Culture

Rating: 9/10

No doubt many of you have noticed that the world seems to have come down with a nasty case of zombie fever. Films, books, video games – name it and there is probably a large number of zombie iterations currently being developed or hitting the crowded market. This is the fifth game this year that I have reviewed that has some form of zombies in it, but despite the overuse, zombies seem to be a game genre that inspires innovation. Two of the best games released in recent years are The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, and now here we have yet another game in the zombie genre that will no doubt further ignite our zombie obsession.

State of Decay is an open world zombie survival game, that much like other games in this genre (such as the popular Arma 2 mod DayZ) has players exploring the map in order to find weapons to use as protection from the zombie threat. However, layered on top of this are a number of gameplay features which make this game a unique experience. The first of these is the establishment of a home base in which the player must manage survivors, supplies and crises.

Although the game has a number of narrative threads running through it, your primary focus is always the protection of your people. This is emphasised by the fact that once a person has been invited and ingratiated into your community you can play as them, meaning that you get to know and care for the personality and wellbeing of each individual character. This ups the stakes associated with keeping every single one of your survivors alive. You feel genuine fear for your fellow survivors when you get a call over your radio saying that zombies are attacking your base.

There are many tasks tied to keeping the people in your base safe, including ensuring you have adequate supplies. This requires you to venture out and search buildings, which considering the zombies in this game is an alarming prospect. The game can support an impressive number of zombies on screen at one time, meaning that getting swamped is likely. One zombie is easy to dispatch, but if you are too loud or not careful enough you will suddenly be stormed by every nearby zombie.

Both fighting and running cause your character to fatigue. Consequently, when you run out of energy you can neither fight nor escape. However, with practice it is possible to sneak around towns, searching buildings and dispatching solitary zombies without too much trouble. Supplies can either be thrown over your back and carried home, or you can call in a fellow survivor to come and pick them up.

State of Decay may not be the prettiest game in the world, and it can be quite buggy at times, but once you really become invested in the experience these concerns seem arbitrary. What the game lacks in these areas it more than makes up for in the experience it offers. Every aspect of gameplay creates tension and emotion which work in tandem to make something really special. It could stand toe-to-toe with many $100 titles that have been released this year and yet it only has a $25 price tag. If you have a 360, it will be the best $25 you spend in a long time. PC gamers, however, will have to wait until later this year.