Like sex, Zombies sell. We’re obsessed with them.
So it may come as no surprise that Undead Labs’ open-world zombie survival horror sold over 250,000 copies in the first 48 hours of its release and has become the second fastest selling Xbox Live Arcade title in the history of the service – losing out only to Minecraft.
But popular doesn’t always mean something is good and with a 1600 MSP price tag you’d be forgiven for being hesitant.
So, is State of Decay worth your time or have we fallen foul of the hype train once again?
Publisher: Microsoft Studios
Developer: Undead Labs
Release Date: Out Now
Format: Xbox 360 & Steam (TBA)
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Price: 1600 MSP
In short, yes it is absolutely worth your time. In fact, if you stopped reading right now and went to download the game without ever coming back you would be totally satisfied. But, please, indulge me a little longer. What is it about State of Decay that makes me recommend it so readily and emphatically?
Yes, Zombie games are popular and there are a whole bunch of them out there attempting to give us a taster of all the different elements of a potential, hypothetical apocalypse. Left 4 Dead focused on the immediate thrill of surviving the undead hordes, Dead Rising gave us the opportunity to mess around with bowling balls, gold clubs and lawnmowers in our own zombie infested sandbox and The Walking Dead allowed us to experience the emotional impact behind the choices and relationships in our fight for survival. State of Decay, however, attempts to combine the best of all of these and tell the story after the initial panic subsides. You settle into the downtime of simply trying to survive, wrapping it all up in a well thought out and often unforgiving RPG experience.
When you first start State of Decay you’re greeted with the sight of a pack of zombies attacking your friend and are immediately prompted to react to the situation. Following this, you’re introduced to a host of different menus that carry a lot of information about the world around you. To be honest it’s all a little disorientating; a sensation that occurs frequently in the game. I remember feeling incredibly overwhelmed when I first set foot inside the church safe house; there were lots of people to talk to, a whole host of missions popping up, resources and facilities to manage, not to mention the temporal aspect of survival, wherein resources drain over time. I’d only just arrived and it felt like time was running out. I had to adapt and become acclimatised to it all very quickly. Meanwhile, the characters around me didn’t seem to care that I was panicking about where I should go or what I should do first. Whilst to some this lack of handholding may be a bad thing, deliberate or not, it highlights a remarkably real aspect of any form of survival; nobody is going to wait around for you to get comfortable.
Like any post-apocalyptic world, your makeshift band of survivors is going to be a menagerie of different folk. This is represented in State of Decay by each member of your community having a collection of functional and personal traits. The former are comprised of common skills the majority of characters have, such as fighting prowess or athletic ability. The latter are more varied and relate to the characters personality or physical appearance. These can have a positive or negative impact on performance and the role a person takes within the group. For example, Lilly suffers from Asthma and won’t level up her cardio ability as fast as others, whereas Marcus’ impressive physical stature makes him a powerhouse character that can take and dish out a fair amount of punishment. Like Oblivion and Skyrim before it, skills are levelled up in State of Decay by performing actions, not via allocated stat points. As a result of this, your chosen play style will gravitate you towards certain characters and the weapon specialisations on offer to them.
This is where it became abundantly clear to me that, in this world, it wasn’t all about me and what I wanted to do anymore, it was about the community. I’d bonded with Maya pretty quickly due to her proficiency with guns and no-nonsense attitude, but I wasn’t going to be able to spend all my time with her. For the most part, this was because she became tired and I didn’t want to see her die because of that, but also because we needed supplies and Marcus could carry a lot more than she could. Thus, he gained some time in the limelight. Suddenly I wasn’t able to sneak about as Maya popping heads, because the needs of the group outweighed my own. I also knew that if Maya was killed, as death is permanent in State of Decay, my strongest asset would be lost and I’d have to struggle to build the experience of the remaining survivors, temporarily putting me on the back foot.
Its early game and I was forced to play things out as Marcus for a while. Given that I was lacking in pretty much everything needed to do anything in the game, it seemed prudent to head out into the wilderness and scavenge for supplies. Of course, I’d need to ensure my survival with a weapon and some rations to keep me going in the field, but I wasn’t about to get something for nothing – even though the world had ended, theres still no such thing as a free meal. Enter State of Decay’s currency system: Influence.
Whenever you perform an action that has a positive impact on the group, such as completing a mission or depositing items in the stash, you gain influence over them. This influence can then be “spent” somehow to further the lifespan of the group. On the one hand you could persuade the community to use some of the resources to build facilities, such as a farm or workshop to improve quality of life and unlock extra features. Alternatively, you could put a case forward for reaching out to other survivors in the area for assistance or alliance. You’ll also need influence to remove items from the stash, as the ever eloquent Sam so aptly puts it “Nobody minds if you’re getting sh*t done and you need extra stuff. Just don’t take sh*t you haven’t earned.”
Heading out after dark is a genuinely tense experience. The Zombies in State of Decay are fairly stereotypical in their docile state, stumbling heavy-handedly around the environment, but quickly turn feral when alerted. Thankfully, when you are forced to engage the enemy, the combat is enjoyable, even if a tad clunky in places. Still, a cautious approach is always advised as it’s entirely possible for even the strongest characters to be bested by a small group of the undead. Throw in the fact that supplies are limited, gunshot and car noises will attract attention and items degrade with use and you’re going to have to pick your battles. Stern questions need to be asked, such as – are the possible supplies in that house worth the risk of encountering a horde of Zombies? Could I cope if I was ambushed? Could I make it back to base safely if that did happen?
This, for me, is what State of Decay does so well – choice. While you never really get to make the kind of impactful decisions seen in The Walking Dead, the game is littered with much smaller ones that regularly need to be made and are more reflective of long term survival.
Overall, State of Decay is a truly fantastic and immersive game. One of my favourite design choices to preserve immersion is when an important conversation coincides with a Zombie attack. Characters will tell each other to “hold on for a second” and commence from where they left off when the action subsides. It’s a small gesture, but one that highlights the effort that’s gone into the experience you’ll have here.
Yes, there are a few technical issues with frame rate drops, pop in and the odd clipping incident, but they are so minor in context of how much fun the game is to play.
1600 MSP is a hefty price for a downloadable title, even by current standards, but the entire package needs to be considered outside of this context. With an astonishing amount of content, an engaging story line that ticks all the Zombie survival horror boxes and a lifespan that flies past the 10 hour mark of some AAA titles, it would have been entirely possible for State of Decay to launch on disc and fetch £20-30. At the cost of approximately £13, it’s hard to deny the return on investment.
State of Decay is a very ambitious title in all that it manages to accomplish and it has been widely publicised that this was, in many ways, a proof of concept for a fully-fledged zombie MMO, currently code named Class4. Based on my time with the game, I only have one thing to say to Undead Labs in response to that.
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