Buy State of Decay

Seeing i poured more hours into this game than the average review-writing player, i figured i should write my own review as well. There might be spoilers.
So here goes:

I'm not a fan of most zombie games, which seem to revolve around "shoot millions of zombies to win". There is no "winning" State of decay. The zombies are everywhere and the horde is endless. The base game ends when your survivors manage to leave Trumbull Valley and you are left wondering "How long will they last without my help?"
And this is exactly what i love about State of Decay.

The game & DLC's in a nutshell:

State of Decay:
You and your buddy went on your annual fishing trip, while you were gone large swaths of the US have been overrun by zombies. You get attacked as soon as you tie off your boat. Fighting them off is easy enough but now need to figure out what happened and where you can find a safe place to stay. Jump in the nearest car and meet up with fellow survivors holed up at a church. Then the game begins for real and answers are gradually given.

Breakdown:
Same map, alternate storyline. Several weeks after the outbreak, you and Lily are the last 2 survivors of an enclave and you know you wont last much longer on your own. While you look for another enclave to join, Lily packs up and will meet you there with whatever supplies are left. Once settled it's back to basics: survive for as long as you can. You quickly realize resources are dwindling while zombie numbers increase. Eventually it's time to move on: you pack all equipment in the RV, load up your most important survivors and look for a new home. Your new home is on the exact same map, but with fresh resources and.. more zombies.

Lifeline:
New map. You are in command of the last military outpost in the overrun city of Danforth. You must secure your base, shore up your defenses and start the search for various survivors. The brass will direct you to high-value assets: scientists, doctors and their families whose expertise might be crucial to find an eventual cure. Along the way stranded survivors cry out for help and you're the only one with the means to respond. Your actions will decide the fate of not only Danforth, but possibly the whole world.


I'll do a short pros and cons but there are a few things i should really point out first. State of Decay is not about killing lots of zombies. It is about people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. There are endless zombies but finite resources. Sure, it is great fun to smash your truck into a few zombie hordes or grab a machine gun and go on a killing spree, but that's not the intention of the game. When you're done a good truck will be broken, perhaps beyond repair. Or a lot of bullets will have been wasted on ever respawning zombies. So when you clear an area of zombies, you damn better scavenge as much as you can.

When you scavenge you may find resources you can use to improve your base or tools for zombie killing. Food and various painkillers/stimulants are also often found. There are a few possible home sites (bases) in the game for you to eventually choose from. Each of them has certain requisites and advantages/disadvantages, but larger is better :). Always you have to make tough choices: will i go for a workshop to repair weapons & cars, or rather a field hospital to aid the people who will inevitably fall sick? No one wants to go down with Black Fever.. trust me. Maybe i can have both IF i sacrifice room for the workout area, but then all survivors will have less stamina and fighting skills.. Choices.
Over the course of the game missions will pop up: help scavenging, clear out an infestation, save a survivor, trade resources with your neighbours, kill a freak zombie.

Unfortunately most of these missions can be boiled down to a simple fact: your fellow survivors have the mental capacity and survival skill of a baked potato. You are the only one who's good at it, and it's up to you to do ALL the work. I found this annoying when i first played the game and put it aside for a few weeks for that reason only. However, if you accept that's just how it is, embrace it, and you'll still have a most enjoyable game.
A few other points of light irritation:
- Graphics: good enough for a game of this price, but definately not top notch.
- Controls: especially car controls feel sluggish.
- Clipping: zombies occasionally clip trough solid objects. Not a problem if it's just a regular zombie, a bit more annoying when it's a Big Un or Feral in an enclosed space.
- Useless survivors: Plenty of them and no "clean" way to get rid of them.

