State of Decay Review

 

Title: State of Decay
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Undead Labs
Genre: Sandbox, Survival,
Rating: M

 

     There's no denying that the current gaming scene is oversaturated with zombie titles. If fighting the undead is what the premise of your game is about, you really have to go the extra mile in order to make your title stand out among the others. "State of Decay", is from what I can tell is the first release from the new creative minds of Undead Studios -a company name that I'm sure will not feel the least bit out of place if they go into making more, family friendly IPs. Suffering multiple delays, SOD is now finally available on Xbox Live and at the time of the writing of this review, is the second fastest selling arcade title to date falling only short of Minecraft. Needless to say that alone is a remarkable feat for a debuting indie company, but is this hot release living up to the hype, or like any zombie apocalypse, is it plagued with problems?

The game immediately throws you into the action without any added back-story.

     The story in SOD is very similar to that of the original Romeo film, "night of the living dead", in that players receive absolutely no back-story as to how the dead now walk the earth. Was it a virus released by a failed government experiment or an aftereffect of an object falling from space? All you know is zombies are now real and you have no time to investigate such details and instead must focus on staying alive. Along with that simple yet daunting task, players must explore their surroundings looking for food, supplies, weapons, and of course fellow survivors while keeping the undead off of their hinds. There is no narrative to be heard of so instead players have to rely only on tidbits of exposition every now and then to progress the story since the game does not focus on a single lone hero. That's because players will be forced to play as other survivors repeatedly and if anyone dies, they stay dead for the remainder of the game. One of my biggest gripes with horror films is the black character is always the first to die and wouldn't you know it, while playing as Marcus - a character of African descent- I unwittingly caused him to be the first casualty in the game. After staring at my TV with my jaw dropped realizing that my most powerful player wasn't coming back, it then occurred to me that SOD was not going to be your typical sandbox game.

Orchestrating various construction projects at bases are key to surviving the zombie apocalypse.

     While SOD shares a lot in common with other sandbox games like GTA or even more relevant "Dead Rising", this is in no way a crazy run and title. It is instead a survival sim and it's a very deep and involved one at that. Players are encouraged to use stealth tactics to combat zombies and even avoid them completely if possible. With that said however there are a ton of various firearms to be found- I hear around ninety-nine to be exact- along with over thirty melee weapons. By the time of me finishing the story missions, I had ammo to weapons I hadn't found yet but keeping characters properly armed is only a small portion of what players will be tasked with. For this game costing only twenty dollars SOD sucks up time like it's going out of style because players will also have to venture out to find various supplies in abandoned buildings like ammo, food, fuel, and basic construction materials to be used back at the many homesteads they'll acquire.  At the bases constructing and upgrading can be performed to create infirmaries, gardens, bunks, watch towers, and repair shops to aid players and help fellow survivors feel more at home. If that already sounds like a lot to handle (guess what)  there's more because keeping the morale in check among the population and being called upon to deal with anyone causing trouble in their camp is also placed on the player's shoulders. Needless to say there is never a dull moment in SOD and if ones not careful, things can quickly become overwhelming.

No more midnight runs to the local McDonalds; I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

When controlling a survivor, everything feels like familiar territory to that of and any third person game. One of the most notable differences will be just how limited space characters have to picking up items. Be prepared to take multiple trips to a single house in order to bring back supplies, but AI characters can be called in to help out with the many, MANY scavenger hunts that will occur. Going on foot is not the only method of getting around as the towns are littered with abandoned vehicles to use at ones' disposal. This gaming mechanic here is unique because just like the population, players only get a set number of vehicles to use. If you wreck that truck, it stays wrecked unless you get it back to a base that can repair it and even that is a twenty four hour wait; yes that's right, a whole freaking day. If you park a vehicle in a random spot it will remain there forever unless the player returns to get it. Vehicles obviously make great weapons themselves in combating the undead, but if one is not careful they can quickly end up walking for miles completely exposed thanks to not having anything drivable around. Consumption of supplies are also affected in real time and continue to deplenish even when the when the Xbox is turned off so if one goes multiple days without playing, the next time they continue it's possible they'll find all their goods completely eradicated.

When it comes to using weapons, despite the various calibers of firearms available, most guns feel exactly the same outside of the shotguns and SMGs for obvious reasons. Melee weapons however have much broader range in effectiveness which is good because that's what will be used for most of the fighting. As mentioned earlier players will have to switch off between characters often in order to let others rest so they can replenish their stamina and health and since characters gain XP as they fight it's a smart idea to keep everyone in balance as much as possible or that warrior that you just retired for the night may be replace by a fresh weakling.

Alan being the ass that he is threw out the remaining N.W.A CDs and locals are pissed.

     While all the gameplay mechanics are impressive, visually SOD is sorely lacking behind. Textures look grainy and muddy and honestly reminded me of earlier releases in Xbox's library like GUN - not a good thing to say when running off the Cry Engine 3. At sundown shadows look extremely blocky and pop ups appear quite often throughout. Vehicle models all share the same color paint jobs and after hours in I couldn't help but wonder why everyone in town owned the same yellow mock mustang or white sedan. With that said however, there is an abundance of character and monster designs to keep things from becoming visually boring. 

