State of Decay Review

Within seconds of starting State of Decay I was fighting for survival. Armed with a only a tree branch I was quickly popping the brains of zombies attacking another survivor right in front of me. Once we caught our breath we set off towards our only goal of finding more survivors.

State of Decay is a brand new Survival game developed by Creative Labs. Instead of focussing on being a bad ass zombie slaying machine, the game gives you a true feeling that you are just human, you're weapons break over time, you get hungry and tired, and worse of all, if you die, you're dead forever. As you find survivors to join your group, you quickly come to realise you're going to need a base, where you can keep survivors safe while collecting supplies such as food, ammunition and medicine and build outposts ensuring you're safe from zombie attacks. You'll build things like medical labs to cure sick people, bunks for people to sleep and a library to research building upgrades.

With the inclusion of perma-death for your characters, you'll find you need to switch your current playable character and give them chance to rest. You can spend literally hours levelling up one guys skills, for him to get caught off guard by a Zombie horde causing you to lose hours of hard work. And you don't want to end up being stuck with just low level people left else you'll find yourself struggling to keep everything running smoothly.



You level your skills up with melee weapons, firearms, stamina and others simply by gaining experience in your chosen skill. Running lots instead of driving will mean you're stamina lasts a lot longer, which can be the difference between escaping a house alive or being eaten to death. Use guns lots and you'll increase your accuracy and so on.


You can use cars to get around quickly, although they cause a lot of noise so can make things a bit harder when you attract more zombies, though they can easily be plowed down. There's only a set amount of cars in the game, so letting them get too damaged, blowing them up or abandoning them means you'll find yourself having to run long distances which can be extremely dangerous. Although a certain upgrade allows cars that have been left outside your stronghold to be repaired overnight.


Graphically this is nothing to call home about, bland enviroments, player models etc, but for the sheer size and the fact that it's an XBLA title it's easily forgivable. The game is also riddled with bugs, such as zombies clipping through walls, computer controlled characters freezing during missions. Luckily, you'll be so engrossed and busy with everything going on that you'll still thoroughly enjoy playing and you'll stop even noticing these issues.


Undead Labs have done a very good job at creating an immersive world that you will easily lose hours to. It's sold over 500,000 copies at the time of this review, and there's already a sequel being planned with multiplayer features added. If you love the walking dead show, or anything with zombies in it for that matter, you are sure to love this game. It's available to download for 1600msp and is definitely one of the best Arcade games in recent years. 8.5/10

A good review of a good fun game

Good stuff Leigh!

I want this, but i'm saving for hardware!

Nice review.

Played the trial last night and did find it very enjoyable, but at 1600MSP I think I can wait for a sale. It'll happen... one day!

Good stuff mate!

Also waiting for a sale on this. Trying to be a bit more frugal of late.

Good review Leigh

I still say this game is value at 1600 m$p. Good luck waiting for a price drop guys

Good review fella

Nice review fella.  Have been playing this and enjoying it, for an xbla game there is a considerable amount of depth to it.  Worth the price in my opinion and the developers have an update in the pipeline that includes a sandbox mode with emphasis on survival without the storyline.

Good review Leigh. Great game, definitely worth 1600MSP IMO.

Good review mate, looking forward to giving this a go when I've got some time

nice one matey!

Nice work mate!

I have this downloaded, just cant get to it yet lol

Great review, great game! I couldn't put it down, even when I maxed it out and earned all rewards. Now to look forward to the sequel :-D

Bumping this for those tempted by the same game on XONE

I have heard its barely improved at all and is not in any way shape or form an XBOX ONE game.....read cash in.....just saying

It's basically the exact same game with all DLC, except the graphics and gameplay are smoother.

All the bugs etc are still there.

KENT HAMMER wrote:Bumping this for those tempted by the same game on XONE

I have heard its barely improved at all and is not in any way shape or form an XBOX ONE game.....read cash in.....just saying

The game runs smoother on Xbox One and has higher res textures and comes with all the DLC, I just look at it as being a Game of the Year edition that happens to be on a different console

Enjoying playing this again, it's getting my gaming mojo back.

Kev Lar 1 wrote:Enjoying playing this again, it's getting my gaming mojo back.

Agreed mate, I don't have the time for multiplayer gaming so I've been killing zombies in this when I have the opportunity. Also I didn't have the DLC on the 360 so its been nice playing that, Breakdown is fantastic.

I've been enjoying this when I've had a chance to play it, not looked at the DLC yet though looking forward to it as I never picked it up for the 360 either

Enjoyed this on the 360, so may have to get it again on the one.

I'd be interested in this, but funds are a bit shallow at the moment. Hopefully it will come up for a decent (lower) price in a sale.

I never had the dlc either on the 360 so looking forward to trying it out at the weekend.