State of Decay Preview
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State of Decay is not really a zombie game. Of course, it takes place during a zombie apocalypse but calling it just that obfuscates what the game actually offers. It's much more accurate to call State of Decay an Apocalypse Simulation and Management Game. And even though it has the face of an open world zombie action title, its soul is firmly rooted in RTS's, business management simulations and personality simulations like The Sims. Of course, having played the game at conventions for the past year I've known what I was getting myself into. Last week however I was able to get my first real good chunk of time with the game, far away from the loud and distracting environment of PAX. It's in this environment, and playing from the beginning of the game, that the subtitles of the title began to shine.
You start off as a single character who -with an NPC friend- return from vacation and into a zombie apocalypse on one huge map. Outfitted with a small backpack, and a stick as a melee weapon, you slowly make your way through the first areas and finally -through some story prodding- to a populated enclave in town. It's within these first moments that the player realizes there is a lot more to this title than simply killing zombies. Inventory is limited by the size of the backback you're wearing, and as you begin completing tasks you suddenly realize that decisions like (what do I take?) are prime to the gameplay. In these initial sequences I found myself sneaking from building to building looking to load up on what would be the most useful. Medicine to heal myself, food to regain my stamina, another melee weapon...and then I found a gun.