The pros:
Open world game: You go where you want, when you want.
Permadeath: Your survivor got ambushed and killed? He's dead, no reloading an earlier save.
Stamina & carry capacity: The game's way of saying you're just an average Joe, not Rambo.
Traits and Skills: The game's way of taking the "average" out of "average Joe"
Soundtrack: Composed by Jesper Kyd. 'Nuff said.
Mods: Don't like this or that? Maybe want to see more of that other stuff? Check out the modding community, or find out how to do it yourself. Besides tweaking Breakdown to make it more enjoyable, i also added myself as a playable character. Much fun was had.

All in all i found this a very enjoyable game and the DLC's are definately worth it. Has been on sale several times @ -66% orso.
Even grabbed back to it a few months after i finished it.

Found the game very enjoyable but became burnt out on it very quickly, its incredibly repetetive with a very short storyline surrounded by filler side missions (mostly involving useless AI's that cant do ♥♥♥♥ for themselves). Combat is fun, the feeling of survival is VERY strong and immersive and the range of weapons (both ranged and melee) are pretty darn impressive. Not to mention for all those people who love their eye candy.. fairly good graphics

The main thing that gets me with this game however is that the survivors you work with overall are just... useless. Your base's radio operator is constantly spamming you with messages about how "so and so has wandered into a horde of zombies like a dumbass and you need to save them!", you go and save his/her ♥♥♥ and then another message comes in about another idiot who's achieved the same thing (sometimes even the same guy! xD) Ultimately you dont really connect with any of the characters in that most of the lines and voices (there is very little variety in this regard) are just copy and pastes from one person to another, all in all i would estimate about 5 voices for each gender.

One thing i always like in my games especially open-world ones are the mods! there are quite a lot of different mods for this game involving things like little tweaks to zombies, combat, vehicles ect and big stuff like base overhauls and porting weapons and vehicles from the DLC into the main game. Probably put an extra 20 hours into the game thanks to this.

The game is certainly worth buying for a zombie fan if you've got cash to spare or it's on sale but dont expect to be playing it for months to come, its a very short but sweet playthrough for most people i have spoken to despite the flaws

I would rate this game a 7/10 and i hope that people find this review i made useful

In all honestly, even with graphics and gameplay glitches here and there, this is one of the most immersive and realistic zombie survival games out there. There is nothing like that satisfying TWACK with a baseball bat and the constant perilous and VERY dangerous surprise of a Feral Zombie. I have gotten an unreal number of hours of thrilling gameplay from this title and it's DL content. As a horror gamer and creator, I give the highest recommendation for State of Decay and eagerly anticipate Undead Lab's continuing the series as an open world MMORPG. FIVE STARS

For all of you looking for a true zombie survival game, you've come to the right place. You're going to spend a ridiculous amount of time having stories to share with your friends unfold before your eyes.

The base game has an enjoyable story, though it's the sandboxy feel that goes along with it that makes this game an excellent one. You are continually capable of working toward your next story goal at your own pace, though if you're like me you'll find the majority of the game is spent exploring, collecting supplies, building up your base, dealing with other survivor groups, gaining skills for you survivors, etc. Every character has a unique backstory and there are -a lot- of survivors out there that you might run into and have join you.

The base building is simple, yet very enjoyable as well. Depending on what skills your survivors have, different options are available and you have plenty of options available to you. Do you want to be able to support more survivors? Build a bunkhouse and a garden so that they have a comfortable place to sleep and food to eat if your scavenged supplies run low. Looking to cut back on the sneaking around and really take the fight to the zombies? An infirmary will keep your survivors healthy and a munitions shop will keep them well armed. Just remember, even healthy, well armed survivors might run into a challenge when facing off against the 'freaks' or special zombies.

The Breakdown DLC removes the deep story aspect of the the vanilla campaign, though it adds a brand new achievement system that unlocks 'hero' survivors that, more often than not, are more capable than your average survivor. This mode also has 'Breakdown Levels', each time you complete one you move on to the next, more challenging phase, with new survivor achievements to unlock.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the zombie survival genre. I'd been looking for a game like this for a very long time and was extremely happy when I installed it and truly learned what it was all about. Enjoy and I'd love to hear your stories!

