State of Decay 2 Review: From disappointment to mindless addiction

I was a big fan of the original State of Decay, and happily revisited it when it was re-released for Xbox One a few years ago. While the game was clunky, suffered from engine troubles, and was middling in scope, it represented something genuinely unique in a genre that continues to be saturated.

There are tons of prominent zombie games on the market. Whether they're open up globe affairs like Dead Ascension or Dying Light, or something more than competitive/co-operative like Day Z or Left 4 Expressionless, each offering their twists, but I'd happily say few are as unique as Country of Decay.

The same is true for the sequel State of Decay 2, which launches on May 22, 2022, for Xbox Ane and PC.

In Country of Decay, you're not a single hero. Instead, you take command of an entire customs attempting to survive a devastating zombie apocalypse, which has wiped out nearly all infrastructure and society.

As a fan of Undead Labs and the long-term vision the studio has had for this concept, I found plenty of reasons to exist disappointed with State of Decay 2. However, every bit I got deeper into the game, I found myself unable to put it downwardly. Country of Decay 2 volition brand you feel like the managing director of your very own zombie flick.

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The horror of familiarity

For those who played the first State of Decay, you lot'll remember how clunky information technology was. Shoehorned into CryEngine, State of Decay suffered from frame rate issues, physics quirks, and other annoyances that seriously held the game dorsum. I was met with a like sensation when I booted upwardly State of Decay ii, which has now moved onto the Unreal Engine.

Country of Disuse 2 is not a pretty game. Like its predecessor, it sports lower-end product values, with quirky animations, desultory ecology particular, and weak textures. Even on the Xbox One Ten, the game isn't as performant as yous might promise, quite conspicuously dipping below xxx frames per second in some situations. State of Decay 2's presentation isn't bad by whatsoever means and information technology's far improved over the previous game, but it'southward not the massive spring to modernization you lot might have been hoping for.

Visuals can exist adapted to every bit long equally the gameplay is solid, and this is where I was met with my second disappointment, at least initially. Land of Decay 2 seems to recycle a lot of the same animations from the first game, including zombie executions, general attacks, and movement. That familiar awkward jogging blitheness returns, melee weapons almost hitting you in the confront as they're glued to your mitt. Super zombie "freaks" too feature a lot of the same assault patterns, offering no surprises.

All this familiarity fabricated me feel like I was playing a remake, rather than a sequel. There has been a lot of polish on all of these aspects, for sure. But as someone who was shut to the beginning game, many of the little things that annoyed me seem to have returned for the sequel, which represents a lack of attention to detail.

There are many small improvements Undead Labs could have made to amend the way the game feels. Take scouting towers for example. Similar Assassin's Creed, you climb large towers and survey your surroundings to discover buildings to plunder for earth-shaking resources. But instead of whipping out a telescope or binoculars… you aim downward the sights of your gun. Sure, that makes sense if you're holding a scoped rifle, but why would you exercise it with a handgun? The scouting towers even have a "binoculars" icon on the map. Additionally, y'all can yet scout things even in the pitch blackness dead of nighttime, which makes no sense at all.

These might seem like small, tiny nitpicks, but there are tons of little annoyances which blend to give an overall impression of low production values, which evokes the game's $30 price point. Still, it'due south easy to forgive a game for these sorts of things if the gameplay is fun. Thankfully, every bit you get deeper into the game, this is where State of Decay 2 starts to deliver in a big way.

Direct your own zombie apocalypse

Land of Decay 2 wraps a tertiary-person activeness game inside an open world zombie survival RPG, throwing in strategic simulation elements for adept measure. Information technology's this unique amalgam of genres that represents the franchise's biggest strength, and improving this aspect of the game is clearly where Undead Labs spent almost of its fourth dimension.

The game begins to hint at a much richer simulation than its predecessor.

I was initially perturbed to discover that the gameplay loop was about identical to the starting time game too. After a tutorial narrative sequence, explaining the basics of combat and survival, yous're given your starting time community base of operations to build upwards and defend.

Similar the first game, State of Decay 2 revolves around community management. Depending on which starter community yous choose, you'll cease up with a few characters with diverse skills and traits – some positive, some negative, and some incompatible. This is where the game begins to hint at a much richer simulation than its predecessor.

