State of Decay

Introduction

Developed by the folks at Undead Labs and published by Microsoft, 'State of Decay' is a survival horror game that focuses on strategy and RPG elements just as much as zombie-killing action. Set in an open world environment, players explore a rural area of the country called Trumbull Valley and work together with other survivors to outlast the zombie hordes all around them. The narrative isn't particularly original when compared to the huge amount of zombie games released in the past few years, but it pushes the story along at a solid pace.

The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take

Interestingly, the game starts with an emphasis on action and gradually starts to introduce more RPG elements as you continue to play. Similar to a game like 'Morrowind', player skills are built up be performing actions related to those skills. If you want to become a better fighter and increase health, start bashing in some zombie heads. If you want more stamina, start sprinting everywhere. As skills increase, it's much more likely that the character will survive. Different characters build up different skills and players can take control of another character in their group at any given time.

Once you reach the church in the game, State of Decay transitions from a basic survival game to something much more. You have to start managing an entire community and make decisions on structures to build in the area to improve the chances of survival. If you are bringing in new survivors, they will need beds to sleep on. If you want to repair or build items, you will need to install a workshop. If you want to keep zombies away from the base, set up a couple survivors in sniper towers. You can also move your entire group to other locations on the map or set up outposts around the area. Outposts allow you to transport scavenged goods back to the main base without having to travel all the way back.

One aspect that may surprise you is that death is permanent in the game. If you have spent hours building up a specific character and then get overrun by a bloodthirsty zombie horde, all of that work is wiped away. Just like a true zombie apocalypse, caution is key over the zombie slashing approach within games like the Dead Rising franchise. In many cases, you will likely have to choose between finding fewer supplies when searching an area quietly or risking the life of the character when attempting to rush through an area. You also need to balance the overall health of a character with missions. If you stick to heavily relying on a single character throughout the game, you will run them into the ground before long.

It's often better to avoid combat completely than charge ahead at zombies. Guns definitely attract the horde toward your location, thus it's better to stick with melee weapons. However, this also depletes the character's stamina bar, so you have to be carful how much you really get into. You can also hide fairly easily in the foliage. It almost seems like too much of an exploit when zombies are chasing you down, but quickly crouching the bushes will trick them completely.

In addition to resource and community management, multiple missions often pop up when exploring the environment. These can lead to the discovery of new survivors, but at the expense of continuing to scavenge for the current lot. Missions also pop up during current objectives on another mission, thus forcing the player to make a decision on who lives and who dies. Most of these include tasks like rescuing a survivor, hunting down a specific zombie, defending a location from an attack or visiting other towns in the area to build new relationships.