Title: State of Decay

Format: PC

Price: USD 19.99 (Steam)

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What is it in our collective early twenty-first century psyche that makes the concept of the Zombie Apocalypse so compelling? Prior to the 1970’s, the zombie was a product of voodoo, and like many archetypal horror creatures, was hidden from the majority of the world, encountered only by the unfortunate few in isolated areas. Even after George Romero changed our view of the common undead, this voodoo origin still influenced the raft of Italian-made Romero rip-offs of Lucio Fulci and Marino Girolami. But Romero it was who created the world-ender, when for reasons speculated but never concluded, the dead rise and overwhelm the planet. Even so, it took another 30 years before the idea became so ingrained in our popular culture that the governor of Kansas declares October to be Zombie Preparedness month and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have a Zombie Preparedness section including posters and tools for educators (“Get a kit. Make a plan. Be prepared”).

 

The scenario of course lends itself very well to gaming in a number of genres – there’s the FPS of course, from zombie dedicated titles like Valve’s co-op Left for Dead series and Tripwire’s Killing Floor, to the Zombie mode in the Call of Duty series. There’s top-down arcade shooters like Dead Nation and Never Die Alone, action-adventures like the Biohazard/Resident Evil series, through to the weapons-modifying sandbox oddity of the ever-worsening Dead Rising franchise. State of Decay, though, is something else, and in a very gratifying way.

 

I remember when the first Xbox came out, and it felt like genres had been assigned to the trash can. No longer was something a beat-em-up, or a platformer – there was a raft of titles taking advantage of the new possibilities of 3D to just create games in explorable worlds, be it Legacy of Kain, Advent Rising, Second Sight, Tomb Raider or RPG-lite Knights of the Old Republic. Of course, that was just my adolescent, delighted reaction to the birth of the polygon-driven action-adventure genre. But State of Decay is the first game I’ve played in a while to evoke that feeling of not being a game of a particular genre – it’s an experience in a believable world, and one of the few to do justice to the Zombie Apocalypse trope.

 

The game throws you in at the deep end. Press ‘start’ and, as the game loads, you hear a voice crying out for help, someone who seems to know you. You’re then presented with a stunning view of a mountain-side lake – and a man being attacked by the undead. And so within the first few seconds of the game, you’re stepping forward to batter in some skulls. Once these first few shamblers are dispatched, the game begins the first of a few unobtrusive introductions – press tab to open your main menu, which initially shows your journal and your people, although more information gets added as you progress. Your journal informs you that you’re Marcus Campbell, just returned from an annual fishing trip vacation with best pal Ed Jones, a holiday away from civilisation that finds civilisation gone on your return.

 

The first objective is to get to the Mt. Tanner Ranger Station a short distance away. There is a very obvious path up the hill, or a more circuitous route around the side which I discovered only because I wanted to go get a screenshot of the beautiful scenery. I then saw the crowd of zombies on the more obvious path I’d not taken – but I still had the option to rush them. Marcus and friends are pretty good at beating zombie heads to a pulp, but they are limited by stamina, and while in some games you can kill Z in almost unlimited bloody frenzy, in State of Decay it often makes more sense to avoid them, and to tackle stragglers with strategy and care. I thought this a more realistic way to present the everyman survivors and their predicament whilst still being, at heart, a game.

 

The Ranger Stations presents a few more survivors, and a few tasks are assigned. Mt Tanner is effectively the training mission to introduce the basics: avoid zombies, kill with care, scout locations, scavenge resources, noise is a bad idea. Then disaster falls, you need to get off Mt. Tanner, and it is from here the real game begins, with all its options, challenges, and choices. The first mission listed is to get to the Church in the town of Spencer’s Mill, however, you can choose to go straight there, or explore and scavenge along the way first. It’s not plot-driven, it is entirely up to the player.

 

That’s not to say plot isn’t important. There are certain plot points which need to occur to open skills and other events, this type of game needs you to care about the ongoing fate of its characters, and ultimately it is a game with a beginning and an end. These major plot points are fairly obvious though, and there are several which you can approach in any order – the Army is clearly up to something, there are broadcasts from a judge claiming to run a safe haven in the south-western town of Marshall, and the much-needed doctor is holed up at the farm of the bullying Wilkerson family.

 

In between, you’re going to be driven by the necessities of surviving. The Church is the first of your ‘home bases.’ Home bases are locations you can fortify, build facilities, and recruit other survivors. At a certain point, the option to move home base becomes available, and there are several you can find scattered throughout the map. Each has well-thought out positives and negatives. An isolated farmhouse may be well away from zombie hordes – but will require venturing further to scavenge. But is that a problem if you elect to become self-sufficient? A trucking warehouse allows for a multitude of facilities to be built, but requires more people, and therefore more resources, and is harder to defend. Many of us have run through these scenarios in our heads – time to put them to the test!