While those interested in the burgeoning zombie survival sandbox genre have no shortage of titles to partake of, those seeking a solo experience have been left with few options, particularly on the PC. Multiplayer games inspired by the Arma 2 mod, Dayz, seem to be popping up everywhere but the appreciable potential for a singleplayer game that focuses on PvE rather than PvP has on the platform gone unfulfilled. State of Decay looks to cash in on this opening, offering up a sizable chunk of game world populated by zombies, AI survivors and lots of loot-filled buildings to scour. While there are more than a few rough edges in State of Decay and a lack of the heart-stopping tension found in Dayz, there is an engrossing and enjoyable game here with a lot of things to do given the low cost of entry.

The start of the game sees you fighting zombies and completing simple fetch quests for a small group of survivors garrisoned in a ranger station. You are introduced to the combat and looting mechanics, but these only garnish the more engaging aspects of the experience. Soon you find yourself entwined with a larger group of survivors holed up in a church just outside a small town. This will serve as your base throughout most of the game as you earn the trust of fellow survivors, fortify your encampment and go out in search of supplies. Ensuring the well being of this group of survivors is ultimately what keeps State of Decay moving forward, as it provides good incentive for you to engage in the gameplay tasks which without context would be fairly banal.

After the opening sequence of the game, the constant flood of missions that you are informed of via radio chatter take a back seat to exploration and looting. Ensuring that your group of survivors have enough food and medical supplies will be the most pressing issue, and can be remedied by searching through houses which may contain zombies, supplies or occasionally survivors who can be convinced to join your group. You can climb tall objects and 'survey' the surrounding area, revealing locations of interest. Once inside a building, objects which contain items must be searched, and this takes several seconds to complete. Whether you try and sneak around avoiding combat with the walking undead, quietly scavenging what you need, or go in swinging to clear a house of its decrepit occupants before searching for goodies remains entirely up to you. You can radio home to request an AI survivor come out and pick up the supplies for you, but this requires clearing a location of all zombies first.

If you decide to clear a location of zombies before poking around for loot, the combat is functional but uninspired. With a melee weapon you swing away until either you run out of stamina, the zombies' heads explode or your weapon breaks. If you manage to knock a zombie down you can finish it off with a brutal swing of your chosen instrument of death, but most of the challenge lies in ensuring you don't get surrounded or backed into a corner. Firearms are straightforward and satisfying to use, although ammunition isn't readily available and firing a unsilenced weapon will attract nearby zombies, meaning they are best used only when the situation gets out of hand. Sneaking around zombies is a viable method, particularly when dealing with larger groups, and can be accomplished by takedowns from behind, distracting zombies with objects or using firearms with home-made silencers that only last for a set number of shots.

The zombies themselves shamble around convincingly enough, at least until they get stuck in the terrain which happens all too frequently. The undead will hop through windows, climb fences and grab you from behind as they endeavor to end your life. Special zombie types eventually start showing up, which range from the bullet-proof SWAT zombies to ones that explode in a cloud of poisonous gas when killed to hulking beasts that charge like bulls and sponge up a lot of firepower before going down.

If you do get killed, which happens very infrequently, rather than reverting to an old save you will start playing as another survivor in your group. It is in your best interest to keep survivors alive for as long as possible since you gradually gain passive improvements to a character over time, such as improved stamina, melee damage and increased health. If you are out and about with one character for too long, their maximum stamina will be decreased until they go back to the base and rest. When you do this, you will take control of a different survivor, meaning you will end up playing as many different characters throughout the game.

While the explorable area in State of Decay isn't huge, you can enter and drive vehicles left lying around which are all conveniently unlocked with keys in the ignition. Driving a car feels responsive and light almost to a fault; if you crash into an object at speed your vehicle will go flying in some pretty crazy ways. Running over zombies is a very effective way of killing them, although cars will become damaged in the process. Zombie hordes roam the streets, and running into them at full speed will be as damaging to your vehicle as it will be to the shambling flesh-eaters.

