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Anyone playing State of Decay 2?


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I don't know if it's taboo to talk about other zombie games on this forum, but since it just came out and it's been getting some...interesting reception, I figure I'd start a post about it anyway. 

 

The original State of Decay is one of my favorite zombie games. Sure, it could get monotonous and boring at times, but it still provided a unique balance between third-person action, base management, and strategy that the zombie apocalypse genre desperately needed. And the $30 price tag wasn't so bad either. 

 

Flash forward to yesterday (or four days ago for me, since I got it early) and the sequel is out. How does it fare in comparison to the original?

 

Personally, I think it's alright. There are things I like about it and things I don't like about it, though unfortunately the like/dislike ratio for this game is more weighted toward the latter category than the first game. I'm having fun playing it, but it's not quite as much fun as I had with the original State of Decay. 

 

There have been quite a few mixed and negative reviews for this game, and while I'd say it's unfair to call the game a piece of shit, it's definitely got serious flaws that can easily turn off certain gamers. 

 

After two "false starts", I've finally got a decent community going, set up in a police station with a sheriff leader, population of 9 with two fatalities over the course of about 10 days. Here are some pros and cons to the game that I've come across (minor spoilers ahead):

 

PROS

 

  • The game definitely looks better, thanks to the upgrade from CryEngine to Unreal. Lighting, textures, and environmental effects have all been improved.
  • Three maps instead of just one, and all have unique locations, home sites, and environments.
  • The different home sites are pretty neat. You can set up in some pretty unique areas, such as a fort made of shipping containers, a medieval-themed drive-in theater, and a double-decker rail bridge, just to name a few. 
  • Game animations have been improved, with certain welcome additions (such as visible weapons on your character, different stealth kill animations, and more)
  • The new mechanic of cars consuming fuel adds a new layer of challenge, which can be frustrating to some players but to me personally offers a better sense of realism.
  • New unique facilities, including those that are dependent on the type of leader you elect
  • Speaking of which, the new leader mechanic, which allows you to have a set community focus and other benefits
  • Character models are much more varied; in contrast to the first game, you're unlikely to run into the same character model more than once. 
  • The darkness at night is pretty cool, not many games have such realistic darkness. Makes nighttime scavenging runs pretty creepy
  • The game feels a bit more challenging than its predecessor, with the addition of plague hearts, tougher zombies, and more.
  • Vehicle storage makes scavenging runs a lot more manageable. 
  • Co-op is a decent addition, with the ability to play with friends and strangers.
  • I like the addition of human enemies in addition to zombies.
  • The game no longer progresses when you're not playing it.

 

CONS

 

  • There are some serious bugs that have yet to be patched out. And this is coming from someone fresh off the heels of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. While I have yet to encounter any real game-breakers, there are quite a few annoying glitches that can easily lead to your character's untimely death. 
  • The game's physics are something to behold. Cars don't handle right at all, and they can easily get stuck on guard rails and other scenery. Trying to get unstuck wastes time and fuel. While ragdolls and gibbing are decent, other physics effects can be pretty crazy, such as your character getting stuck on top of a table or your car bursting into flames because it had a spasm on a flagpole. 
  • For some inexplicable reason, cars can be fully repaired after they've been destroyed. Not only that, but everything you stored in your car will be absolutely fine. You try fully repairing a car with a small toolbox after it's fucking EXPLODED.
  • The other communities besides yours are usually whiny bitches. They'll demand resources or help from you even if you're running low on the resources you want. If you don't help them after a while, they curse you out and leave the region completely. Granted, this was a similar mechanic in the original game, but it wasn't nearly as irritating, and the people there usually weren't so rude. I mean, it's not like my community owes these people anything.
  • In addition to that point, sometimes communities will outright declare war on you because you didn't give them what they want. Not that this means much, as your base is never attacked by human enemies. If you thought the war between the Saviors and Rick's group in The Walking Dead was weak, try a "war" in State of Decay 2. 
  • I'm not really getting the facility mods. They don't seem very useful. 
  • Zombies will ALWAYS find a way inside your base, no matter how many fences, walls, or watchtowers you have. I think this has something to do with the level of noise in the base, and this can be mitigated in some ways. But still, it's not much of a safe area if the undead can get in any time they want. 
  • While plague hearts add a significant challenge to the game, the blood plague itself is all but harmless. If you play the tutorial you're immediately given the ability to make the cure for blood plague. Because it's so easy to make and death from plague infection takes such a long time, you'll probably never have anyone succumb to blood plague unless you intentionally let them die. This may not be the case with those who don't play the tutorial, as it may be different for a group that doesn't have a trained doctor. But still, the blood plague doesn't seem like much of a threat.
  • Speaking of illnesses, there are none in State of Decay 2. Unlike the original, where you can catch anything from the common cold to the zombie virus, here it's just blood plague. Yup, that's right, they made it so you can't contract "Black Fever" anymore, meaning you can run into as many Bloaters and get bit by as many zombies as you want and you won't get infected by anything (unless it's a plague zombie). The removal of this feature confuses me a lot, since the game pretty much ignores the concept of Black Fever altogether in favor of the blood plague. Hell, I don't think Black Fever is mentioned at all. 
  • Supplying power and water to your base is a hassle, as there's no option to automatically refuel your generator or keep collecting water. 
  • Unlike the first game, there's no story. Aside from a few cameos over the radio, there's hardly anything linking this game to the original State of Decay. No unique characters, no storytelling, nothing. I wouldn't mind so much if this were marketed as an RPG, but it wasn't. 
  • If there was one thing State of Decay was known for, it was the sheer number of guns it had. In the sequel, the different types of firearms seem to have been reduced significantly. It's possible that they're just more rare now and I haven't encountered all the types, but I'm skeptical. 
  • Your community name is randomly assigned to you at the beginning. Which is stupid. My group is called "The Newcomers". But we aren't newcomers. We've been here for nearly two weeks and we pretty much own the whole fucking region. 
  • Like the first game, there's no character creation or customization. It follows a Rimworld-style character selection where you basically just have to roll the dice until you get the character you want, except you can't change their appearance, traits, skills, or even their goddamn name. 
  • Missions are pretty repetitive and usually consist of fetch quests, resource requests, and transporting a survivor to their community only to find their community has been destroyed. The only real "main" goal is to destroy the plague hearts in your town. 
  • Finally, State of Decay 2 pretty much adds nothing to the lore of the State of Decay setting. With a lack of a linear story, it pretty much just turns into your run-of-the-mill zombie apocalypse scenario. We don't find out anything more about what caused the zombie outbreak. We don't find out what became of Trumbull Valley and its survivors. We don't find out what CLEO is, because I don't think CLEO is even in the game. The few characters from the first game that make an appearance are just throwaway cameos over the radio with no explanation as to how they survived the events of the first game and got where they are now. In fact, the only bits of lore at all come from the radio, and they're usually just short radio messages from characters you never see doing things that are probably far more interesting and exciting than whatever you're doing at that moment. Hell, we don't even find out anything about the blood plague! That's right, the one huge addition to the game and we know absolutely nothing about it. What makes it different from the regular zombie virus? Never addressed. How the hell it grows out of giant mounds of misty red flesh and bone like something out of Dead Space? Never answered. Where it came from? No idea. Why it wasn't mentioned in the previous game? The developers probably pulled it out of their ass. It's infuriating how little this game develops its own setting and lore. By emphasizing the building of your character, it completely forgot to build its own. 

