State of Decay

 PC
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

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  1. Vihazur
    Oct 1, 2013
    6
    I understand that this game is an Early Access scam, but I didn't expect it to be THIS clunky. It feels like there's a good game here, in terms of the core mechanics, but it's severely under-developed. The primitive game engine and art assets might be excusable if they made for smooth gameplay, but to look this terrible, and perform this badly, too?

    It's a great concept, but the world    I understand that this game is an Early Access scam, but I didn't expect it to be THIS clunky. It feels like there's a good game here, in terms of the core mechanics, but it's severely under-developed. The primitive game engine and art assets might be excusable if they made for smooth gameplay, but to look this terrible, and perform this badly, too?

    It's a great concept, but the world is ugly as hell, and the gameplay, the combat, the driving, even exploration, it all feels like a chore because of how disjointed and clumsy it is. And then to top it off, it's ridiculously short, really underscoring the lack of resources the devs must be working with. It doesn't feel like anywhere near a complete game. Less of an early access beta, and more like a pre-alpha proof of concept.

    Hate to lambast it like this, because it's got a ton of potential, but it doesn't look like it's the sort of potential that will ever come anywhere near being realized.    … Expand
  2. AlphaBoss
    Jan 11, 2014
    5
    Cons: The format, controls, and menu system is a mess. Everything is counter intuitive, how a video-game shouldn't be. The AIs are retarded most of the time. The combat animations are repeated OVER and OVER again. The story is slow moving and most of the missions seem to be different colored repeats.
    Do not buy this game until the price goes down, a lot.
  3. lukemacu
    Nov 30, 2013
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. State of Decay is an odd one. Yes it's a zombie game but I don't feel the zombies are what you should go to the game for. What you should go to the game for is the intense feelings it creates. It's weird because I always felt compelled to get on the game much in the same way you feel compelled to feed a dog; you don't want it to die, or in this case, you don't want your people to die. But at the same time I didn't want to get as I was afraid of what I would see how had died, gotten sick or whatever.

    For me State of Decay lost its appeal after ~9 hours. The Scavenging is fun but it gets a little repetative and the story is optional, it takes place in optional mission points. But naturally every time I wanted to do one of the missions something would come up like: "We need food!" or "Someone needs talking to and you're the most charismatic person we have!" and I always felt I needed to do those because if I didn't people would die or leave. The only other quip I have is that the story is a little...lack lustre. It is nice to the Military actually doing something for once but that's not really what I mean. It really fells like you, as the player, is just watching the story from a distance. [spoiler] One mission involved me helping the General go against his orders and help some civilians, but I never found out what did happen to him until after in a little text box, so it feels very removed [/spoiler]     … Expand
  4. kavinh
    Dec 19, 2013
    7
    game's quite good for what it is an actual survival zombie game, the game has several unique mechanics one of which is that you don't play any single survivor instead you rotate between different survivors due to rest and fatigue. The game has a predictable and bland plot typical government screw up creates zombie apocalypse but what really makes the game shine is the gameplay. as statedgame's quite good for what it is an actual survival zombie game, the game has several unique mechanics one of which is that you don't play any single survivor instead you rotate between different survivors due to rest and fatigue. The game has a predictable and bland plot typical government screw up creates zombie apocalypse but what really makes the game shine is the gameplay. as stated previously you are forced to rotate between survivors as repeated use of one survivor will lead to him/her becoming tired, the game has a series of different characteristics for each survivor some of which are useless while others are extremely useful in combat or recruiting new survivors. The game also features perma death and due to the way characters are leveled as they can only be trained when they are controlled it becomes terrifying to lose your main character to a zombie and be forced into using a weaker and sometimes incompetent charecter in its place. The biggest problem with the game however is that the gameplay is fairly repetitive go out gather supplies come back or listen to a call for help from a survivor or a neighbour and rush to aid them. Another big problem is that guns are utterly useless in this game anything outside of headshots is extremely uneffective against zombies that combind with the fact that ammo uses a large amount of slots in ur inventory and is fairly expensive makes melee almost exclusively the best choice. Lastly the game has a horrible system when it comes to using allies, firstly it charges you a large amount of influence which is the ingame currency to bring that ally along if any quest is initiated while you have a companion along they immediately return to the base making the investment utterly useless which basically includes every activity in the game outside of gathering supplies. Lastly this game has a real time calender event implemented meaning each day that passes by you could lose character by simply not having enough food in reserve and there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it. this is extremely frustrating if you just so happened to stop playing for a week or so only to come back and find a few members of your community died.… Expand
  5. Zuki1970
    Dec 28, 2013
    7
    Game is playable and interesting,
    I am having remarks over some game-play rules:
    1. I cannot give elements from my personal inventory to another member of my team or any NPC. 2. If I need to make space in my backpack, i must destroy item?!? 3. Cars do not need to refuel? 4. Why rear-end car hits on ZED-s do damage to engine?! 5. Zombie spawn in my near vicinity, even when I cleared    Game is playable and interesting,
    I am having remarks over some game-play rules:

    1. I cannot give elements from my personal inventory to another member of my team or any NPC.
    2. If I need to make space in my backpack, i must destroy item?!?
    3. Cars do not need to refuel?
    4. Why rear-end car hits on ZED-s do damage to engine?!
    5. Zombie spawn in my near vicinity, even when I cleared them.
    They should come from distance, and begin their existence further away from my line of sight.

