State of Decay: A True Zombie Survival Game.

     The zombie video game genre is over saturated. There's no doubt about it. It seems like every year at least four zombie games are released. Now, I love zombies but the problem is that with so many zombie games in the market things tend to get stale. The developers at Undead Labs have created a true zombie survival game that still feels like a traditional zombie romp, but with some new features to make it stand out.

     State of Decay starts out with a bang as you are immediately dropped into the open world and the zombies are all over. The story of State of Decay is all about scavenging and surviving. You'll come upon fellow survivors that need your help. The game does a good job depicting how some people would react if the situation were real. Each stranger you encounter has a slight hesitancy towards you. You have to work with them to earn their trust. This isn't to say people will attack you on sight, but they aren't completely open to following you at first. Once you help them, get supplies, or save them from attacking zombies, your trust builds and you can add more people to your group. You can earn influence by completing missions, helping others, and gathering supplies. On the flip side, if you take supplies from your home stash you will loose influence.

     Adding people to a group is great, but what is a group without a home? You'll be able to set up different homes and outposts throughout the open world. You'll be able to build different structures at your home and will also occasionally have to help defend it. In order to build everything you will have to have the right amount of supplies and building material, which of course you will have to scavenge for. Did I mention you have to scavenge in this game? You will be doing that constantly! You will have to scavenge for supplies, food, medicine, and weapons. You can also hop into any vehicle and drive around. Both the vehicles and weapons receive damage and eventually will break (or blow up as the vehicle is concerned). Once a vehicle or weapon is destroyed it does not respawn. This adds to the realism of the game.

     Another huge realistic part of the game is the fact that if your character dies, they are gone and are not coming back. This causes you be really careful with your character and not run head first into a pile of zombies. I found myself entering an abandoned building and slowly checking each room for fear of being pounced on by a zombie. During my playthrough I had two characters die and each time it sucked just knowing they were gone for good. You can switch between certain characters to give others a rest. Also, if your character does die, you can go back to where they died and pick up their supplies. This is a really nice feature. Your characters can level up skills like cardio and fighting abilities to improve their survivability too.

     The zombies are a plenty in State of Decay. They are literally all over the place. Of course when you get into the town areas there are more. However, even when driving out into the country and back roads you will find zombies staggering about. The majority of the zombies are your average type. There are some special types of zombies you'll run across too. These range from zombies in swat gear, feral zombies that leap, screamers, bloated zombies that spew acid, and huge hulking zombies. Another type of zombie you will see constantly throughout the game are hordes. If you are driving in a vehicle you can simply plow through them (but also damage your vehicle). However, the hordes are extremely dangerous if you are on foot. So if you are planning on attacking a horde, be smart about it.

     Graphically the game is good looking for a downloadable game, but it's not going to be winning any awards. The character models are a little generic looking and at times their faces just look plain. Environmental textures are decent and there are some good lighting effects. Sound design is pretty good as the zombies make the traditional moans, screams, and other zombie type noises. Voice acting on the other characters is good but nothing outstanding. There isn't a wide variety as far as music scores go, but the intense and soft, eerie music that is played works well. I did have some instances with pop up textures and objects, frame rate stutters, and minor graphical glitches. Nothing that broke the game though.

     State of Decay is a good zombie survival game. The game does a good job of really emphasizing the whole survival and realism approach to the zombie apocalypse. You will have to scavenge for supplies, vehicles and weapons don't respawn, you'll have to earn peoples' trust, help people deal with their emotions, and of course if your character dies they are gone for good. If you're a fan of zombies you've probably already played this. If not, download the demo and give it a try. Just remember to stock up on supplies and that a large truck holds out much better than a small two door hatchback!

Final Verdict: 8/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83