 

Me, I chose the Savini residence in Downtown Marshall. It had a treehouse which could be used as a guard tower, thus saving the need to build one, moderate space for facilities, and well situated for scavenging runs. The one problem was a weak spot to the rear, which was open to the river, which I solved by spending a bunch of time clearing out a ruined factory which I was then able to set up as an outpost full of traps. That is another nice feature – if buildings are cleared, then an outpost can be created, expanding your home base safe-zone and contributing supplies.

 

I did not have space to build everything. Initially I built out a kitchen to stop food spoiling, a library to research better meds and equipment, and outside, a sleeping area so all my survivors had room, a med lab to heal people, and a garden to grow food. At which point I had no space for the basic workshop, which was needed to upgrade the sleeping quarters to a bunkhouse, fix the cars, and make precious, precious silencers for the firearms. Deciding what to demolish to build the workshop was agonising – eventually I trashed the lab, figuring I would do scavenge runs for meds until a better option presented itself. Or rather, if a better option presented itself…

 

Building facilities is not free either. Some upgrades need specific survivors – tool specialist, healer, farmer, researcher. Who gets to join your refuge? Is there enough room? Building facilities also costs materials, which are in multiple categories – construction materials, food, medicine, ammunition – all of which deplete every day anyway and must be restocked. This forces you to explore the town. Initially you’re on your own, but once enough influence is earned, you can persuade other survivors to join you, or you can scout out a building, and spend influence calling for a scavenger team to do it for you while you take care of other tasks.

 

Influence – and morale – are critical, and they are continually being impacted by events. Members of your enclave will get angry, sad, and/or depressed, which must be dealt with before it turns into a crisis. Survivors will go out on their own to scavenge or lower the Z population a little – but sometimes get into trouble and require assistance. Then there are other survivor groups, neighbours who need help. There is always something going on, and it is impossible to respond to them all – which is entirely the point. You have to make some tough choices, knowing that ignoring a request may cause that person to stop trusting you, or get them killed altogether.

 

Tough choices is what the game is about. There is a RPG-esque levelling up system similar to Elder Scrolls in that skills get better as you use them, with some selectable and non-reversable perks which can be chosen at certain points. Inevitably, the first character you use, Marcus, gets pretty buffed up early on. You don’t want to lose him. Do you send him on missions which may go south? But if you do, no one else will level up and you limit your skilled survivor pool. Should you send someone more green to get them developed? Or will their lack of skill just get them killed?

 

Survivors also have traits. Again using Marcus as an example, he’s a born leader, who loved hiking, and is a natural athlete. Sounds good right? The second main character you can acquire early on is Maya – no nonsense, solider, and eagle-eyed. Others have different traits – coward, two-left feet, loner, gossip, absent-minded. You don’t have room for every survivor in Trumbull county. Is the point here that in a purely Darwinian sense, not everyone deserves to survive the Zombie Apocalypse? Yeah, well my gossipy farmer learned the greenhouse expertise, and I became rather fond of the alcoholic asthmatic who maxed who out his fighting and cardio and became an extremely valuable mission-buddy. So maybe that’s the point – leaders are human, and humans are fickle and occasionally irrational.

 

The game can be played on keyboard/mouse or controller, with the latter being rather better in my view. Sound design is great – you can pinpoint zombies from their mumbling when wearing headphones, and there is some mournful music with the occasional synth note which evokes Dawn of the Dead.

 

Criticisms are few: it’s not immediately apparent how to rest a character, which is effected by swapping to another playable character, but this means enforced night playing, rather than simply reinforcing the doors and waiting till morning as I’d have preferred. And inevitably, the same crises and rescue missions get recycled, which is the one thing which really jars and reminds you that you’re playing a game.

 

But that’s really picking nits. Other than that, the game builds well. You’ll stick to sneak and zombie avoidance initially, but then the longer you survive, the more options you have. It’s very satisfying to build up some skill with the rifle, get a silencer, and go on an Infestation mission, killing off the damned Screamers before they even see you, then mopping up the mob. Completing missions earns trust with various survivor groups. This can cause them to join you, or get you “special moves” – like the army sending a bombardment to take out a horde, or local law enforcement lending a SWAT team for a short while.

 

It’s a nuanced, balanced and very enjoyable game, and considering this is major studio territory (Microsoft Games Studios), a bargain at USD 19.99. There are currently also two DLC packs available. A horror classic.

State of Decay
Story	Overcomes the problem of an overly familiar setting with an excellent rendition of the needs of survival. Where in Walking Dead the choices made are narrated and observed, here choices have direct impact
Gameplay	A beautiful game, no doubt an intentional juxtaposition of the best of nature with the horror of the undead. There’s a complex set of rules running the game, and many options to explore to survive
Frustration	Very low. Individual zombies are easy to take out, but get surrounded, and once your stamina is gone you’re in trouble – but that’s your own stupid fault
				A highly enjoyable mix of action and strategy, creating a believable survival challenge post Z-A. Recommended