[video=youtube_share;-yvUGEmj_MY]http://youtu.be/-yvUGEmj_MY[/video]
Warning: The trailer features violence, discretion is advised.
Warning: The trailer features violence, discretion is advised.
I downloaded the demo for this game, not expecting much more than your run-of-the-mill zombie shooter, but I was completely surprised. So much so that I ended up buying it straight afterwards, and singing praise about it to all my friends for days afterwards. For a downloadable, XBLA title it certainly exceeded my expectations.
Hence why I had to write this, I just think this game deserves a lot of praise and credit for what it's tried to do with the genre.
I'm not really a fan of "zombie apocalypse" games. Pretty much every one I've played is some form of mindless shooter, and honestly I've come to view the theme as something of a go-to theme for lazy or uninspired developers. And while State of Decay still suffers from the same bland and uninspired story that most games share, it more than makes up for it in terms of gameplay.
There's no way I can explain all the subtleties of this game without going into an essay, and in the interest of not boring everyone I'll keep it short. You've got this medium-sized open world to explore, though it feels massive since every building has an explorable interior. Your day to day goal is to find supply caches to keep your survivor community going, so you'll be sneaking past zombie hordes and breaking into abandoned houses looking for food or medicine. Missions will appear based on how you're playing, often if you call a scavenger to a location that isn't zombie free you'll end up having to rescue them, and you'll have to actively search for nearby infestations in order to keep your home safe. If you get cornered, you can use a variety of melee weapons to fend off the zombies, or any firearms you might have found, though noise is a big factor in this game so a loud gunshot will always bring more zombies running. Taking out one zombie is usually fine, but when you've got more than one on your hand things can quickly turn very sour, so stealth really is encouraged. Vehicles are here too, though the noise will almost always draw hordes, and you can often end up leading hordes back to your home.
tl;dr version
If you're interested in the day-to-day survival aspect of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, i.e trying to rebuild a community instead of blasting zombies all the time, and you're willing to overlook a generic theme/story, give State of Decay a look. It's only ?13, and that's full price too.
Well, if you have an Xbox. The PC version isn't here yet and I doubt a PS3 version is coming since Microsoft are involved in the publishing of this game.