    The rest of game is very enjoyable and interesting to explore.    … Expand
  6. prismal
    Dec 6, 2013
    7
    Pretty good game even though it's a port controls handle well during the fight with only minor camera problems.
    Only negatives, in a way, is that it favours heavily a more tactical approach so anyone that expects an all out zombieland killing spree will be kinda disappointed as well that battles that involve zombie attacking from many directions can be tiresome since the camera is very    Pretty good game even though it's a port controls handle well during the fight with only minor camera problems.
    Only negatives, in a way, is that it favours heavily a more tactical approach so anyone that expects an all out zombieland killing spree will be kinda disappointed as well that battles that involve zombie attacking from many directions can be tiresome since the camera is very restrictive.
    On a plus side if you are able to use surround sound do so because the sounds are really well made and can give you a good tactical advantage including but not limited in how many zombies you will face in a house as well which direction they are attacking from.    … Expand
  7. Big_Bear
    Nov 19, 2014
    6
    A decent game with some great elements that is let down by overall design issues and the unpolished nature of the game.

    Good - the survival element is there and the resource gathering and survivor recruitment is addictive and also makes you feel like you are really building something from theground up. The open world works fairly well and the game achieves a great apocalyptic atmosphere    A decent game with some great elements that is let down by overall design issues and the unpolished nature of the game.

    Good - the survival element is there and the resource gathering and survivor recruitment is addictive and also makes you feel like you are really building something from theground up. The open world works fairly well and the game achieves a great apocalyptic atmosphere that other games do not.

    Bad - Sometimes the sheer volume of side missions given via radio are both annoying and overwhelming and don't allow you to just go out and scavange if you atcually want to complete the side missions. The game feels unpolished, with pretty poor graphics and a basic gameplay system. Many of the bread and butter elements like resource gathering etc get boring pretty quickly. The story is pretty awful. There are only around 3 face models for recruitable survivors and npc's.

    Verdict - if you like sandbox games and/or zombie apocalypse games there is fun to be had here. But the fun can quickly become repetative and the game isn't helped by the lack of polish and unfinished feel.    … Expand
  8. Pistolz4Pandaz
    Nov 19, 2013
    5
    The game is overall a bit lackluster. The mandatory use of the controller is a bit strange, and the controls don't feel as tight as they should be. I understand that the game is still in development, but there is a lot about this game that makes it feel like the port that it is. The idea behind the game is interesting, but it seems to take too much gameplay to get to the parts that areThe game is overall a bit lackluster. The mandatory use of the controller is a bit strange, and the controls don't feel as tight as they should be. I understand that the game is still in development, but there is a lot about this game that makes it feel like the port that it is. The idea behind the game is interesting, but it seems to take too much gameplay to get to the parts that are interesting. Mostly, this is your standard, kill zombies game and do it how you want to, with some quests that sometimes have some strange requirements. The map does seem large and the detail in the towns is nice, but it wasn't enough to make me want to keep playing.… Expand
  9. Banhammer0
    Oct 31, 2013
    5
    Open-world zombie sandbox, where you struggle (with zombies but mostly with controls) for survival with a group of characters. You find new people for your group, new places and supplies. You don't really have a main character or a strong personal story, story is more about the group as a whole, and quite frankly is very generic to not say dumb. You can control most of the characters youOpen-world zombie sandbox, where you struggle (with zombies but mostly with controls) for survival with a group of characters. You find new people for your group, new places and supplies. You don't really have a main character or a strong personal story, story is more about the group as a whole, and quite frankly is very generic to not say dumb. You can control most of the characters you encounter, which is a cool feature, but they all play pretty much the same (even with different skills on them).

    SoD is trying hard to make you care about the characters and immersed in the world, but the game is way too sloppy and shallow to get you immersed. Dialogues are almost non-existant apart from generic conversation you hear in your base. There are RPG elements like skills, but quite frankly they have close to zero effect on gameplay.

    One huge problem this title has is how incredibly bad controls are. Stating this is a bad console port is not enough, it is an absolutely terrible PC port. Yes they are trying to improve it, but over the last 2 months they didn't even manage to put in proper icons (it still says for example "press X to do smt" instead of "press left mouse button to do smt"). The mouse doesn't work very well, especially when aiming. You will end up struggling more with the controls than zombies, often wasting ammo or running into wrong direction, all in a very frustrating manner.

    The visuals and audio effects are okay, not very spectacular but also not very demanding from your PC. Animations are repetitive and sometimes feel out of sync. The world doesn't feel very big, there is a lot of stuff clumped in together, so it doesn't feel empty either. Overall a sandbox game could do a bit better with this. It is nowhere near the level of Skyrim or GTA series.

    Gameplay feels meh. There is a large variety in weapons in loot which is good, however there are some terrible ideas like very limited inventory space, forcing you to run to your base like a retard every few minutes. You cannot skip night time. Your weapons get broken very quickly, and for some reason devs thought it would be best if it took about 12 REAL TIME HOURS TO FIX THEM. There are no ironsights or scopes and meele feels very clunky, not satisfying at all. There is no crafting in this game, you gather "building materials" and use them to upgrade your base but the game feels lacking because it is very limited. AI is so bad I won't even comment about it (companions AI).

    There are some bugs. I had to start over once because endless zombie spawn wouldn't allow me to play normally. Many people report lighting and clipping issues.

    Overall this game has more bad about it than good, thus I do not recommend it.
    Getting in on Xbox is a better decision because you can avoid the main problem of terrible controls there.    … Expand
  10. VonBoskoDelrose
    Sep 30, 2013
    5
    State of Decay can be a rather fun game, as long as it holds your attention.

