For the past two console generations, zombies have been the go to for many games, with attempts to reinvigorate the genre by offering new concepts to an oversaturated market. While many of these are great games or fun modes, it gets to the point where they all feel the same. When the original State of Decay was released, it was a mixed bactch of old and new mechanics that worked well, but overall was a flawed experience. The one thing that it got right was death: when your character died, there was no reloading a checkpoint to try again – the character and any of the precious items they were holding were gone. You were then given the option to take over one of the other survivors in your encampment. The settlements were one of the things that made the original unique but was a double-edged sword, as the settlement required so much attention that you rarely had time to go out and explore the game world or scavenge for supplies.pres

All in all, the sequel paints a much prettier landscape to explore, but many of the other lingering issues remain. The settlements in this are almost as annoying as Preston Garvey requesting your assistance with a settlement in Fallout 4. Any time I ventured outside of the base, I was told that it was under attack, often meaning I would have to scramble back to avoid a catastrophic loss, which I experienced early in the game on my initial playthrough. Playing the game in co-op is a nice change, but you are required to stay within a close proximity to the host. Allowing you to have one or two of your comrades stay at the base to keep it safe while you and your optional fourth friend scavenge would have been a more ideal situation, but the opportunity for this was passed up. I’m not sure if co-op was an afterthought, but in addition to this limitation, your character will not gain any progress towards their own game when helping out a friend.

Like I mentioned previously, the visuals have been greatly improved, especially the open world. The outdoor aspects are on par with many of the AAA open world titles on the market today. Sadly, the same cannot be said about the interior spaces, which often appear flat and lifeless. You’ll also come across many rooms or garages that are carbon copies of the house you were just in minutes before. Since repetition is a huge part of this game, the zombie models are limited as well, with hoards of the same zombies lingering about. While they move well, the visuals accompanying the head-shots are simply dreadful, with the heads popping as if they were nothing but helium filled balloons. I have played and enjoyed games with visuals this bad, if not worse, but it doesn’t help with immersion.

The general control scheme works well, although the lack of direction in the game world as well as the building mechanics makes this title highly inaccessible. During the opening mission, I spent well over a half hour simply trying to find where in the base to drop off the mission specific item I was sent to retrieve. Much like the original, the story mode consists primarily of never ending fetch quests, or going out to search for other settlements to potentially bring into your own. What do the new settlements want, you ask? You can always expect an assortment of fetch quests. I also found it rather startling that while they asked me to go find food, they didn’t care that I stole their food sitting out in their camp – not even a harsh word is said.

While the co-op can be satisfying, the overall package and lack of progression make this feel like a self-published release and far from the standard Microsoft has been known for. After the failed release of Sea of Thieves you’d think they would learn their lesson, but at this point it’s easy to see why they have been releasing their mediocre first party games for free via the Game Pass subscription service. If you’re like me and are a Game Pass subscriber, it’s worth a go for a few hours of entertainment, but I would strongly recommend not paying full retail price for State of Decay 2. 

4 out of 10

Pros

• Outdoor Visuals are Pleasant
• Co-op is Entertaining to a Point
• Huge Game World

Cons

• Overly Repetitive Visual Assets
• Co-op Limitations and Lack of Progression
• Repetitive Side Quests
• Base Building Mechanics are Unpolished

State of Decay 2 was developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft Studios. It launched on X1 and PC May 18th, 2018 for $29.99, or free with a Xbox Game Pass Subscription. The game was not provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of State of Decay 2, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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