For example, one character in your group might be particularly susceptible to irritating jokes, while another might be insistent on, well, telling irritating jokes. These characters might come into conflict as a upshot, lowering the morale of your community, which has all sorts of negative effects on output and efficiency. You might even have a fight on your hands, which could event in medical supplies existence wasted needlessly. No medical supplies means your community members volition no longer passively heal injuries while resting betwixt control sessions, which could pb to a slow agonizing death. And decease ways decease in State of Decay ii; your individual survivors will not respawn.

State of Decay 2 has these simulation elements nailed down impeccably. Fifty-fifty the smallest events can have cascading effects that can either lift up your customs, or if you've been managing it poorly completely shatter it. No-ane will have a identical play-through.

Out in the wild

When you're not managing your community directly, building new facilities inside your base, or dealing with personal issues, you're out in the field. As you move effectually the ruins, yous'll be battling zombies directly, scavenging for supplies, and meeting other groups of survivors.

While Undead Labs hasn't revolutionized its open-globe gameplay, information technology has polished it up a great deal confronting the first game. Vehicle handling is first-class, melee combat, while a little odd-looking in the animation section, is visceral and satisfying, and the gunplay has also been tightened. There's likewise a existent sense of personal progression as your characters build up their skillsets through do, learning how to perform new tasks, new attacks, or merely learning how to tend to your crops better.

You will encounter other survivors who accept diverse types of requests, which dynamically form the basis of the game's narrative. For case, I discovered a group of alcoholics who wanted me to help them build an alcohol distillery – booze is essential in the apocalypse too, subsequently all. Ethanol is a precious resource for various things, and so having a inexpensive source through this group seemed like a good idea.

I accompanied one of the group's members to an abandoned farm to expect for parts and wheat when we were beset by a group of new blood plague zombies. Unlike regular zeds, plague zombies are actually infectious, and repeated exposure to them can induce the plague in your survivors. Managing the disease is only possible with an upgraded hospital facility in your base (and someone with the medical skills to run it), making this particular brand of zombie incredibly dangerous.

While I avoided getting bitten myself, the drunken NPC I was with managed to get herself infected. I was faced with a choice, cede my last blood plague cure – or let her turn into a vicious husk. Both options came with their ain set of consequences, too.

It's these sorts of decisions that form the dynamic drama of the game, creating truly moving moments in spite of the cluttered product values.

Discovering a deeper sim

As I got deeper and deeper into the game, I felt like I was peeling back layers of an countless undead onion. Base modules can not just exist upgraded with new capabilities, but they can too be modded with tools and equipment found in the field. Adding a 3D printer to your workshop can amend your ability to repair and maintain your equipment, while calculation a rainwater collector to your farm can better your nutrient yields. Throw in a survivor with gardening skills, and you can upgrade even further.

You lot can also ready outposts, just like in the commencement game, which provides passive buffs to your base of operations direction. Non plenty beds? Grab a business firm with beds as an outpost. Need more food? Take a diner as an outpost. Land of Decay ii goes even deeper, though.

There are unique outposts scattered effectually the globe that can provide much more than powerful buffs in exchange for resource. I discovered a power station, which if captured, would offer my unabridged base electricity. Electricity naturally enhances the product of certain facilities and is fifty-fifty a requirement for certain upgrades – which might otherwise take up a mod slot, via a personal generator.

Capturing the power station became my central aim at that point, but assaulting it would crave a large amount of influence (earned by completing tasks, killing powerful zombies, or trading goods with other survivor enclaves), and the devastation of a plague middle.

Plague hearts stand for a new mechanic in State of Decay 2. These giant mounds of festering corpses emit a cherry-red haze in the local vicinity, normally located within a building. They also spawn plague zombies, which are amidst the about dangerous enemies in the game, and are as well incredibly tough to impale. Not merely will local plague zombies react and attempt to defend the heart, but you constantly run the risk of infection too. Thankfully, the game gives you plenty of tools to get the job done.

