Pro Replayability
Prison Outbreak, Toxic City Mall, and Angry Neighbors are all expansion packs you can add to the base game. Extras such as Dog Companions, Zombie Dogz, and VIP (very infected people) add new figures, figures, and equipment. There is also a new version: Black Plague which takes place in a medieval setting (expansion coming in June)
Pro Quality components
The game comes with a bunch of miniatures, all molded out of plastic and have nice detailing as well as individual looks. The cardboard game cards, etc also have a solid think feel to them as well as colorful and illustrative art printed on them with the cards even being double sided. The amount of pieces and the quality of there craftsmanship definitely give a feeling of robustness that earns the game its high price ($89 retail).
Pro Co-op play
Teamwork is essential to completing your objectives - some players will level up towards ranged combat, while others move about quickly. Not all players will be able to open the required doors, and you level up individually but don't let one player level up much faster than the others - zombies seem to thrive off success.
Cons
Con Unwinnable for some players
Occasionally through luck of the draw or poor decision making, a player's Secret Objective will become clearly un-achievable, or the achievement of which will lose the game for everyone. When this happens to a non-betrayer mid game it become very frustrating to have to stick it out knowing you cannot share in the win.
Con Error filled rulebook
The packaged rulebook is not only filled with errors and typos but is also missing a lot of pertinent information to the gameplay. Luckily there is an updated version as a PDF download on the publishers site that has the extra content the printed version is missing.