State of Decay - Anticipation

Tomorrow's release of State of Decay for Xbox Live Arcade is easily my most anticipated game of the year so far. I've been following this game for months. I've only read one review so far (linked below), that review and the various things I've read and from podcasts I've listened to, this is getting a lot of buzz, with a lot of comparisons to DayZ (I don't have a CPU that can run this).

I hope it lives up to the hype.

http://undeadlabs.com/about-state-of-decay/
http://www.oxmonline.com/state-decay-review?page=0,0

i hadn't heard about this but it looks super cool

yeah, it sounded too good to be true (and maybe it is), but the following hands-on preview took me from interested to genuinely excited:

http://www.oxmonline.com/state-decay-preview-hands-xblas-zombified-open-world

I hope this thing explodes commercially (ala Minecraft). The developers want to give this online multiplayer capabilites in the future, but doubt that would happen if it tanks.

I don't get what's special about this? Another zombie game? What's the hook?

"You can switch between the different playable characters you’ll meet, but every death is permanent."
"This game will immediately (drop) you into the body of another player-character back at your hideout/hub."
"Skeptical enclaves might join your gang if you help defend them or run a few errands, and friends will frequently get themselves into jams they might not survive without your help."

open-world, with a home base full of "extra lives" and cool upgrades for the home base. any loot you find that you don't want you stick in a locker, the people thank you & build sniper towers and stuff. kinda awesome sounding imo!

I should mention that I'm a big zombie fan in general, so my excitement is tied into that to some extent.

One of the main reasons I'm excited for this game is it's less about action and more about people and resource management. Just one example - I read somewhere that there will be dozens of NPC personalities in the game, and these different personality types can greatly effect your group's well-being. For instance you may run across a sociopath who's also an amazing mechanic. Do you want to take the chance in introducing him to your group? He may be amazing at fixing cars (from what I've read, a very valuable resource), but he could also murder some of your group, steal your valuable (AND FINITE!!!) supplies while escaping into the night. That's just one example but there were many I can't recall from the many things I've read!

Like I said, we'll see how all of this plays out. I've read there's some great PC survival zombie games out there; I've just never been able to play any due to my crappy CPU.

it looks similar to project zomboid but will hopefully have the complexity + depth that zomboid only promised

"You can switch between the different playable characters you’ll meet, but every death is permanent."
"This game will immediately (drop) you into the body of another player-character back at your hideout/hub."

This sounds like Zombi U.

Figured IGN would give it a great score; they were the one's raving about it in a gaming podcast I listen to.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/05/state-of-decay-review

I plan on playing it a bit tonight. Will revert back if I do.

i am very intrigued.

so is it good?

tom chick says so: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2013/06/21/state-of-decay-does-brilliantly-what-videogames-do-best

Yes, it's good. Def worth the $20 price tag. I hope they add in multiplayer in the future.

even w/out the patch? i've been holding off but if you give it a strong recommendation i'll pick it up this weekend

Ha, I just read about the new MASSIVE patch. Apparently it was released today but I can't confirm for awhile (won't be able to play for some time). I haven't played that many games this year, but it's definitely my favorite so far.

damn this is good

Does the gameplay ever get good? I was bored of it in the demo.

I mean combat

it's okay. not the best thing about it

It's odd, the combat is very simple, but I never get bored with it either. Agree with Mordy that it's not the best part of the game. I would say the constant dread of losing your character to death is the best aspect. If you get greedy or impatient like I often do, you'll have many close-call situations with your characters, characters you've spent HOURS building up.

I wish they made the cars run on gasoline, though. I want it to feel like an earned privilege. As it currently stands, there are just too many cars in the game to seriously worry about having to go without.

Anyone else playing the SoD DLC, Breakdown? It's pretty great. I loved the original game, but once you learned the mechanics it grew to be pretty easy, and this sandbox dlc increases the diffuculty significantly, making it much more challenging. My game of the year.

I was tempted but the idea of playing the same town over and over again until it got too difficult seemed a bit limited. Does it do enough to keep it fresh?

is this better played on pc (with mouse + keys) or with a controller? debating whether to buy for xbox or pc. i can only really play 3rd person-view games with a controller, anything needing pinpoint accuracy HAS to be with a mouse, is this like that? also, what games does it feel like? (fallout 3, FEAR, STALKER, dayz, alan wake, etc?)

re: aiming, I maybe fired 30 bullets over the course of the whole game. you'll be fine without precise controls. I like KBM but if you prefer controller for 3rd person, this game def won't punish you for it. Definitely made controller-first in mind.

I played a bit of the 360 and a lot of the PC, didn't see any overwhelming differences so I guess it depends where you wanna sit when you play it!

ok great, thanks man. xbox one it is

https://youtu.be/_JMJFyXuGUw

FUCKING STOKED! SoD ended up being my favorite game ever.

Hey Mordy, you a SOD2 player? I would love to play this game with you if so..

sadly no windows/xbox os atm to run SOD2 (or sea of thieves which i'm also v curious about). how is SOD2 so far? i read some pretty negative reviews.

Here I am, responding to an ILX comment a year later, lol. Let me just say this right off the bat, it has issues, mainly doing to the spawn rate. But it's also my favorite game ever as far as survival/base-management goes.

Not sure if everyone knows what this game is? It's a perma-death game where you take control of a group of survivors, each of a randomized skill tree, where you try to complete objectives, both random and scripted, to complete end-game objectives. You start out with three characters, which you can re-roll at the beginning until you get the type of people you want.

This game is a fantastic mix of base-management and survival elements - with a rare blend of fucking terror-inducing horror elements. The main reason for the terror is the permanent death of your tightly-planned-out characters. Losing a character, especially at the more recently-released difficult levels, is soul-crushing. The game is unrelenting and nihilistic. It's a perfect balance between RNG-gods luck, skill and patience.