 

Whew. Okay, so...maybe there are more things wrong with the game than I originally thought. That being said, I don't hate this game. I'm having fun playing it. And I haven't even gotten to the co-op part because I don't have any friends who own State of Decay 2. Or friends in general. But I still like the game, and I appreciate the fact that it's still only $30. However, I will warn any potential players that there are quite a few frustrating things about State of Decay 2 that could easily discourage you from getting it. It's not terrible, and I don't regret buying it, but it's only a marginal improvement over its predecessor. Caveat emptor, my friends. Caveat fuckin' emptor

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Although I loved the first one (and often use it as a comparison point for PZ), I heard the second one was buggy on Unpatched-Bethesda-Game levels, so hopefully it'll come to Steam at some point so it can be patched/modded up.

 

Yeah, I know it is on the Microstore for PC already, but that takes Win10, and I wouldn't put that cancer on my PC unless I really, really wanted to give it a very slow and painful death; I work on IT Support, and I spent pretty much every day dealing with that shit, which does nothing but to annoy...

 

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I don't see it being good. It had potential, but from the looks of it, it seems more of a babysitting simulator during a zombie apocalypse more than anything. It's a game I'd rather skip, I'll stick to PZ for now. Just because a AAA company made it, it doesn't mean it's good. It's received mediocre reviews aswell. 

 

My wallet thanks Microsoft.

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7 minutes ago, Capt.Motty said:

I don't see it being good. It had potential, but from the looks of it, it seems more of a babysitting simulator during a zombie apocalypse more than anything. It's a game I'd rather skip, I'll stick to PZ for now. Just because a AAA company made it, it doesn't mean it's good. It's received mediocre reviews aswell. 

 

My wallet thanks Microsoft.

If you're on Windows 10, you can technically play it for free for two weeks if you haven't used Microsoft's Game Pass before. 
Game pass can be trialed for 14 days and State of Decay 2 as well as Sea of Thieves are part of the Game Pass program. I did it for Sea of Thieves and was happy I didn't pay for it. Had some fun in the meantime and didn't pay a dime. 

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On 5/24/2018 at 8:47 AM, nasKo said:

If you're on Windows 10, you can technically play it for free for two weeks if you haven't used Microsoft's Game Pass before. 
Game pass can be trialed for 14 days and State of Decay 2 as well as Sea of Thieves are part of the Game Pass program. I did it for Sea of Thieves and was happy I didn't pay for it. Had some fun in the meantime and didn't pay a dime. 

Ah, I've heard of Gamepass before since I have an Xbox One. Thanks for the heads up, I did not know that.

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2 hours ago, Capt.Motty said:

Ah, I've heard of Gamepass before since I have an Xbox One. Thanks for the heads up, I did not know that.

 

For the record, Undead Labs is not a AAA studio. And yeah, the game is monotonous, but it's not necessarily bad. I do recommend to demo it just to see how it works. Hell, that's how I got into PZ

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