Review State of Decay 2: Surviving in a zombie world is not easy

“My parents only let us watch old movies,” says Ash, as we rummage through an abandoned pharmacy, looking for medicine for our sick friends. “I didn’t even know they were that old, and I was furious with them when I found out Judy Garland was dead.” It was an ordinary character moment, nothing short of impressive, other than that Ash was a completely randomly generated character. Like most other characters in State of Decay 2.

One of the things that makes State of Decay 2 stand out is the fact that you won’t be playing as a character, but as a community. You’ll have to gather survivors throughout your journey, and most of what they do is sit idle in your customizable base. If the character you are playing becomes tired or injured, you can switch to controlling another character. Each character will have unique personalities and random skills, like Demond, a former music-loving shop assistant who knows how to “hack” cars thanks to his not-so-good past.

Randomly generated characters are really nothing new, but each character in State of Decay 2 has a different past, unique dialogue, giving the player a feeling. totally true”. For example, Ash’s videos all involve a random situation, a mental medicine for her if we can somehow find a projector in this hell on earth. . Not much different from Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system, but the game’s system has been adapted to create an endless supply of necessities for survivors instead of brutal orcs.

You’ll spend most of your time responding to people’s needs, gathering materials like food and medical supplies, or upgrading infrastructure to add more like an infirmary. to treat zombie bites. Theoretically, you could build a base that is completely self-sustaining, with water and energy drawn from neighboring buildings, but in practice this is nearly impossible, forcing you to engage continued to enter the wilderness.

And when hunger comes to the wilderness, it’s America’s small towns. State of Decay omits large urban environments and will instead feature clusters of small buildings. There will be loads of food chains, gas stations and farms, but most will be nothing more than 2 floors up. Most of these locations contain something from a new gun to cans of food enough to last you a few days.

The map (one of three) will always be the same, but dramatic events will always happen unexpectedly, making you unpredictable. Sometimes it will be a house full of zombies, increasing activity in the area until you kill them all. Sometimes a group of people will reside in houses, dealing with you and sending you quests. There are also “plague hearts”, a nasty fluff that gives variety to zombies, which act as mini-bosses throughout the map. Kill them all and you’ve cleared most of the map!

All of these explorations will lead to some pretty satisfying close-quarters combat, or shootouts. Admittedly, it will take you a little while to get used to the game. Special zombies like screamers and bloaters can cause you a lot of trouble in battle, but if you happen to come across them, a headshot or surprise knockdown can finish them off. .

However, the game will also include a multitude of RPG-style upgrades. There will be different skills to upgrade, ‘standing’ is a type of experience that gives the community a comprehensive boost, and ‘influence’ is simply currency. Sometimes the game will give you a headache when deciding which skill to upgrade, for example, is ‘gardening’ more useful than ‘pop culture knowledge’? (Sure we have!)

For a survival game, State of Decay 2 offers a rather strange experience. According to the game, dying in here means a “permanent” death, but in reality it will be very difficult for you to be killed. But don’t let that make you careless, no one knows what will happen in this dead and dangerous world.

If you want to make things easier, you can call your friends for help. Up to three players will be able to join the game at any time, making it easy for players to play at their own pace and team up when everyone is free. Playing another player’s game feels like going to work on a holiday: You can still improve your skills, but you won’t need to “look after” your community anymore. Everything only works if you and your friend stand close to each other. Go too far, the game will force you to return to each other. You should also note that there will be a few sync errors when there is a single player in the game, like the zombies will have a short response delay, making things very difficult to deal with evenly. zombies appear in swarms. In addition, there are still minor bugs that appear throughout the game.

It should be emphasized that State of Decay 2 is basically a game revolving around resource gathering, and this will probably be a factor that reduces the appeal of the game in the long run. But the sheer size of the game world and the multitude of characters to meet keeps things fresh. Life in a post-apocalyptic world doesn’t last forever, but hopefully you’ll have a memorable time along the way.

Source: PC Gamer