The amount of time you spend on State of Decay is linked directly to how invested you become in the well-being of your survivor group as well as your tolerance for repetition given there is no real end to the game but the random objectives start repeating. It takes a good amount of time and scavenging to fully upgrade your survivor camp with an infirmary, vehicle-repair station and watchtowers among other fortifications, but if you don't buy into the well being of your AI dependants you will struggle to care enough to go through the trouble of collecting all the required materials.

If you have been looking for a zombie-themed survival sandbox but don't want to contend with bandits and hackers in online games, State of Decay will scratch that itch. The lack of tension in exploration is vindicated by fairly complex mechanics surrounding the well-being of a group of survivors you must watch over. State of Decay succeeds in its ambitions and despite some rough edges provides a compelling open world experience.


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State of Decay certainly doesn't waste any time. Mere seconds past the Start screen, it throws you headlong into a zombie apocalypse in full bloom. Tree branch in hand, you clobber the shambling corpses attempting to munch on your screaming camping buddy, and then seek out the few remaining survivors while scrounging for supplies, weapons, and ever-safer home bases. That's just the first 20 minutes, but the core of State of Decay's gameplay never changes as you make your way through its open world and battle an endless cast of zombies. State of Decay finds its soul in the dreary repetition of apocalyptic survival.State of Decay's open world manages a substantial degree of immersion, complete with an expansive and occasionally intimidating map and the ability to drive cars freely across the landscape. The cars handle poorly, but the ability to use them to mow down roving zombie swarms offers a malicious satisfaction. You quickly learn to fight zombies only if you absolutely have to in State of Decay, and therein lies much of its appeal. This is not a game about Bruce Campbell badassing about in Evil Dead; it's a celebration of the normal person and all of his or her associated weaknesses. Some of the characters you come across have no combat experience at all.Death is permanent in State of Decay, which means that even characters with fully voiced storylines and unique dialogue die forever if you let them get overrun. From there, you can only continue through the eyes of another character you've befriended.Few things add more tension to State of Decay than the terrifying noise guns make, because a single foolish shot can bring an unmanageable horde upon you.Permanent death is a smart addition, though, since losing characters with high skills across the board carries with it a real sense of loss, particularly if their voice quests and customized responses in some quests led you to believe they were an essential character. Sometimes they don't even have to die in the field; if a character you've been controlling sustains enough injuries--a few undead chomps don't result in instant zombification in State of Decay--he'll lie bedridden and useless at your home base. The good news is that the need to rest and switch out characters results in you amassing a balanced group of playable characters anyway.It's a bit strange that a game that places such a heavy emphasis on interpersonal relationships should have no cooperative mode. You spend your time with State of Decay alone, joining up with other NPCs only for specialized quests and escort missions that bring other survivors back to your current base camp. It's especially odd since State of Decay starts out with a party of two, suggesting that you'll always have a buddy at your side if need be.State of Decay serves up a near constant barrage of suspense and immersion that leaves even the briefest jaunts away from your home base tinged with the threat of death. Its flaws are numerous and impossible to ignore, but in spite of them, State of Decay is a captivating survival adventure set in a bleak and harrowing world.

I've been playing Undead Labs's State of Decay for the past several weeks after nabbing it on sale. The game is a single-player third-person zombie apocalypse sandbox of sorts: while the main game has a storyline to follow, you certainly don't need to follow it and the story won't advance until you do, giving you a lot of time to just poke around.

I have enjoyed the game very much. It's certainly interesting enough to play and while it starts out reasonably tame, it can get quite difficult.

The main game begins with your character and a buddy returning to the more civilization-adjacent parts of a national park after a two-week fishing trip only to find that, while you were gone, civilization kind of had a major meltdown. From there, the game focuses on steath and survival by building up friendships with others and establishing a base from which to operate and outposts to reinforce that base and provide small "safe zones".