    I believe I'm a Zombie fan; games, books, movies, you name it, I love em. But sometimes they don't do the Zombie title justice. State of Decay on the PC is a port from the Xbox Live Arcade, so if you are not a fan of ports, maybe you should just turn around now. The game looks okay, but not great. It handles    State of Decay can be a rather fun game, as long as it holds your attention.

    I believe I'm a Zombie fan; games, books, movies, you name it, I love em. But sometimes they don't do the Zombie title justice. State of Decay on the PC is a port from the Xbox Live Arcade, so if you are not a fan of ports, maybe you should just turn around now.

    The game looks okay, but not great. It handles okay, but not great. The game play, honestly, is not bad! I think if it was a bit more optimized more, it would be a lot of fun. Sadly, though on Steam it says early access, this is already a finished game. The dev's are saying they will be working on it, I doubt we will see much more out of this title. I would love to be wrong.    … Expand
  11. Auriell
    May 22, 2014
    5
    It's a fun game, for a single playthrough. It suffers from the most common issue in gaming industry these days - lack of polishing and bad PC porting.

    The bad: - Bugs; - Bad AI; - Messy menus; - The game doesn't pause when you need to switch to different weapons since you can't do it on the fly; - Console port (not the worst, but certainly far from the best). The good: The    It's a fun game, for a single playthrough. It suffers from the most common issue in gaming industry these days - lack of polishing and bad PC porting.

    The bad:

    - Bugs;
    - Bad AI;
    - Messy menus;
    - The game doesn't pause when you need to switch to different weapons since you can't do it on the fly;
    - Console port (not the worst, but certainly far from the best).

    The good:

    The game is fun for a few hours if you overlook said flaws, certainly. There isn't too much of character development, just enough to keep you distracted and move on with the game.

    But what is the worst, IMHO, about this game, is the autosave feature. You can't save your game unless you finish a mission.

    I bought it during one of steam's sales, so for ~$5 it wasn't that bad of a deal.    … Expand
  12. SirRodney
    Dec 24, 2013
    6
    This game would be fun if it were not for the super zombies. Any good game that was made to be balanced shouldn't have to throw a one hit kill at you.
  13. Zaydin
    Nov 29, 2013
    7
    State of Decay is not a flawless game, but it is not terrible, either, and I have to give it props for putting emphasis on the "Survival" aspect of a zombie apocalypse, since the longer you play as a given character, they grow tired, lowering their maximum stamina. Getting badly injured also lowers your maximum health, but both can be raised back to maximum if you switch out and play asState of Decay is not a flawless game, but it is not terrible, either, and I have to give it props for putting emphasis on the "Survival" aspect of a zombie apocalypse, since the longer you play as a given character, they grow tired, lowering their maximum stamina. Getting badly injured also lowers your maximum health, but both can be raised back to maximum if you switch out and play as another survivor for a while.

    The graphics are not spectacular, but they do the job, and the voice acting is decent. The UI is a bit confusing at first, but it shouldn't take long to figure everything out as you get familiar with the game.

    The number of zombies present is no where near the numbers you'd see in, say, Dead Rising, but given the nature of the game, even a small horde of maybe a dozen zombies can be a credible threat due to the fact that unsuppressed guns act as dinner bells to zombies, and all melee weapons will break with repeated use. You also have to juggle your inventory: How much food and medical supplies do you want to carry with you? How many weapons? If you carry too much, and you become encumbered, which slows you down and drains your stamina faster.

    It's certainly a more grounded approach to the zombie apocalypse than Dead Rising, that's for certain.    … Expand
  14. Synomas
    Nov 5, 2013
    7
    State of Decay is a zombie survival game. There have been many zombie survival games to come out recently, riding off the success of the wildly popular ARMA II mod DayZ. State of Decay's unique twist is that you control a compound of survivors, being able to switch characters with differing stats with some RPG elements. If you like zombie survival games, you're probably going to get thisState of Decay is a zombie survival game. There have been many zombie survival games to come out recently, riding off the success of the wildly popular ARMA II mod DayZ. State of Decay's unique twist is that you control a compound of survivors, being able to switch characters with differing stats with some RPG elements. If you like zombie survival games, you're probably going to get this game no matter what. It's a pretty fun game, but it can get repetitive after completing the same side quests over and over. The graphics are nothing special that's perfectly fine and the melee combat is at least VASTLY better than say, Survivor Stories Infestation AKA The WarZ but it's not a top notch and deep melee system. It does the job just fine.

    If you like zombie survival games, you should definitely add this game to your collection.    … Expand
  15. Voltaire1512
    Nov 24, 2013
    5
    This game is good. It has a nice Zombie scenario, an open world in GTA-style, lots of action and a day-night-cycle, which is always important to me. I am not absolutely sure, but it seems as if it is more dangerous at night, which is also a big plus.

    So why just a 5? Due to bad design decisions. One could think that, as soon as the player logs out, the game world stands still. But that    This game is good. It has a nice Zombie scenario, an open world in GTA-style, lots of action and a day-night-cycle, which is always important to me. I am not absolutely sure, but it seems as if it is more dangerous at night, which is also a big plus.

    So why just a 5? Due to bad design decisions. One could think that, as soon as the player logs out, the game world stands still. But that is not true. The world continues to play without the player. And that`s a bad thing, since resources get consumed and your felow survivors may die without you being able to help them.

