State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition

Undead Labs bring their zombie-survival-sim to a new generation with heaps of content and loads of fresh polish.

State of Decay deservedly shattered Xbox Live Arcade sales records in 2013: it is a potent mix of RPG gameplay systems that all fuse together to create an unpredictable and tense survival experience. Time hasn’t taken anything away from that for Year One Survival Edition, and though it hasn’t fixed its technical problems either, this zombie-bashing, resource-managing post-apocalyptic gem still stands out from the horde of brainless zombie games.

Despite some technical problems and a couple of inexplicable design choices, State of Decay is a pretty solid open-world survival, with a great balance between RPG, action and management elements.

A good buy if you never played the original game on Xbox 360, but it adds too little for the ones who already played it; yet it remains one of the best open world survival games around.

Undead Labs understood that in order to create the truest-feeling zombie survival game, they had to make a world that was completely believable. They managed it, and the result remains a triumph.

We are faced with a extremely rich proposal, many changes to the structure and a flood of content offered by the base game and the two expansions, without excluding its undeniable charm.

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition doesn’t do much to standout from the original version of the game. Bugs, glitches, and other issues consistently drag down the experience but the sheer amount content, exhilarating survival elements, and solid gameplay saves the day leaving us with hours of fun inside this zombie playground.

State of Decay was one of the best Xbox Live Arcade titles to grace the 360 during its ten year life span and arguably one of the console’s best games full stop. This new updated edition is a step in the right direction.

Graphical issues aside, this is a phenomenal and ambitious game with a world that will challenge and entertain players for hours.

State Of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is the definitive way of experiencing this fiercely unique zombie sim and a true highlight of the survival genre. Though still rough and ready, it's undeniably a complete package.

I for one enjoyed what I played, and the added content of past DLC, plus all the bonus goodies that have been tacked on above that make the whole package a pretty good value. There is a lot of gameplay to be had here too and those who haven’t played the game before are in for hours upon hours of zombie mayhem.

State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is a generously proportioned package (that's not a euphemism), containing a stack of content, a huge open-world packed with ravenous zombies and precious few supplies to see you through.

State of Decay is still, without a doubt, one of the better zombie games available today. Despite not having all the polish and AAA bells and whistles of a big budget title, it has an original concept, a lot of depth, and a genuine tension evoked by its “no one is ever safe,” atmosphere.

It is technically improved but still far from being up-to-date. But behind the façade hides a very tense and multifaceted fight for survival. Once you’re infected it is damn hard to get away from State of Decay.

State of Decay has everything you could ever imagine in a zombie game, and than some. But, it still plays and feels like an Xbox Live Arcade game. Thankfully, at around $30, it’s priced like one too.

Quotation forthcoming.

State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition is a package full of goodies. The game itself is still one of the best steps towards the dream of a persistent apocalyptic world, but poor graphics and the lack of multiplayer are even worse today than two years ago.

Xbox One's version of State of Decay is still a unique open world zombie survival horror experience that puts a special focus in original ideas like the fortification of your settlement or the arrange of a balanced party of survivors, ideas that no other game explores. But, despite this, the game still has serious technical flaws and, in content terms, doesn't add to much not seen in Xbox 360. If you didn't play that version, Year One Edition is for you, but for the rest maybe not.

In spite of those very real problems, I’m still quite fond of State of Decay and the Year-One Survival Edition. Although the parts that are great don’t counter its many flaws, when taken as a whole, it’s still worth playing.

If you’ve already played through State of Decay, Lifeline and Breakdown, then you’re not going to find anything really new in the Year One Survival Edition. Luckily, its already solid gameplay and story eclipse State of Decay’s lack of new content and its ongoing presentation issues.

State of Decay is a fun romp and so is this new-gen re-release. The lack of meaningful changes make it hard to recommend to those that own the older version, but everyone else should dive head-first into its zombie catastrophe scenarios.

At this moment, this might be the best version of State of Decay, but it is definitely not the best version we can think of. The game still is very buggy and there is still no co-op mode. We still love this deep zombie survival game, but it simply could have been so much more.

While it never truly feels like it reaches its full potential or the promise Undead Lab’s ideas hold for the genre, State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is still a fun, fascinating take on the tradition of zombie-apocalypse games that’s worth playing for hardcore fans.