Criticisms
The criticisms I have are somewhat picky. To start, the story is very simple and somewhat shallow — it would be easy to play through it relatively quickly and then be just done with the game. A lot more could have been done, but, as I understand it this was Undead Labs's first game, and it was made for XBox Arcade with all the limitations that requires -- so we will perhaps see more story development in their next full release.

Second, there just isn't enough information in the tutorial; you feel bombarded with information (because a lot comes in through your Journal) that you can't make much sense of — and then lost because basic information (such as the benefits of establishing an Outpost, or whether it's wise to leave resources in Outposts or loot them thoroughly before setting one up in a location) can be a little difficult to find.

Third, there are too few voice actors, meaning that you end up with the same voice actors' lines being used for several different characters who end up sounding exactly the same while they say (verbatim) the same things; get two of them with the same voice together on a mission and it can get kind of confusing.

Finally: the driving physics and UI need some work. The game was set up for XBox, so maybe this is where PC players like me start to have problems. But while I can play Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto and drive just fine, I find the driving in State of Decay frustrating — especially because the smallest mistake can send a car sailing through the air as though it suddenly weighs nothing. And cars that turn over always explode, so there's that.

Praise
Meanwhile, though, State of Decay is nice to look at: the colors are just muted enough to evoke the proper autumn at the end-of-the-world feeling, and there has been a lot of attention to detail in filling out the large area (Trumbull Valley) in which your character gets to roam. There are three small towns to explore, as well as a lot of countryside, with a lot of interesting things to look at if you appreciate the details.

The game also makes you take a step back and figure out how to survive. Your character can go stealth or maniac, or pretty much anything in between. But don't count on the zombies to cooperate since that's sure to get your favorite character eaten nearly every time. And since death is final, that really makes a difference.

Strategy and sound are important, which I really enjoy, and on top of that there is also resource management to deal with: you've got a base full of survivors who need food, medicine, and ammunition to remain survivors, and construction materials to keep their base up. Scavenging through the zombie-infested, burnt-out world is a constant necessity.

In the end, the game is definitely worth a few bucks (especially if you can catch it on sale), and I look forward to other games from Undead Labs.

Breakdown DLC
I've played several hours of the Breakdown DLC (at level 5, currently), and it's been a lot of fun and a lot of frustration, but the frustration really seems to be the point of it. It's primarily the sandbox version of the base game, with a couple simple tasks to do to "move to the next level". Each level, the zombies get more numerous and more difficult to deal with and the scavenge-able resources get harder to find.

If you don't mind that sort of challenge — the one where you are pretty sure you'll ultimately fail — it can end up being a lot of fun.

Yet another zombie survival game. Oh, don't we see them so often? The answer is: Yes, HOWEVER, this game takes a new and interesting approach to the apocolypse. Nevermind finding a cure or trying to leave town to some place nice and quiet; State of Decay forces you into a world where the main focus is to fortify a home/base and to live off the surrounding, sometimes desolate buildings. Find food, feed your community members. Find materials, upgrade your base. Find oil, power your generator. Find ammo, defend yourselves from the shambling remains of what used to be your average Joe. Find and rescue other survivors, convince them to join your community. Survive as long as you could as a community. This game makes it clear you need a hand in the end of the world. Now, let's not get too off-topic - this is a review. This brings the question: So why should I get this game?
Well, although this game had a so-so port from Xbox to PC, although it has semi-frequent glitches, and although it has rather repetetive dialogue, the game makes up for this in many other aspects. I can play this for hours on end, but for the sake of my mental health, I keep each session under 4 hours. This game is great fun, and it can seriously get nerve racking at certain points, whether from the plot or from you just scavenging a town alone. There hasn't been one point in this entire game that I didn't enjoy spending time in the destroyed world that remains. After all, you don't choose the world you live in, but you choose what role you will play in said world.
All being said, I highly recommend you give this game a go, and if you like it, get the DLC (but we'll leave the DLC for another review or two).

Fun, polished campaign game that punishes you for not playing.