    I am always for a challenging game, but when this challenge is solely caused by a cheating concept, something is going horribly wrong. One may still enjoy the game, but the knowledge that it is not "fair" spoils the fun more than just a bit.    … Expand
  16. Jackpp1997
    Dec 21, 2013
    6
    First things first this game is not bad but it's far from good and i am going to mention all my problems this game has.

    1. The A.1. especially your companions are the dumbest people on the planet they stand still while a Zombie is attacking them from behind, and they don't really do a lot to help you and when you take them you will most likely find yourself wasting bullets trying to    First things first this game is not bad but it's far from good and i am going to mention all my problems this game has.

    1. The A.1. especially your companions are the dumbest people on the planet they stand still while a Zombie is attacking them from behind, and they don't really do a lot to help you and when you take them you will most likely find yourself wasting bullets trying to save them from Zombies and for some unknown reason the people that are guarding the church have unlimited ammo.

    2. The story is bad no one really asks questions about the zombies and it appears that everyone has easily gotten over the fact that there is dead people eating living people.

    3. Zombies are annoying, they repeatedly attack you when you are searching even if you don't make a sound and for some reason in a small town which could have a max of 150-200 people there is a zombie horde which passes every 5 seconds.

    4. You loss your character when you die

    But this game is fun at times to play and the shooting mechanics are O.K. and the voice acting is decent and it is only an arcade game for PC and XBOX so maybe if it was a full £40 release then i would of rated it lower but for an arcade game it isn't to bad so it gets a 6.

    O.K.    … Expand
  17. satori78
    Dec 10, 2013
    7
    State of Decay is certainly attractive and addictive, sitting on a very solid concept. Seeing a zombie survival with base building, team dynamics, scavenging, missions and combat with both melee and ranged components is very alluring, and you start the game highly psyched-up about it.

    Design-wise, the game is a mixed bag. While a lot of its components play very well into each other,    State of Decay is certainly attractive and addictive, sitting on a very solid concept. Seeing a zombie survival with base building, team dynamics, scavenging, missions and combat with both melee and ranged components is very alluring, and you start the game highly psyched-up about it.

    Design-wise, the game is a mixed bag. While a lot of its components play very well into each other, (scavenging, melee, guns, noise, zombie spawns, safe travel, cars, car repair, workshops, building, ressource gathering) some choices made by the developers make less sense. Your inventory is very limited. You can't drop individual items. You can't switch characters during missions. So loot management is crap, basically. The AI leaves a lot to be desired. The game tends to spawn zombies a little too generously, often giving the cheap feeling the game is cheating when it needs to turn the odds against you.

    The initial atrocious controls on the PC have been ironed-out in the recent patches, but the game still shows a lot of corner-cutting overall. Buildings pop into existence in the background. Zombies amusingly rush into their required position when the game loads an area where it decides to place a zombie horde. Zombies can pop through walls once in a while. Street signs you run over will be brand new next time you go by the same place. Thrown weapons behaviour makes them highly impractical.

    Basically, the developpers tried to get by with as little work as possible, while still keeping the game fun. There's not much complexity or refinement to any of it's components: shooting, fighting, looting, driving, building, dialogue, quests, story, or graphics, for that matter, but it still makes for a very fun and enticing game overall.

