State of Decay is fun. Let's just admit
it. It has plenty of flaws yes, but fundamentally it gets things
right. Finally! A Walking Dead style game that actually
resembles the experience of a zombie infested world. Definitely not
the first decent zombie game to come along, but it isn't about the
flesh creeping horror of the early Resident Evil games, it isn't
about the gore-obsessed Dead Rising games. As strange as it sounds it
is the most realistic zombie survival game. It almost feels like it
was developed by a hardcore think tank of the sort of dudes that
write these semi-amusing, semi-serious Zombie Survival Guides.
Okay so what are the key points.
Exploring - a large open world sandbox environment with many
abandoned (or so you think!) buildings and settlements. Fighting -
using your fists and feet, melee weapons or guns and explosives are
all equally satisfying. Survival – increase your chances of making
it by sticking together, finding resources, building bases and
developing character skills.
My experience of playing this game was
very enjoyable if not punishing. I began rather blasé, hacking away
at zombies with a variety of melee weapons much to my approval. As
the game pans out and your posse head to a larger settlement, my
Rambo approach was not rewarded. The character realisation in this
game must be good because when I first lost Maya, who was sadly torn
apart, I genuinely cared.
For you Maya!
It also dawned on me how difficult the
next few hours would be gathering supplies and exploring random
abandoned buildings, cause they are EVERYWHERE! Sneaking is tough
and its hard to keep your cover all the time. Any activity apart from
breathing seems to attract these mindless undead.
One issue with the game is possibility
of repetition. Another is the fact that all the male characters that
you can switch between seem to sometimes have the voice of Marcus the
guy you start off controlling. The graphics are a little crude as
well, with some lag to be expected. This is nowhere near as ambitious
graphics-wise and in terms of map size as say Skyrim.
An unfortunate time to be releasing
this game as Fans of the zombie concept in general will enjoy this
game as the way it plays is well paced and rewarding, so get stuck
in and see if you can last in the remorseless world in State of
Decay, or you might be waiting until the apocalypse for a better
game in the genre. If the guys and girls down at Undead Labs jump on
it right away and focus on the weak points but keep the essence of
this game pure, then a potential sequel would be mind-blowing!
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