Playing SoD's entire map over and over until the difficulty overwhelms you. RE Mercenaries for SoD.

A military-based DLC that improves on the mechanics, adds a new map and has more airstrikes. Much less base-building and more firepower, slightly harder DLC.

State of Decay was a XBL Arcade game that got popular enough to warrant a re-release. It's basically the 'Rebuild' series done as a third-person shooter. There's a lot to do, but a select few mechanics are terrible. There's no tutorial and some advanced mechanics have to be researched online.

All you really need to know is that the zombie-killing, base-building, survivor-collecting, resource-scrounging game you've always wanted is fully intent on sucking you dry.

You kill zombies with guns, axes and flying side kicks. Early on you're sneaking around with a shovel praying quietly they don't hear you and come through the window - EVERY WINDOW. There's a lot of influences from a campy game called 'Fort Zombie' that used the same search system. Eventually, you get pickup trucks, loads of guns and start to manufacture grenades to bomb entire mobs into submission.

Every recuitable survivor has their own special skills and strengths. They die permanently and need bed-rest when you're doing long sessions. The base building mechanics are fun and give you something to work towards. You can run out to raid a place with pickup trucks and drive home as the sun sets on a hard day's work. As you get more powerful, you can even call in survivors from your colony to run their own raids and set up outposts.

You'll watch the sun set on a hard day's work carrying vital equipment and supplies back to base. It's a pretty decent atmosphere despite gushing arcade from every orifice.

The problem is when the sun starts setting in the real world and you've been playing for eight and a half hours.

Remember Nintendogs? How that game would track the time you haven't played it to give the illusion of passing time?

State of Decay carefully reviews your time not spent binging on it and uses that to kill a finite number of recruitable survivor groups and sap your limited resources. People can go suicidal if you don't play for half an hour (they will also do that if you DO play for half an hour), resulting in a massive queue of dating missions to restore 'morale.'

Acrued resources also tick down as if you are playing. So if you sat down to play for an hour to build that new medical structure but have to go and get groceries, it might actually have just used up the supplies you just got to do that.

It's a really stupid way to build a game, which is why Lifeline removed it as a mechanic entirely.

If you really like zombie games you'll probably get it anyway, in which case you're not much smarter than a zombie (just like me!) and it's no big loss.

Since SoD and DLC is on sale for $10~ as of 8/6/14, I begrudgingly recommend it. With the winter sale, $5 really isn't a bad deal at all.

It's surprisingly polished for a unity game, the controls are tight on PC or gamepad and the graphics are pretty good. Lifeline freezes game progress when you log out (so your characters can't sleep) and also allows you to choose what kind of missions to run. It's better, but you need the base game to have it.

Also FYI Undead Labs, C4 doesn't explode when you poke it with an electric current.

It's actually a decent game. However, there is a game-breaking bug that can occur very late in the story that stops progression. Lots of people have reported having this bug for about a year now, yet it's still there. Since the game constantly auto-saves as you go, you're just hosed and have to start over. For that reason alone, I can't recommend it.

State of Decay.
Now with its two DLCs Breakdown and Lifeline (at the time of this review's writing. Idk if they intend to release more dlcs)

The base game is a fun, gritty experience at a post apocalyptic world where zombies overrun the world and you control survivors and try to tough it out and survive. Your decisions have weight and consequences, whether you choose to handle a situation as soon as you get into it or delay your decision, there are consequences that will affect your game in ways that amaze me. Though i really dislike the fact that the zombies themselves can run, there are mods for that. Sure the unmodded experience is fun too but i feel like mods tend to enhance gameplay. I myself installed several, mostly ones that make the zombie population a lot more dense and force them to shamble and walk towards you.

Adds a lot of tension as you try to mow down zombies with a table leg you just found in a house you were scavenging. Every hit exhausts you, you run and hope they don't catch up. You panic as you keep running to avoid your death at the hands of the zeds.
You get back to your home base, you build more improvements and go over your plans to hit the next few houses for supplies and maybe even radio other survivors. And for a moment, you feel safe and sound. Until a siege comes along.