    Some people say they got bored with it after a few hours; to me, it took more days. After fully building my biggest base, after looting the nicer weapons, it was a fight with one of the toughest zombies that put me off. Shooting the didn't work, even if I used a 50 cal gun and lots of ammo with headshots. Molotov didn't seem to do any harm to it either. This fight took ages, with the game constantly spawning zombies at me all the time, to keep the fight artificially challenging. "Oh this, I'll just run over him with a car. Crap!" "And by the way, this game too."    … Expand
  18. DMets27
    Dec 27, 2013
    7
    State of Decay is a semi Walking Dead simulator. While the first few hours are great the game quickly becomes dull and repetitive. The reason I'll still give it a 7 is because I feel I can come back once every couple of weeks, play, and enjoy myself for about an hour. Buy this game knowing you won't be playing it everyday
  19. PFNolan
    May 31, 2014
    5
    I've played through about 40% of the game and couldn't stand it anymore. It is insanely repetitive and you get no real feeling of the game moving forward or even of accomplishing anything. Don't fall for the "open world" tag-- it's not really that open as the story (what there is) progress is mostly linear. Your choices really don't mean anything to the story (especially your choice ofI've played through about 40% of the game and couldn't stand it anymore. It is insanely repetitive and you get no real feeling of the game moving forward or even of accomplishing anything. Don't fall for the "open world" tag-- it's not really that open as the story (what there is) progress is mostly linear. Your choices really don't mean anything to the story (especially your choice of character that you will play). I gave up when I realized that the story was not going to progress until I decided to go work with this "mayor"(?) who is demanding that all citizens disarm. As I have no intention of doing that, I had no desire to fulfill her quest. Being awake day and night to keep doing the same repetitive tasks and quests is just mind-numbing. Don't waste your time.… Expand
  20. ob_gyn_kenobi
    Nov 10, 2013
    6
    So far it's a fun game....BUT.....I am having a hard time getting over the low quality graphics. If MGS spent a little more time putting the polish on this game, it could have been truly outstanding. But they didnt.
  21. dsj556
    Mar 1, 2014
    6
    This game has so much potential, you can tell it was rushed to production since it is a Microsoft game. If it had a little more to it then I would rate this as 10/10 and one of my favorite games ever made. As it is it seems that this is the Beta version and that I am sure several DLC's will be coming out with the hopes of them maxing out profits. I purchased this game on sale on SteamThis game has so much potential, you can tell it was rushed to production since it is a Microsoft game. If it had a little more to it then I would rate this as 10/10 and one of my favorite games ever made. As it is it seems that this is the Beta version and that I am sure several DLC's will be coming out with the hopes of them maxing out profits. I purchased this game on sale on Steam for $10 and I think it is worth it. Had I paid $50 or more I would have been really mad as I said this game doesn't feel finished.… Expand
  22. Cante
    Apr 29, 2014
    5
    Good Idea unfortunately very difficult to manage, The handling and management of the base and other characters is pretty annoying. Graphics are ok but the cutscenes should be skippable. I'm not sure if the autosave (and the inability to manually save at all) is meant to make the game harder/more realistic or a oversight by the developers. The combat system is sheer mashing of buttons andGood Idea unfortunately very difficult to manage, The handling and management of the base and other characters is pretty annoying. Graphics are ok but the cutscenes should be skippable. I'm not sure if the autosave (and the inability to manually save at all) is meant to make the game harder/more realistic or a oversight by the developers. The combat system is sheer mashing of buttons and gets boring fairly quickly. On the upside the maps are interesting and it's fun to explore the world, although the constant demands of your fellow survivors get in the way a lot. The AI is mediocre at best (NPC's get stuck or attack hordes of zombies while you try to avoid them. If you like these kind of games maybe buy it on special otherwise it's probably not worth your money.… Expand
  23. OliverGrau
    Nov 24, 2013
    5
    The game has it moments where you really feel the 'survivor experience', yet they are overshadowed by poor visuals, bugs, weak story and repetitiveness. The game is in its released state is still in beta in my point of view. At it's price of 18,99 EU it's okay value as it does bring a lot of gameplay for your money. Yet I've not found myself interested enough to end the game. 5/10 aThe game has it moments where you really feel the 'survivor experience', yet they are overshadowed by poor visuals, bugs, weak story and repetitiveness. The game is in its released state is still in beta in my point of view. At it's price of 18,99 EU it's okay value as it does bring a lot of gameplay for your money. Yet I've not found myself interested enough to end the game. 5/10 a mediocre experience.… Expand
  24. C_Arnoud
    Apr 18, 2014
    7
    Fun game and an interesting idea for a game. But it feels unpolished and doesn't have enough atmosphere, I should feel more threatened by the possibility of zombies or other people attacking the base and taking resources. The base building needs work.
  25. Orin
    Jan 20, 2014
    7
    Игрушка неплохая, стабильно держит на протяжении трех-пяти вечеров. После же неизбежно становится рутиной, которая быстро надоедает ввиду отсутствия должного разнообразия побочных заданий и возможностей в целом.
  26. hiddenpheonix
    Oct 6, 2014
    7
    I had a lot of fun playing this game once I got a trainer in place. It's indie fun with some strategy and brief story elements. Nice assortment of game items (weapons and cars). The story mode missions stay active for awhile longer than most games of similar type. Some things could be better but definitely got my 30 dollars worth out of the game.
  27. ItaruKarin
    Jun 23, 2014
    6
    Kind of fun for one or two hours, but rapidly gets boring and even frustrating. The influence system especially doesn't make sense. I mean, sure, make it necessary to get ammo from the stock if you want to make ammo precious. But making a certain amount required in order to ask another survivor to come with you is just plain dumb.

    "Remember the first rule, never go out there alone."    Kind of fun for one or two hours, but rapidly gets boring and even frustrating. The influence system especially doesn't make sense. I mean, sure, make it necessary to get ammo from the stock if you want to make ammo precious. But making a certain amount required in order to ask another survivor to come with you is just plain dumb.

    "Remember the first rule, never go out there alone." "Ok. Can you come with me?" "You haven't got enough influence, **** Yeah, right.

    Overall, the driving around is fun in an arcade kind of way, influence is **** and combat is mildly frustrating, especially if you try to play with KB+M as I did. A controller is highly recommended.

    So yeah, not a great game if it was 60$, but for it's price, it's worth it, although not something I'll remember having played.    … Expand
  28. jim_mojo
    Sep 28, 2013
    7
    After bringing out the mini patch to help those with a controller and now bring up the radio i can now play the game as intended.Its still in early release but im liking the game so far Think gta4 with zombies I hope they release dlcs in future such as an sandbox mode
  29. Dethstar
    Jun 8, 2014
    6
    Ok, it is a console port and that is obvious. It does look and play like something from a previous decade showing its xbox creditials BUT, it is still pretty enjoyable. I would have been pretty disappointed if I paid full price for it as it would not justify that in comparison with other titles but having picked it up on steam with several expansion for 18 Euros I am pretty happy with it.Ok, it is a console port and that is obvious. It does look and play like something from a previous decade showing its xbox creditials BUT, it is still pretty enjoyable. I would have been pretty disappointed if I paid full price for it as it would not justify that in comparison with other titles but having picked it up on steam with several expansion for 18 Euros I am pretty happy with it. It is fun. There is very little depth but it is quite open and at times captures the atmosphere of the walking dead (tv series, not the game). So for 18 Euros I dont expect much and SoD delivers about what I would expect. The control system is infuriating. It doesnt support native resolutions for my monitor (designed for Tv's) and the graphics are really very basic but it jumps on the zombie bandwagon in a positive way. Reminded me a bit of parts of alan wake in fact (though not in the same league). The driving around at night parts mainly. I love the concept of building defenses to priotect myself and the other survivors and this does introduce the concept (albeit in a pretty perfunctory sort of way). Not great, but not an outright scam either as so many other console crossovers are. One massive bonus on this, the field of view which so limits console gaming doesnt seem to be a problem here. It could be due to the third person nature of the game play or intentional but no nausea inducing letter box camera on this one.… Expand
  30. Thylbanus
    Jul 21, 2014
    6
    As I write this, State of Decay is holding at 6.8, which is where I almost put it. I'm not one to throw out 10s for just any old game. Zombie Apocalypse Survival games are an interest of mine and I have yet to see one that is on par with my desires. This obviously includes this game.

