Review for State of Decay 2. Game for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/05/2018
After the great success of the first chapter, Undead Labs is finally ready to release the new State of Decay 2 on the market, which promises to keep what was good in the first chapter by improving and adding new features to try to achieve the ultimate survival experience.
The first State of Decay, initially released on Xbox 360 and PC, to then see the light on the recent Xbox One with the Year One Survival Edition of 2015, has raised the bar regarding the quality of the zombie survival genre, thanks to the possibility of managing more survivors, gather food and build settlements.
"The end is near"
The much discussed zombie apocalypse, treated in a thousand sauces through books, films and video games, is the centerpiece of State of Decay 2 which, after the extinction of a large part of the human population, sees the last survivors fight against a rampant zombie infection. After a first introduction, thanks to which we will be introduced to the basic mechanics of the game, we will be given the opportunity to choose where to place our first settlement, choosing between: valley, plateau and plain.
Once our new house is occupied we will have to start getting the first supplies, since the inhabitants of our enclave will tend to get nervous in case of shortage of food or medical supplies. We will therefore be forced to leave often on expeditions for looting houses and old shops, with the hope of recovering food, weapons and medicines to use during the fight. During the patrol we will also be able to find more massive supplies, which will be transported by our character through a bag and can be deposited in our outpost for increase the stocks available to our home.
In all this there will certainly be clashes with the undead, so it will be our concern to equip ourselves properly and always carry any supplies of food and medicines, in case we face a particularly dangerous situation. We will also have to pay attention to the state of our weapons, in fact they will tend to break and will therefore need repairs, as well as cars, which will need both repairs and petrol to allow us to move faster.
Extreme survival
From the first hours of the game you will be catapulted into a world in which the main goal is survivalIn fact, the game will often remind you that death is permanent, so during a quiet exploration you may come across an aggressive zombie horde that may leave you little chance of escape, killing your character for good. It will therefore be necessary to face each mission and reconnaissance with the utmost caution, bringing along another survivor, so as to have further help.
In the three available maps there are, as already mentioned, many places to explore, thanks to which in addition to the resources obtained from the loot you can get a continuous supply of objects. To get them, however, you will have to occupy these buildings, and to do so it will be necessary first of all to visit every available room, kill all the zombies in the area, and then occupy the settlement by spending the in-game currency, or the "Reputation". The latter can be obtained by doing the secondary activities of the game, or by stealth and infected killing, however you will generally gain little at a time, so it will be your concern to occupy the settlements by carefully examining positive and negative aspects, while analyzing what is best to occupy first, to obtain medicines, food or materials .
While exploring the city, in addition to collecting resources, you will also need to think about prevent the spread of infection, in fact, thanks to some radio towers you can "spot" most of the buildings and areas where there is an infestation of the undead. These infested areas must be promptly cleared to keep the number of zombies near our settlement low. To do this we will have to reach the aforementioned places and eliminate all the zombies present, paying attention to the "Howlers", which must be killed first, so as to avoid the arrival of other enemies summoned by his powerful screams.
If infestations are a serious problem, the houses infected by the fold of blood they are a vital problem. In these places, in fact, there are clusters of infected tissue capable of infecting and attracting the zombies present making them highly infectious. To block this process it will therefore be necessary to destroy this mass with explosives, while avoiding being infected.
The common enclave
Our home is the common enclave, which will be available practically immediately and we will be given the opportunity to deposit any useful items to have space in the backpack. In settlements it is also possible build structures, such as warehouses, armories, infirmaries and vegetable gardens, which will be fundamental if we want to build a functional community. To build these structures, however, it will take time as well as materials, which will be obtainable during explorations or through production outposts.
Once the various structures have been built, you can also improve them or add Mods, so as to obtain further benefits and unlock new items to meet the needs of our companions. In fact, the inhabitants of the enclave will have a mood level, which will tend to vary according to the presence of resources and according to their state of health, it will therefore be important to keep an eye on it to prevent one of our companions leaving the enclave due to his bad mood.
Also important is the management of the characters themselves, which will not be the same from start to finish, but you can recruit new ones, or hunt those already present. Each of them will have a series available of basic skills such as agility and combat, which can be improved, thus increasing its parameters and making it more resistant and useful during missions. You will also have to pay attention to the infection, in fact if one of your characters should contract the blood plague, you will have to prepare the infirmary as soon as possible. care for the same, in the hope of saving his life, or it will be necessary to opt for less orthodox solutions.
Technical level not memorable
If the gameplay of State of Decay 2 is almost perfect and able to combine management mechanics with survival ones, we cannot say the same of the technical sector that sins in many situations, also thanks to a limited budget. The transition from CryEngine 3 to Unreal Engine 4 certainly marked a good step forward but it is not enough, in fact the survival of Undead Labs suffers from serious drops in frame rate as well as a very low image cleaning, also thanks to the detail of the low resolution texture. Our test was carried out on a PC and in addition to the various technical problems we also found a very poor management of the camera which often ends up creating problems during the fights.
Another serious problem lies in the presence of many bugs, sometimes simply "aesthetic", such as zombies that float or that get stuck in homes, while sometimes they are decidedly blocking. In fact, it has happened more than once to sink under the stairs of the enclave and remain interpenetrated there for several minutes, managing to get out only after many attempts. We are confident in a post-launch work by the developers, especially on the bug issue that could be really frustrating in a survival game where you risk losing a character permanently for a trivial bug.
Nothing to say instead about the integration of the cooperative mode, in fact you can decide whether to play online or ask for help via the radio only during times of difficulty. It will be possible also play in co-op with three other friends, so as to better face the plague of zombies.
State of Decay 2 is the worthy successor of the first chapter which, thanks to the new graphics engine, brings a better title to new generation consoles both from a graphic and gameplay point of view. Many news on the survival front, such as the possibility of exploring more than one location, which when combined with the many things to do makes the experience of State of Decay 2 potentially infinite. Too bad for the technical level not up to par for such a complex and well-made title that together with the many bugs present it loses a lot in the final experience. At the moment we can therefore consider State of Decay 2 as the best survival zombie on the market, thanks above all to the integration between management and survival systems, which when taken together with the fun coop mode make the final experience certainly very satisfying.
► State of Decay 2 is a Survival-type game developed by Undead Labs and published by Microsoft for PC and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/05/2018
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