State of Decay

[Kushan]

Heard about this on the Gamers with Jobs podcast today. Its an indie game for the XBox 360. Normally I'm not a console gamer, but this one really caught my interest. Sounds like a single player Day Z. Thinking of maybe buying this one. Anyone here play it? opinions?

http://undeadlabs.com/about-state-of-decay/

[W8taminute]

I played the trial version on XBOX 360 and I liked what I saw.  What is appealing to me about this game is the freedom to roam around this open ended world looking for other survivors and accumulating resources to bring back to home base.  The more of a certain resource you can bring back to base the higher the morale of the residents of that base becomes.  You can have multiple bases. 

I also liked the combat model.  Guns and ammo are in extreme limited supply, at least that's what I observed in the demo.  You rely more on improvised melee weapons like a two by four with a nail in it or a baseball bat, etc.  I'm definitely thinking of getting this game.  At 1600 MSP ($19.99) it's a bit steep for an indie console game however, I believe the price of admission is well worth it.  I'll definitely report back once I get the game and play around with it.

[Kushan]

Thanks W8. Downloading the demo now. I liked what I heard about your interaction with other survivors. Having to make sure you have the beds, food, medical, etc. for everyone. As well as having to keep their morale up or they will leave. How you give them missions, if you find a stash of supplies and you can't carry everything you can find, you can have your teammates do supply runs for you. And how you can set up safe houses to make their trips safer.

19.99 is a bit steep. But from the sounds of it, this is a indie game with AAA ambitions. On the podcast they mentioned that a PC version was in the works but wouldn't be out anytime soon.

[Grimnirsson]

Played the demo as well and also liked what I saw. The game is unfortunately not out yet in Germany (they messed it up with a missing USK 18 Logo) so I had to download the demo from the UK. It has some technical hickups, but nothing that seems to be a game breaker and they are quite fast with updates, so that may improve as well. They said if it is successful they think about a coop DLC and since it was a major success this seems likely now. SoD is a test run because they plan to do a massive MMO Zombie game in the future.

[W8taminute]

Having spent the weekend and part of last night playing the full game I can honestly say I do not regret this purchase.  State of Decay is a brilliant open ended world with plenty of activity to keep one busy. 

The player can choose to lose himself in all the tasks that need to get done as well as just explore on your own or the player can stick to the main story missions in a structured approach to the game.  Either way this game is tons of fun.

I love the fact that you must scavenge the land for supplies to keep the residents of your safe house happy.  Construction materials, medical supplies, guns and ammo, melee weapons, and food are just some of the items you will need to forage.  In addition upon location of a large stash of materials you can request home base to send a runner to collect what you've found.  Then base defenses or expansions can begin using those materials.  You can even setup outposts to house more residents in various locations in the city provided you have the population and the resources to do it.

The opportunities for killing zombies are endless.  You can use stealth to sneak up on a zed and insta kill him or you can approach a zombie horde and see if you have what it takes to kill 10+ zombies by yourself.  Be warned, it's not easy.  I like to ride around in either a police cruiser or a Volkswagen Jetta, two of the many cars in this game, and run over hordes this way.  Or do you like using firearms from a safe distance?  Make sure you have plenty of ammo which always seems to be in short supply or you will end up zed food. 

State of Decay is one of those games that a player can invest many many hours in.  If killing zombies becomes boring at some point and you need a break State of Decay is one of those games that you can come back to at a later time and pick up again and again.

[JasonPratt]

I'm pretty sure the only zombie game I've ever played is the alternate game-over epilogue expansion to Red Dead Redemption; but I'm increasingly interested in this one.

[W8taminute]

^It's definitely a ton of fun.  You'll need an XBOX 360 though.  I seem to recall you are a PS3 console gamer only?

There are plans however for releasing this game to PC.

Note:  I made a mistake in my post above saying that outposts provide extra space for your residents.  They seem to only extend the safe zone you can travel in and act as supply depots, meaning you can stop in a safe house and stock up on items you need in the field.

[JasonPratt]

SADNESS!! Oh well, it'll be better on PC anyway. :)