    Now there are some good points. SANDBOX! Then again, can't really have a ZAS without a sandbox.    As I write this, State of Decay is holding at 6.8, which is where I almost put it. I'm not one to throw out 10s for just any old game. Zombie Apocalypse Survival games are an interest of mine and I have yet to see one that is on par with my desires. This obviously includes this game.

    Now there are some good points. SANDBOX! Then again, can't really have a ZAS without a sandbox. Many missions are time based. Don't get around to rescue those refugees, they die. They do have an interesting thing with the way they do "lives". You don't get multiple lives. In that way, it's similar to a roguelike. They get around this by having "heroes." Characters that are a notch above the other survivors. They each have their strengths and weaknesses and take into account fatigue and health. Character needs rest and time to recover, so you switch to another. Gives it a nice touch of realism. They also die. Permanently. A character that dies, affects the community. The fact that there IS a community is a nice touch. Adds a bit of spin to the ordinary ZAS. You have to handle problem members of your community and even members of your group that become infected.

    There are some bad points. Inventory sorting doesn't exist. Fortunately you don't have to search through it to use things, but you could have an instance where you have picked up X amount of rounds for your pistol/rifle and then deplete your own stash. The inventory will not stack it unless you do it yourself. I'm not saying that they don't INITIALLY, just after you start to deplete. You could have an inventory slot with 10 rounds and another with 6. To combine them, you have to do it manually. Zombie sense is a bit weird. I've been able to sneak up behind a zombie and bash them, but if I'm behind window or counter, they can see me. There will be no line of sight and yet I get detected. Vehicles are cool, but the almost instant kill is a bit weak. Once you learn how to not get them latched on to your vehicle, it's just fish in a barrel. Animation is a bit odd. Everyone walks like a man and all women have this distended butt thing going on that is honestly a bit disturbing. Especially when crouched. The sprinting animation is laughable. If you had the "Benny Hill Show" theme you would probably laugh to hard to play. Everyone sprints like they in Benny Hill or Keystone Cops (laughable fast walk). While you can have a base and outposts, there is no crafting. Well not in the sense that you have to collect w, x, and y materials to combine and make item z. Crafting is done like SWTOR, you assign your minions to do it. Your crafting needs nothing more than the proper crafting area and uses up your 5 different supply types - Food, Ammunition, Medicine, Building material, and Gasoline. This is just a ticker that runs down each day, according to usage and random events.

    The ugly points. Guh. I wanted to like this. I really did. The glitches are VERY annoying. Not game breaking, but problematic. From simple things like the scooching zombies (zombies that lie on the ground and glitch wiggle toward you VERY slowly and then suddenly get up when they are within a certain range), to the ghost zombies (zombies who only adhere to ground terrain. Everything else is non-tangible to them. They run through buildings, vehicles, other zombies), to AI pathmaking (AI characters CONSTANTLY get hung up on things, especially vehicles), to crazy physics (if you park your vehicle on an uneven surface, it MAY just flip the car on you when you try to get out), to camera clipping/angles (being in water must put a crick in your neck because you can't look up. Even slightly), or random world actions left behind that were never used (you will just suddenly start walking - normal action when entering a home - in a field or parking lot), and sound/graphic errors (strange buzzing when in certain buildings and sometimes there is double layering that causes the graphics to wig out). This is an excessive amount, given the time it's been out (enough that they have released 2 DLCs) A typical (i.e. poorly done) port to the PC.    … Expand
  31. redankilous
    Aug 14, 2014
    7
    I would say 7.5
    First off i want to say i loved this game. I had a blast making my zombie proof home. killing endless amounts of zombie with all different kinds of guns, cars, 2x4's, etc... The game is very addicting. story was alright , had above average voice acting. There are some things that work against the game though. Game is very short, when i beat it i was begging for more. they    I would say 7.5
    First off i want to say i loved this game. I had a blast making my zombie proof home. killing endless amounts of zombie with all different kinds of guns, cars, 2x4's, etc... The game is very addicting. story was alright , had above average voice acting. There are some things that work against the game though. Game is very short, when i beat it i was begging for more. they could of added more depth to the RPG aspect of the game very limited. and no multiplayer, it would of made the game SO much better. all in all I would recommend this game. I picked it up on a steam sale for around $12.00 including the DLC, worth every penny.    … Expand
  32. 1akula1
    Aug 14, 2014
    7
    Its fun for a while, then you get bored, you get some mods, its fun again for awhile longer, and then you forget you have it until new season of the walking dead comes out...
  33. TsukasaHiiragi
    Jun 9, 2017
    6
    State of Decay is a mixed bag, on one hand it has some really good ideas to bring to the Zombie survival genre but are unfortunately snuffed out with all the negative problems SoD has especially when the game punishes you severely due to the massive amount of bugs and glitches.

