State of Decay

[skeptical.platypus]

I discovered and played State of Decay on the PC. Loved it, and I am not a zombie fan. It is a very fun open world game. There is a little less "at stake" under the hood than appears initially, and by this I mean things like base selection and scavenging are not as important as they seem. But for $20, you won't be disappointed in the content or the fun.

I'm glad that the new dlc is adding more sandbox play. I'll definitely be diving back in.

This game is perhaps my unexpected gem for 2013.

[LongBlade]

I discovered and played State of Decay on the PC. Loved it, and I am not a zombie fan. It is a very fun open world game. There is a little less "at stake" under the hood than appears initially, and by this I mean things like base selection and scavenging are not as important as they seem. But for $20, you won't be disappointed in the content or the fun.

I'm glad that the new dlc is adding more sandbox play. I'll definitely be diving back in.

This game is perhaps my unexpected gem for 2013.

Sounds like a candidate for our Readers Choice award. Feel free to nominate it and anything else you can think of: http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=4393.0

We have a separate thread for tabletop games if you have any suggestions for those, too.

[Tpek]

I'm wondering whether to pick up Breakdown now or wait for a sale on it.

Does it really add a lot? I finished the "Campaign" game long ago on PC, and found it quite limited.

[JasonPratt]

In answer to a previous question, yes there has been at least one more update since November (maybe two), but I haven't played it since release several months ago. My poor people are likely all eaten by zombies by now (unless they turned off persistent downtime world by default). :)

[LongBlade]

In answer to a previous question, yes there has been at least one more update since November (maybe two), but I haven't played it since release several months ago. My poor people are likely all eaten by zombies by now (unless they turned off persistent downtime world by default). :)

Persistent world? Ack! I would feel terrible leaving my pixelated peeps alone in a world full of zombies. Especially if they needed me to survive.

[tgb]

The persistent world has been tuned down, not turned off, and unless you quit the game while your base is in rotten shape, nobody will die unless they are killed while out scavenging.  I restored a game this morning to find my peeps had made a couple of food and ammo runs in my absence.

[JasonPratt]

^ Agreed. I admire the idea in theory, but in practice it seems guaranteed to ruin the experience. Possibly an artifact left over from an original MMO design...?

[Nefaro]

I'm wondering whether to pick up Breakdown now or wait for a sale on it.

Does it really add a lot? I finished the "Campaign" game long ago on PC, and found it quite limited.

I didn't bother picking the base game up until I found out that the sandbox DLC was actually gonna be released.  Sandbox is essential in survival RPGs. 


While I've not even started State of Decay yet (amongst many others), I'll probably get the DLC shortly after I do.  There aren't many canned RPG games that can hold my attention very long so I expect the base game wouldn't be enough.

Thanks to TGB for the Romero mod link!

[skeptical.platypus]

The persistent world thing freaked me out at first, too. I left it alone for nearly two weeks, and merely had moderately low morale, and some depletion of food and material stocks.

Morale drops can lead to frightening consequences, but the game is pretty good at giving you easy morale boosts. I can't think of a time when I haven't loaded a game and had either a "pep talk" mission with a companion (go out and slay some nearby zombies for fivish minutes), or a "too many hordes" mission (drive around with a pickup for about five minutes). Typically worth 5 - 10% morale boost each mission.

If you are clearing buildings for outposts, and find food stocks, don't loot them. When you set up the outpost, you'll find that it has a food icon. My understanding is that if you have those, your npc people will have to scavenge for supplies less frequently, greatly reducing their chance of dying while on scavenging runs when you are not playing.

I fear the persistent world mechanic is mostly a gimmick to increase the play of side missions. I am interested to see if that changes with the Breakout dlc.

[skeptical.platypus]

I'm wondering whether to pick up Breakdown now or wait for a sale on it.

Does it really add a lot? I finished the "Campaign" game long ago on PC, and found it quite limited.

I didn't bother picking the base game up until I found out that the sandbox DLC was actually gonna be released.  Sandbox is essential in survival RPGs. 

I would love to check out other open world sandbox survival rpgs if you have any recommendations!

While I've not even started State of Decay yet (amongst many others), I'll probably get the DLC shortly after I do.  There aren't many canned RPG games that can hold my attention very long so I expect the base game wouldn't be enough.

Thanks to TGB for the Romero mod link!

[OJsDad]

Thanks for posting...that takes it off my list....still waiting for a decent open world zombie game.

I have my kickstarter money on Dead State, Early 2014 with any luck.  http://www.deadstate.doublebearproductions.com/

That looks really cool Steelie. 

[OJsDad]

Here's a question for those of you playing SoD.  Can you setup gardens and water collection.  Or are all consumables scrounged only. 

[skeptical.platypus]

Here's a question for those of you playing SoD.  Can you setup gardens and water collection.  Or are all consumables scrounged only.

Yes, if you have an open slot in your base, a garden (with upgrades) is one of your choices. I do not even believe the upgrades require a specialist, but they may require a library.

It is, however, a wasted slot, at least in the base campaign. Between your npc scrounging efforts, the supply chain from outposts, and in extremis, your pc scrounging, food is the easiest resource in the game to find.

Also, if you somehow manage to search all the sights at the first town (something Mill?), if you request Lily to search for resources using the radio, the resources you are looking for can appear in previously cleared locations. This leads me to believe that as long as you have enough points to afford the request, the player can force the game to generate whatever resources they need.

Note, this doesn't mean you won't have to fight your way to and from these resources. And food resources are more likely than other resources to be found out in the boondocks.  But that's also how I found the crashed jetliner. . .

[Steelgrave]

Is this game working with a mouse and keyboard yet? Working well? The sandbox mode would definitely interest me if so.

[Nefaro]

Is this game working with a mouse and keyboard yet? Working well? The sandbox mode would definitely interest me if so.

I hear they got the mouse & keyboard controls working awhile back.