State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition is an interesting title. Is it a work of art in an infested genre, or another brainless cash in? State of Decay on the Xbox 360 was easily one of my favourite titles from the console arcade era. A little known studio (Undead Labs) making their first big jump into the already bitter infested waters of the Zombie Survival Genre which seems to have descended upon us since the release of Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” hit our screens in late 2010.
The original 360 version landed in June 2013 with little to no advertising, but as someone who regularly checked arcade releases, SOD really caught my eye with the promise of resource management, multiple playable characters, and permanent death. With Undead Labs, now partnered up with Microsoft Studios with a multi-game deal, the obvious first stop was an upgraded Xbox One version. Judging by what the developers stated during interview, porting the game over to Xbox One didn’t require too much work, hopefully giving Undead Labs enough time to focus on the future of the franchise on the new console.
For those that don’t know, State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition (YOSE) is a third-person zombie survival game, with elements of tower defense, base building, and RPG-like character progression. YOSE is a stand out from other games in the genre because it allows you to build up your safe area in ways you see fit, with materials that need to be scavenged from nearby areas. However, it’s not that easy. Beware! The dead are everywhere and will latch onto any sound you make, so melee weapons and silencers for your guns are a must until you fully learn the mechanics of the game.
Player characters will become tired and hurt if too much damage is taken. That is the time to let them rest and to switch out a separate character. As you progress, you can recruit more and more survivors to your group, all of whom can become playable aside from Lilly who always acts as your coordinator letting you know of other survivors or dangerous “Freak Zombie” slaying missions. You can even ask her to radio out to find more resources and materials for upgrading your workshops or medical areas.
Everything you need is in the design of a journal found by pressing up on the D-pad. From the journal you can switch to other survivors and see their strengths and weaknesses. It’s good fun to find a fitness freak who smokes a pack a day, while being an expert in beer pong with increased reflexes and a bum knee. The journal also allows you to have access to your base for creating ammo and meds among other useful items.
The best part about YOSE is that you can also call in air strikes and have access to other unlocked abilities through the menu (down on the D-pad). Nothing saves your bacon more than calling in an air strike on thirty zombies waiting for you at the bottom of a comms tower.
In the vanilla story mode, you play as Marcus, on your annual rat race escaping fishing trip in relaxing Trumball County with your best buddy Ed. That’s when the dead start to rise. Ahhhh! So after making your way to safety you are tasked with checking out the local area looking for survivors. After returning to the local ranger station, you find all your new acquaintances have become living dead, and you are left to seek out Lilly, the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie. Once you find Lilly and her small group of survivors, you learn that life as you knew it is over and something has turned people into dangerous mindless zombies. That’s when the game really starts.
There is a solid storyline to the game with the general feel that nobody has any idea what is going on. Resources will become scarce forcing you to move on to other unpicked areas or face longer more tiring loot runs to one of the three main towns in the game.
The Lifeline game mode puts you in control of Black Friday, a small army cell operating in the City of Danforth where everything has gone to hell. HQ is giving out missions to extract high value assets who might just know what has caused the outbreak, but Vienna Cho, also known as “the last voice of Danforth”, will be broadcasting over the radio with ever-criticising views on what you are doing unless you decide to start helping other survivors. Every half hour or so you are met with the mode’s signature mechanic called Siege which is full-on base defense survival. Along with other side missions and resource management challenges, Lifeline is a strong addition to the main campaign because it has plenty of little extras which enhance the experience.
Breakdown is your final resting place once the campaign and Lifeline game modes are completed. Breakdown brings you back to Trumball County, though this time around you have no specific story or quests to follow. The idea is to forge your own storyline, recruit who you want, set up bases where you see fit. Do whatever you want really. Breakdown is the type of mode which usually is lacking in some of the bigger franchises. However, in YOSE, every time you boot it up there will always be something to do, whether it be scouting out the local area, clearing zombie infested buildings, or searching for mysterious supply drops. Even now after countless hours of the mode I still find myself loading it up just to gather some supplies for my desperate group. Once you have picked the map clean, you can decide to start over again on the next level, which turns up the difficulty, keeping the game sort of fresh for people looking for more of a challenge.
Unfortunately, like any game, YOSE has a few bugs that need to be addressed. Despite its solid gameplay and mechanics, YOSE does have plenty of faults. Luckily, I wouldn’t call any of these game breaking in my personal experience. For example, zombies will get stuck in the ground, warp through closed doors, and lock onto you from impossible angles. There are also problems with the frame rate taking some hefty hits on occasion. Despite the flaws, don’t let this put you off from what is one of the best zombie survival games around.
The audio is great overall and this adds to the tense feel of the game. The graphics could be a lot better, early 360 standard and frame drops don’t help. Lastly, while the storyline is good, you can sometimes start wondering what to do next. Maybe having better objectives would help.
To sum it all up, YOSE is a very enjoyable and rewarding game. It has a great soundtrack…actually, let me just get to the best part…the very real threat of losing characters you have become attached to makes it so exciting. This tense atmosphere makes this a very strong and enjoyable game. Unfortunately bugs are commonplace with the game engine showing signs of needing a major overhaul. Despite that, the future of the franchise is definitely strong. I’m sure the developers know that the engine needs work. It’s definitely a must-have title in my book for people who enjoy games like DayZ, Dead Island, Dead Rising, and Dying Light.
David Anthony contributed 13 articles to ICXM between 2015–2016, covering game reviews, and Xbox news with a focus on hands-on impressions and verified-source reporting. Their bylines on the site span the run-up to Xbox One S and Project Scorpio, plus the broader Windows 10 gaming push. They post on X as @ziplobthud.