    My personal issues are mostly due to the mission structure, it is simply impossible to just go out and    State of Decay is a mixed bag, on one hand it has some really good ideas to bring to the Zombie survival genre but are unfortunately snuffed out with all the negative problems SoD has especially when the game punishes you severely due to the massive amount of bugs and glitches.

    My personal issues are mostly due to the mission structure, it is simply impossible to just go out and explore without Lily nagging you constantly to do this mission, or rescue this survivor and countless other missions most having hidden timers. Or the countless messages about people getting sad, or angry and you have to deal with the problems, it wouldn't be too bad if it was spaced out but it is near constant and really lets the game down in my opinion.

    Soon as you arrive at the Church unlocking exploration...Lily will nag you constantly, there are mods but it doesn't fix the endless repeating missions. It's pretty much this bad -

    1 minute - Maya is sad
    Talk to maya whilst killing zeds to cheer her up
    3 minutes later - Maya is angry
    Talk to maya whilst killing zeds to calm her down
    4 minutes later - Maya is depressed
    talk to maya whilst killing zeds to give her a pep talk
    6 minutes later - Maya needs rescuing
    find maya who is trapped at a random location on the map..
    10 minutes later - Maya is sad again.

    Now times that among all the survivors you have in your colony, it'll drive you nuts sometimes that you just want them to die so you can have a little bit of alone time to explore the map. I'm hoping that State of Decay 2 doesn't have these problems, because this game is actually fairly playable and can be fun to play, it's the bugs and other gameplay issues that hurt this game.    … Expand
  34. Superficiality
    Feb 7, 2015
    7
    It is probably the best zombie game out there, and I personally really enjoyed it. The problem is its repetitiveness - the same missions over and over again, and how you actually lose your characters if they die - sometimes to accidents such as falling off a tower due to a glitch. There are a lot of glitches in the game, but optimization was decent and the zombies were fun to kill. RunningIt is probably the best zombie game out there, and I personally really enjoyed it. The problem is its repetitiveness - the same missions over and over again, and how you actually lose your characters if they die - sometimes to accidents such as falling off a tower due to a glitch. There are a lot of glitches in the game, but optimization was decent and the zombies were fun to kill. Running over zombies with the limited amount of cars and bashing their brains was a very entertaining site. The other DLC's are less enjoyable though, and much more difficult.… Expand
  35. muzmuz
    Nov 1, 2015
    7
    State of Decay delivers a brand-new style for zombie genres, a really enjoyable style. Game is absolutely almost perfect up to the DLCs - if not for the stupid ally AI, the occasional bugs, the annoying persistent open world system and influence points.
  36. Jodle
    Dec 1, 2015
    7
    Good survival zombie game .
    . . .
  37. destinyfan1
    Jun 9, 2017
    6
    Good game but with to many flaws to make it a survival classic,
    The environment is actually pretty beautiful but the graphics aren't amazing
    The story wasn't bad but didn't do anything special ( it feld like I already heared it before) and never gets really exciting as the walking dead The survival and gameplay is the best in this game , smashing zombie's feels good but it feels    Good game but with to many flaws to make it a survival classic,
    The environment is actually pretty beautiful but the graphics aren't amazing
    The story wasn't bad but didn't do anything special ( it feld like I already heared it before) and never gets really exciting as the walking dead
    The survival and gameplay is the best in this game , smashing zombie's feels good but it feels sometimes like their is happening an earthquake everytime I hit a zombie with a meeleeweapon
    The survival is very strong as you have to think what you do , but their are issues, the stamina runs out way to quickly and so do the resources
    However the game still felt good with all this issues I have to give a 6 for its flaws    … Expand
  38. iseeall
    Dec 18, 2015
    5
    It's an interesting mix of open world action game and base management / strategy game - but for a console. On PC it's plagued by horrible inventory and base management controls (no mouse support, so instead of just dragging items between slots you need to press Tab, Esc, Space etc), clumsy combat and awkward 3d-person camera. The collision detection is broken, as zombies frequently standIt's an interesting mix of open world action game and base management / strategy game - but for a console. On PC it's plagued by horrible inventory and base management controls (no mouse support, so instead of just dragging items between slots you need to press Tab, Esc, Space etc), clumsy combat and awkward 3d-person camera. The collision detection is broken, as zombies frequently stand right inside rocks or walls. While in combat, your companion will swing a stick right thru your own character and not injure you but instead hit a zombie which is a meter in front of the swinging stick. Or instead partially collide with the zombie so that the zombie's head sticks thru his back, and swing the bat in the air far behind the zombie - after which the zombie's head explodes into a big splash of blood. This could be a nice source for funny videos on youtube.

    The comments of the characters are filled with foul language and stupidity. E.g. Ed, the guy following you from the start talks about tequila and says the same comment over and over as the next zombie approaches. If I could kill Ed on the spot, I would, as the post-apocalyptic world doesn't need such morons saved. Yet there is no friendly fire option. The main character is a black guy - I was surprised to find no character customization as I never play for men in games and prefer white women characters with blue eyes and blond hair :)

    The graphics look strange. I've tried the "maximum" quality settings and different gamma levels, but still the picture looks somewhat blurred, with big splashes of either white or black, to a point where a whole face of a character would become a big white spot, as if he was looking at a nuclear explosion.

