State of Decay Review

The story of the zombie apocalypse has been told time and time again, but I've never felt so frazzled or panicked while surviving with my in-game counterpart as I did while playing State of Decay. This sandbox zombie RPG will take you through a tense, yet incredibly buggy zombie experience. Undead Labs, the studio behind State of Decay, has created this world so that every action you take molds your environment and shapes the story you'll play through.

The game begins with two bewildered friends - Marcus and Ed - being attacked in the woods by a bunch of hungry zombies. Armed with only a tree branch, your adventure begins with Marcus. While the game later tells you why these two were out in the woods in the first place, more personal information about their adventure is recorded in a journal that is constantly updated as the game progresses. Your journal is extremely important. Not only because it contains necessary information for you to get through the game, but it is also serves as an insight to other characters and their stories, creating unexpected depth for the game. For instance, Ed loved "Idol" and used to be an accountant. Hover over these traits and you receive more information about them.

Though they may not look it, these characters feel real. They face realistic problems and have varied reaction to events as they should. I didn't think I'd grow attached to these characters and their problems, but Undead Labs does a great job of making you care for these characters by giving them diverse personalities and letting you play as many of the survivors once your main characters, Marcus and Maya, have become friends with them.

After browsing through their various abilities and personalities, taking out your favorite character to bash in zombie heads, splatter hoards with cars and explore the wilderness is enjoyable. Though fun, the combat can become rather tense. When your life bar has drained and your stamina has worn down, the pressure is on for you to figure out how to get out of sticky situation. As the music intensifies, you know you should prepare for an intense battle. Most of the zombies you will encounter are the standard breed, but there are specialty zombies that can stun your character and are more difficult to kill.

Aesthetically and functionally, State of Decay isn't great. The rendering is sometimes slow, the camera feels clunky, your enemies are not only the living dead, but they are also part ghost. It's not uncommon to see them phase partially, if not completely, through objects.  Some playable characters that trail behind you do this as well. Once while hiding in a bush, two zombies overlapped each other while standing on my exact location. While it was nice they didn't spot me, it was interesting seeing these two zombies morph together and their bodies fight for the space they both tried to exist in.

Bugs aside, what helps to make State of Decay unique is that it relys completely on autosaves and continuous progression. A survivor is stranded and is calling for help and you ignore them? That person is gone forever. Once you embark on a mission or ignore one, there's no turning back. In this game, death is absolute. Resources are finite. Your impact on this world is real. The bugs don't break the game though they can be frustrating. Luckily, Undead labs is committed to fixing these mishaps and is releasing patches to fix reported problems.

7/10

This review was written after State of Decay's second title update.