What i think that this game does best is make the player emotionally invest in the characters.
You grow attached to a certain survivor and you want to see him/her make it out. You grow attached to some survivors and you do everything you can so that they survive. When i had to put down a few survivors because they were infected, that really hit me hard in the feels.
and i was pretty bummed when my chosen survivor got torn in half by a horde during a scavenging mission gone terribly wrong. Good job Undead Labs.

Though after my main survivor died, i kinda didn't touch the game again.
:<

State of Decay is you playing as a member of the community and working together to survive.

PROS
- Tiredness if you play a character for too long
- You have to scavage for supplies
- Controller support works very well
- Side missions will keep you busy
- Vehicles don't last forever
- Special infected are well made
- DLC's are nice and breakdown has decent Replayability
- It's a zombie survival game
- Items have durability
- Building up your safehouse

CONS
- They cancelled plans for co-op
- Can't make your own character
- The game is fairly easy but breakdown is your "difficulty setting"
- Alot of empty space in the world
- Story is medicore

Overall
State Of Decay is a game you can enjoy if you enjoy survival games, you will build up your community and keep stockpiling your supplies which will keep your community together and alive. I can't say that I was happy after hearing them saying that they weren't going to add co-op to this game which would of increased the replayability even more. But this is a great zombie survival and really well made.

This is a game with a few faults, bugs and glitches yet it's still one of the best zombie games. Survival is the main priority, find a home and upgrade it, build a storage or kitchen, medical center or workshop. Find other survivers to join you. Playing as different characters was fun, looking for supplies in buildings is a nice touch of realism. Melee combat is pretty good but i found the aiming with guns annoying and troublesome. The story was meh and could of been better but overall i'd say it's an awesome game, It focuses on survival and not just killing as many zombies you can which was a nice change.

Easily one of the most enjoyable zombie-themed survival games I've played. There's nothing much more to say, everything about the game is fantastic. It's simple enough to get into without frustrating yourself, and deep enough to keep you coming back for quite a long time. The story is good enough that you'll want to continue playing through it, and the free play can keep you entertained for a long, long time.

This is probably the best zombie/survival game out there. In short, it's like Grand Theft Auto set in the zombie apocalypse. But even better, it includes RPG elements like upgradeable skills and special abilities for your characters. You get to choose a home base, fortify it, and upgrade it. You can play as any character in your group (you'll have to keep changing to keep them rested) and increase their stats and skills.

The story is virtually non-existent and ends abruptly, but the real treat is surviving, upgrading, gathering, recruiting, etc. Playing State of Decay is similar to Skyrim with an open world and never ending side quests. Be warned: the beginning is a little slow and underwhelming but once you get into it, it can be quite addicting.

I haven't encountered any significant glitches during my playtime, but I have heard about some. On the upside, there is a mod community for this game so be sure to check that out too at Nexus Mods.

I've finished campaign after 22 hours (I was doing every side-quest).

If you like show The Walking Dead and playing games then this game is just for you!
Game guides you through the simple story which is not bad as it is from this genre to be expected.
Characters are lovely and combat system isn't bad.

After campaign you have Breakdown and Lifetime DLC.
Both are great and if you have full pack you will spend A LOT time at this game.

I can recommend this game for 80% :)

Edit:
After chievements hunting, I can say that the game has some very bad pages in the form of bugs. So enjoy the story, but on a perfect game, find something else.

It's been a while since I made this review, and I have some other thoughts now.

At first I really liked this game, it was fun to break into houses, take supplies to survive and hurry back to your base before you get eaten by zombies. But after some time I realised, that's almost the only thing you do, through the whole game and story.

This game need some changes, the story needs more story, more missions that aren't the same as all the others.

The graphics are good, the characters are good and the voices are okay, which means this game has potential.