Naturally wrecking your ride by slamming into a fat zombie is another the type of mayhem All State won't cover.

     For a game containing no simulated radio stations -this is the apocalypse after all- it's amazing how well SOD does to generate atmosphere through its sound effects. Gun fire sounds accurate, slow thumping V8s echo through the vacant ghost towns, and some of the moans and screams zombies make are just beyond creepy. First time I encountered a screamer a shiver shot up my spine. What little bit of music SOD does have it uses well by kicking in gloomy tunes when death is closing in on a character fighting off a horde or by playing a soothing acoustic guitar to give that warm feeling of being home when at a base. I just couldn't stop wondering though why no one left CDs or mp3 players behind in their vehicles. Hell I don't care if all that's in that new pickup is a Air Supply mix. If I'm driving for miles on by myself I'll listen to it despite how embarrassed I'd be when the others find out and mock me.

Some of your neighbors are better equipped than others for the zombie epidemic.

     Now comes the part where I rip SOD apart like that feral zombie that killed Marcus because sadly despite all these applaud worthy ambitious this game is filled with problems. The first and most noticeable issue is SOD fights a losing battle to maintain a smooth frame rate on the screen. From start to finish I constantly experienced the frame rate slow to a crawl, especially whenever inside a vehicle. Combine that with the pop ups and frequent screen cuts, it becomes a little unbearable at times.  It gets so bad that this alone forced me to take a point off the overall score. The next part is this game desperately could have benefited from a tutorial of some kind. There's quite a bit of mechanics I neglected to mention aside from all those tasks and there wasn't much help on how to navigate all the various menus. The story overall feels tacked on and the ending is beyond anticlimactic failing horribly at trying to force some sadness over the loss of a lately introduced character that that was contacted no more than five times.  The many friendly neighbors I met along the way along with opposing ones were left unresolved making me wonder why I bothered wasting any time with them in the first place because when the game is beat none of them don't follow you anyway. I had twenty people at my camp and the game just leaves them behind to fend for themselves with not so much as a goodbye.

Big-ums are huge threats outside but are too fat to get inside get inside houses and the Abercrombie & Fitch stores.

Saying the coding in SOD is rough and unpolished is being nice to say the least. Giant invisible walls are everywhere, keeping  characters from crossing into a destination when they clearly should be able to venture through. Bullets stop dead in their tracks with glass doors and certain wooden railings. Glitches cause vehicles to loose all their texturing, and sometimes even messed with the progress of missions. There is no reason why two women rescued should suddenly drop dead when opening the gate to one's base simply because the game felt there was a zombie left walking around in the house they were found in. The AI intelligence of your fellow survivors will make a person want to rip their hair out in frustration as well. A while back I mentioned they can be called in to help scavenge for supplies but most of the time they keep running in circles getting stuck behind objects only to inevitably get killed off by zombies. They also manage to get lost constantly requiring the player to hunt for them which ends up feeling like unnecessary padding. It should also be mentioned that since the game features no multiplayer element there is no reason why players shouldn't be able to ask AI partners to tag along on their never ending scavenger hunts. Having a large population at camp it would only make sense to have someone back players up but instead it felt like I carelessly going out on my own to do all the work while everyone else sat on their keisters at home.

The game features a gesture system that serves no real purpose because not once did a situation arise where I had to taunt or cheer on another character in order to help progress a scenario. Lastly the game is simply way to long for the tiny bit of dialog that used to exchange  amongst characters. Despite using different voice actors, everyone recycles the same responses almost word for word to the point where it gets beyond annoying. If the player don't get sick of hearing, " I brought you something.....Oh you know some stuff", then they are some of the most patient of folks.
 

Not all threats in the area are of the flesh eating variety. 

     Overall it feels that despite all the delays, SOD is still a game that still feels rushed. I never thought I'd write this in a review but it feels like this was a game way too ambitious to try and warrant a twenty dollar price tag. With a little more polish and a better storyline I could easily justified paying forty dollars or even full price for this. It also can't be ignored that with a map as large as the one in SOD, it feels like it could've heavily benefited from an online co-op component. Given the price though SOD still packs a great value. If one wishes to, they could easily spend weeks trying to explore every little area in order to fulfill every side mission. If anything must get fixed in a patch however it has to be the frame rate issues, other than that, Undead Labs did an admirable job for putting out such an extensively filled title as their first release and I look forward to see what their creative staff puts out next.

Ryan Pierce

RATING: 7.5 out of 10

PROS: Time consuming tasks to tend to.

                  Truly unique world that in some ways acts in real time.

                  Huge areas to explore.

                  Best Zombie survival sim to date.

CONS: Horrendous Frame rate issues.

                  Coding could've used a lot more polish.

                  Ally AI is lacking and can't be relied on like it's supposed to.

                  Story is completely uninspired.

                  Amount of time invested to reach the ending does not payoff.

                  Limited dialog gets annoying fast.