State of Decay

 PC
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Feb 3, 2014
    90
    It might look dead on the outside, but the systemic mechanical genius of State of Decay is gloriously alive and kicking. [Feb 2014, p.82]
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  2. Eurogamer Germany
    Nov 15, 2013
    90
    It might be more of an ugly duckling than the console versions were, but this is still the zombie-survival game we've been waiting for all these years. It's not perfect, and sure as hell not an ageless beauty, but in breadth and depth utterly fresh and fully engaging. One of the most pleasant surprises of the year.
  3. Multiplayer.it
    Nov 13, 2013
    89
    The PC version of State of Decay brings all the exciting survival experience already seen on Xbox 360. While the content is basically the same, the game looks now better thanks to 1080p support and improved textures.
  5. GameStar
    Nov 9, 2013
    82
    The magic word is perma-death and makes looking around for food and trying to survive thrilling. Technically it's mediocre but if you like zombies you need to play State of Decay.
  6. 4P.de
    Nov 23, 2013
    78
    It is a pity that you cannot fight together with others players against the zombie hordes. Because behind the sometimes ugly façade hides an interesting living (or dead) world in which you truly have to fight to survive.
  7. Hooked Gamers
    Nov 24, 2013
    75
    You get more than a simple head-basher. Instead, you have action, stealth, roleplaying, and even some light strategy that brings out the simulation in survival-sim. Your choices have weight. Zombies are deadly. The good guys don’t always win.
  8. IncGamers
    Nov 24, 2013
    70
    State of Decay holds together like a rusty, duct-taped piece of DIY weaponry, but offers an unusual, open-world survival exercise that few other zombie titles can match.
  9. Riot Pixels
    Dec 13, 2013
    69
    At first, State of Decay feels like an exciting introduction into a bleak world of zombie apocalypse, but tedious missions, dated graphics and boring characters quickly ruin all the fun.
  10. PC Gamer
    Dec 31, 2013
    63
    Stodgy combat, two-dimensional characters, and technical hitches prevent this from living up to its lofty premise. [Feb 2014, p.58]
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Awards & Rankings

74
#74 Best PC Game of 2013
49
#49 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
64
#64 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 627 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 345 out of 627
  2. Mixed: 176 out of 627
  3. Negative: 106 out of 627
  1. paranoiathecat
    Nov 7, 2013
    0
    This game is bad, and the people who made it should feel bad.

    The problems start as soon as the game does. The introductory credits and    This game is bad, and the people who made it should feel bad.

    The problems start as soon as the game does. The introductory credits and in-game "cutscenes" are both unskippable. This is a cardinal sin in video game design and shows the quality of thought put into this title. Honestly, they teach that this is a bad idea in introductory design courses.

    The controls are badly, badly flawed. Keyboard commands will lockup (I am guessing this is a problem with the port as this particular machine is n-rollover) leaving you standing around in the middle of a fight helpless to do anything. A lesser sin, but another brought along from this being a console port is that the keys are not cannot be rebound.

    The game's object oriented barriers are problematic as zombies can, and will, walk through walls or teleport across railings. This complicates the many, many close encounter fights as the AI's pathmapping is not particularly well made. This means that entrances such as doors will become crowded as the AI all try to finish the last action queued. This makes barricade missions exceptionally tough when all your friendly AI are bunched at a doorway while the rest of the building is being flooded with enemies.

    Speaking of AI, it is horribly coded and whoever did this should stop programming right now and take a job as a fast food cashier. The AI will leave you during missions where you must escort friendly NPCs, which is a large sum of the total missions. Your party member will make a straight run towards the nearest safehouse or base completely oblivious to its surroundings. It will not sneak, it will not deviate from a straight line course (unless to avoid buildings, which it will most likely get stuck on), and it will run head on into a zombie horde, get killed and then the game will penalize you for being stupid enough to bring someone along. God help you if that NPC who had military experience died right before the mission spawned that REQUIRED an NPC with military experience. Its easier to scrap the save and start over when this happens. The game punishes you for its own design flaws.

    On the note of bringing someone along, the inventory system is horrible. Actually, let me back up a bit, the entire menu system is a catastrophic failure. You cannot give items to another member of your party forcing you to leave the items, destroy them, or run all the way back to the nearest outpost. The mission log is styled as a notebook, but leaves every entry in one column, sorted chronologically (as per Morrowind). The fatal flaw with this design is that there is no way to easily sort through this information. The longer the game goes on, the longer the list, so the player must sit and go through all entries (details being on a separate page) looking for the relevant information. This COULD have been easily fixed by a tab system in which missions, events, and other notes could have been sorted into their own categories for easy viewing.

    Another point is that bringing up the menu does not pause the game, which, if you are in the middle of battle and you need to switch weapons (the inventory system does not auto-equip the next available weapon of its type) it will leave you in a lurch. I hope you enjoy the one kicking animation in the game, you will see it a lot. This, along with how difficult the chronological event menu can be to navigate means that you are losing in game time looking for that one entry. NPCs can die, missions can spawn, and you can get your face eaten off while you try to find out if you completed that one task you got yesterday or not.

    Time, now this is an interesting bit. The game's autosave feature seems to be... rather particular, about what it does or does not remember. If you are getting surrounded by zombies and are going to die you can simply exit the game (as long as you are not knocked to the ground) and you will teleport to the base at the dawn of the next day and all sins are forgiven. Buildings that would have taken a day to build are save-scummed into existence, and your food stockpile does not diminish. You can essentially force the autosaver to give you infinite daylight and respawns, as long as you're quick about it.

    The game's high points of base building, missions, supply management, and the 4x of the city are all rather non sequitur. Spawn points for friendly NPCs and missions are random, no building has any realistic benefits over another for outposts, and the whole experience is completely dominated by a random number generator. You can have too much food because those missions spawn, or you can have too little because nothing spawns. It doesn't matter what you built, or how you built it because no event is reliable in this game.

    It currently costs 20USD on steam, do not buy it until it is sold for 3USD. At that point its finally at the right price.    … Full Review »
  2. xinsanex81
    Oct 31, 2013
    10
    Probably the best zombie survival game out there. It has almost everything right, and for a zombie fan, it is definitely 10/10. It's a mix ofProbably the best zombie survival game out there. It has almost everything right, and for a zombie fan, it is definitely 10/10. It's a mix of GTA, action rpg and house building/management. Exactly what was missing in the genre (of the zombies I mean)! To the date of the 1st November it works flawlessly with keyboard and mouse too. … Full Review »
  3. Sky-Moondrift
    Sep 27, 2013
    0
    As with most games these days, SOD is just another cheap and nasty console game being mass-marketed, but with absolutely no integrity at allAs with most games these days, SOD is just another cheap and nasty console game being mass-marketed, but with absolutely no integrity at all as far as PC games are concerned. It's little more than leftover dregs of a very low budget console game.

    It has actually been released on PC with no Keyboard/Mouse support which is downright insulting, to make this lazy port even worse, the game has really bad forced mouse acceleration which makes playing with a Mouse impossible and infuriating.

    The graphics are reasonable for an indie game, but anyone with a keen eye can spot the inferiority of the textures, water caustics and animation, though its ugliness is well masked with excessive shadowing.

    The game mechanics don't offer any real challenge or substance thanks to the simple button-mash combat system and the monotony of tasks you perform. The UI is bad and unsurprisingly console orientated.

    All other aspects are trademarks of restrictive linear systems ported straight in from it's brain dead console counterpart.

    The days of buying PC titles that are fit for purpose when you pay for them are nearing an end.    … Full Review »
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