In this game, you assume the role of an entire community where survivors of the apocalypse literally put their lives in your hands. This game gives you the choice between good and evil, and shows someone's true colors... when they play the game seriously.

On the other hand, this game i will admit does have slow points, all of which are entirely necessary. I've clocked in almost 400 hours total (42 on here, another 350 or so on Xbox) and I've enjoyed every second of it. You are given the choice to do whatever you want, with that said there can be consequences for that, but that makes this game realistic. This is by far the best zombie game you will find out there, and with one of the best story lines as well. You don't have to do every mission. You don't have to save every survivor. It's all up to you.

I highly recommend this game. There's so many little details that you miss on you first dozen play through that when you see it you go "Why didn't i notice that before?". This game is aggravating. This game makes you feel like you are actually immersed into this world, and it's quite terrifying.

I really liked the concept of this open world zombie survival game, but it was let down a bit by mediocre execution. It really lacks polish, well.. that's being generous, it's just really rough around the edges.


The good stuff:

- You can control multiple characters - change between the survivors at home base. They have their own loadout and XP based skillset.

- Permadeath - it REALLY intensifies the experience when you're on a mission, and all of a sudden you are low on health, exhausted and struggling to reach your car parked outside while a horde is on your heels. I lost a couple of experienced survivors that way - I simply underestimated the danger and paid the cost. But learned to park close by, facing the right direction :)

- Place outposts, and customize/upgrade your home base

- Lots of different interesting weapons and items

- Fairly diverse assortment of missions

- Great atmosphere - loved the area/map. Really invited you to go explore searching for great loot


The bad:

- Melee combat system too simple

- Poor A.I.

- The survivors are literally chronically exhausted pansies with no adrenaline glands.. GRR!

- Camera getting obstructed by bushes/trees

- Anti-climatic ending.


Bugs/annoyances:

- Zombies waist deep in.. FLOOR! You can't even melee them.

- Zombies doing the running man against thigh high crates trying to reach you

- Too few "one liners" - e.g. returning home with multiple rucksacks will often trigger the exact same ping-pong "dialouge" 4 times in close succession.

- Cars getting relocated during cutscenes

- Conversating characters during cutscenes not even remotely looking at eachother

- Cars burning in the streets for weeks - energy crisis averted!

- Scavenger hunt progress increases while the "scavenger" is fighting outside


..I could go on and on.

After completing the last mission, I felt there were still so many things to try out, and achivements to accomplish. But at the same time I felt like waiting for a sequel which will hopefully have the refinement this game lacked, while retaining all the truly great things it did have.

73%

State of Decay is zombie survival at its finest. You have a base, survivors helping each other, food, medicine and other things needed to survive. But they don't last long, so you have to go for a scavenging hunt regularly, taking supplies from abandoned buildings while avoiding or fighting hordes of zombies. It's a free-roaming open world game à la GTA, meaning that you can go around the map and also execute missions, along with free-roam supply runs and general survival.

+ A big map to explore, with many buildings, main missions and lots of secondary missions (saving a survivor, finding a missing survivor, hunt a "special" zombie, trade etc).
+ Many playable characters. You can switch character anytime if you - or the one you want to switch to - are not currently on a mission.
+ Upgradable base with the ability to choose its location anytime.
+ You can stealth to prevent yourself from being spotted by the zombies.
+ Lots of weaponry, such as pistols, assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, molotovs and many varied melee weapons, also silencers.
+ Many driveable cars, with decent driving physics.
+ Mods.

- No co-op mode
- AI allies not using guns in free-roam and not helping with carrying bags of supplies.
- Car behaviour: when breaking at high-speed, the car instantly stops.
- Repetitive dialogues, and each character says the exact same thing in certain situations, resulting in lack of personalities and more repetitiveness.
- Lots of minor bugs and a few major ones.
- A bit too easy overall / no different difficulty levels
Note: you can use mods to adjust the game to your liking and possibly "fix" some of these cons I've mentioned!

Personal rating: 7.8/10