    These small things, together with horrible controls, make for quite a messy game overall. The tenth time you see a zombie's hand sticking out of a wall you will probably think that you shouldn't have bought this game after all.    … Expand
  39. markodon
    Oct 12, 2014
    7
    I have mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand, it's sort of a dream-come-true for all the fans of zombie apocalypse who always wanted an adventure type game with scavenging, somewhat realistic base building (more on this later), group mechanics an and open world map. On the other hand, it is a very arcadey and repetitive game with numerous limitations.
    But the first the good    I have mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand, it's sort of a dream-come-true for all the fans of zombie apocalypse who always wanted an adventure type game with scavenging, somewhat realistic base building (more on this later), group mechanics an and open world map. On the other hand, it is a very arcadey and repetitive game with numerous limitations.
    But the first the good stuff - the concept is really great. You find a suitable place to settle in with your group, work on providing enough food and other supplies, beefing up the defences and facilities and develop relationships with other communities. Scavenging is fun as you go into various buildings looking for supplies while risking getting surrounded by zombies. The game also features a permanent death concept, meaning that when a character dies, you cannot use him anymore - this adds an emotional aspect to the game. The map is large and varied, which is also a big plus.
    However, all of the good things I mentioned also have some limitations, and they all have arcadey execution in common, which really detracts from realism. Everything feels contrived and therefore gets repetitive really fast. You get bombarded by cheap missions like clearing out a herd or dealing with an infestation, which is just annoying. It's great that there are other survivors, but the interaction is pretty basic and they are mostly there to populate your communities. While not all survivors are that friendly, there are no bandits or gangs, which should always be an important elements of these kind of scenarios.
    Base building is cool and often satisfying due to realistic ways of going about it - look for a building with decent defences and strategic placement and occupy it. So none of that silly base building mechanic which is popular in multiplayer games nowadays where you magically place manufactured objects from your inventory and construct a base. On the flip side, the locations where you can establish a base is limited to a few houses, factories and farms and some of the base mechanics are a bit weird and annoying
    In conclusion, State of Decay is a game with a lot of potential, but any new title will require a major realism overhaul in order to please the less casual crowd who want a proper emotionally-charged and gripping survival experience.    … Expand
  40. vcaybasi
    Dec 6, 2014
    7
    +Detailed survival elements.
    +Survivors die and they won't respawn.
    +Replayable

    -So many bugs.
    -Insufficient gameplay animations
    -Big zombies are almost impossible to kill.
  41. joker7195
    Jul 14, 2015
    5
    [ note this is about the year one addition of state of decay]

    look I don't want to say don't get the game but I have no choice but to tell the truth here this is a piss poor game they would rather sell a version that has a 90 percent chance of not working on your computer if your one of the lucky ones and it works if you owned the state of decay before that you will no it has no    [ note this is about the year one addition of state of decay]

    look I don't want to say don't get the game but I have no choice but to tell the truth here this is a piss poor game they would rather sell a version that has a 90 percent chance of not working on your computer if your one of the lucky ones and it works if you owned the state of decay before that you will no it has no different but just a enhanced graphics and a couple new weapons but if your one of the unlucky ones that owned a Xbox 360 version of the game like me I had a Xbox since 2005 it broke in 2014 and so on I got the pc one I was lucky and it worked but there was no different what so ever and the game was pretty much broken itself it should not be 30 and people who got it should get a refund as a lot of people computers could not work with the garbage hell lets say you go scavenge for supplies do zombies walk throw walls do they fly and attack you from above do your friends get stuck and wait to be killed or watch as you get attack and do nothing as you die that's not the game you ones loved the only thing I can call it is garbage but I cant stop playing no matter how bad it is it use to be the only game I play it holds dear memories of the past for me so its something I am going to have to live with I don't no what they were thinking it was such a amassing game before this year one addition I heard there was going to be a year 2 maybe that one will be better well we will find out soon enough.    … Expand
  42. splatdeath
    Oct 5, 2016
    5
    i changed my mind about this game its not amazing its not realistic heck sometimes its downright stupid but its a nice game and worth a **** if you can get it on a sale
  43. KARF4GEN
    May 10, 2018
    7
    Прекрасный концепт, который скорее всего надоест ко второму форпосту.
  44. Shtern
    Jul 3, 2020
    6
    Невероятная игра, что еще нужно для любителя выживания?
    Можно лутать, лутать и лутать.
    Есть своя база, можно ее улучшать, заводить друзей, врагов, ездить на машинах и еще много всего, конечно с тем что я это пишу, есть уже вторая часть, но игра как по мне, даже первая часть достойна не меньшего внимания.    Невероятная игра, что еще нужно для любителя выживания?
    Можно лутать, лутать и лутать.
    Есть своя база, можно ее улучшать, заводить друзей, врагов, ездить на машинах и еще много всего, конечно с тем что я это пишу, есть уже вторая часть, но игра как по мне, даже первая часть достойна не меньшего внимания.
  45. C4NAB1Sx
    Jan 27, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff… Expand
  46. The_D4RknesS
    Aug 31, 2022
    6
    and a "perfect" survival game! the animations of executions, gore, violence. the survivors have to sleep and eat the zombies are "smart", more cliché and fun campaign. you stick to the game, feel inside the game it's amazing Only problems in the game are..... The camera movement is horrible, the fight fought , and many bugs + an ugly and outdated graphics even for 2013 + high FPS drops
  47. IamNader
    May 17, 2023
    7
    Zombie survival game that I kept coming back to over the years, something about this game makes it addictive - 7/10

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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]
  2. 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]
  3. 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.
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