You can use noise-generating items like fireworks, combined with explosives, to create traps for big groups of zombies. The game besides has tons of powerful weaponry to discover, including grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and all sorts of moddable melee weapons. And for the first time, you can fifty-fifty upgrade vehicles into Mad Max-fashion death machines, assuasive you to mow down groups of zeds with ease.

Later on getting over that initial disappointment, I've simply constitute it hard to put Country of Disuse 2 down. And cheers to multiplayer, yous can enjoy the game with a few friends as well. This is one surface area begging for improvements, though.

Decaying multiplayer structure

Microsoft touts itself equally a deject company, and indeed information technology is, rivaled only by Amazon in this space – so why did Redmond not invest in dedicated servers for Land of Decay 2?

The game uses player-hosted matches which are disappointingly laggy beyond pocket-sized distances, and impossibly and so beyond larger distances. Are you a European with a friend in the US? Good luck, because unless you accept an insane connection speed, Microsoft seemingly doesn't want you to play State of Decay 2 together.

Microsoft should accept invested in defended servers for State of Decay ii, and information technology's unforgivable that they didn't.

State of Decay 2 allows yous to phone call random players into your game to help you complete missions or scavenge via a flare gun. Of course, you tin can besides invite direct via your Xbox friends list on console and PC. While inside the host's game, you're there to help them out, putting your own world progression on hold. However, your community characters will retain whatever feel and skill levels they get while inside another's world, in addition to Xbox accomplishment progress, and loot retentiveness. Yous can all the same admission your ain stockpile of items while in another community's globe (when information technology isn't bugged... that is), and eolith any goodies you find for when you go back to unmarried player. Additionally, Country of Decay 2 rewards players who jump into other'south games to help out, giving them increasingly lucrative rewards the longer yous spend in another's game.

The game uses a tethering arrangement to prevent you from going besides far away from the host, but it'south rather generous, at around 300 meters in-game. It's possible to get scavenging off in some other direction, while your friend completes a split up mission (and loot is just shared when dropped on the footing, each player gets personal boodle to notice).

If you tin can find a solid connection, the multiplayer aspects of the game but drag the experience, merely it'southward maddeningly frustrating that Microsoft didn't bother to invest in dedicated servers here. Hell, let me rent one. Like Minecraft Realms, I'd rather pay for one than put upwards with the lag here.

Final thoughts

State of Disuse 2 is by no ways a perfect game. Information technology retains the quirks of its predecessor, complete with mixed production values and a litany of smaller problems. That said, the game has never crashed on me, and is wonderfully atmospheric, with great music, sound, and masterful use of lighting to create fearfulness and tension.

If you lot can forgive its quirks, State of Decay 2 will infect you similar few other games can.

The combat gameplay has been tightened, only non revolutionized, and the game'due south iii large open earth maps should hold your attention for dozens of hours as you attempt to arts and crafts the perfect survivor community.

Where State of Decay 2 truly fails is in its implementation of multiplayer, relying on player-hosted games with weak connectivity, and by denying friends the ability to fully share a single world. Microsoft should have invested in dedicated servers for State of Decay 2, and information technology's unforgivable that they didn't.

Pros:

• Incredible and dynamic simulation gameplay.
• Visceral and satisfying combat.
• Dynamic narrative lets you arts and crafts your own story.
• Great value at $29.99 / $9.99 via Game Laissez passer.

Cons:

• Missing attending to detail and polish.
• Multiplayer implementation is weak.
• Microsoft, the deject company, says no to dedicated servers.

Where State of Disuse 2 ascends is in its simulation, which has more than depth, drama, and dynamism than ever before. The ways you can customize your customs playstyle, focusing on trading over scavenging, or brute force over diplomacy and stealth, is seemingly endless. Depending on which hero yous promote to leader completely changes the way you play, as y'all leverage their unique leadership facilities and bonuses.

If you lot tin can forgive its quirks, Land of Decay 2 will infect you like few other games can.

State of Decay two is available on May 22, 2022 for Xbox One and Windows 10, priced at $29.99 with Xbox Play Anywhere support. You can also grab it on Xbox Game Pass for $nine.99 per calendar month.

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• See at Microsoft

This review was conducted on Xbox 1 10 and a Surface Book 2 (GTX 1060) using a copy provided by Microsoft.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/state-of-decay-2-review

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