Incoming: State of Decay

State of Decay is due out this week on XBLA.  From Undead Labs comes this zombie survival game where you play as a survivor trying to make it in a zombie apocalypse.  The market is very over saturated with these types of games so lets see how it sets itself apart from the pack.

State of Decay is an open world adventure game that is at times a fun beat 'em up, and at others it is more of a simulation.  The "beat 'em up" comes from the action of the zombie encounters, while there is some seriously deep simulation in that of NPC trust, fuel reserves, and fatigue.  If you are playing as a character and they get too fatigued, you can swap them out for anyone else at your base camp. 

Each character you find adds to your roster and each boast their own strengths and weaknesses.  Some characters may be ideal for fixing vehicles, while others can be medics, or strong in leadership, etc.  The longer you play a certain character, the more you can boost their strengths and stats, but watch out, if a character dies, that is all she wrote.  You can still continue through the game, but that unique character will be gone for good.

The game also include some RTS elements, but not in the combat.  Your shelter can have things added onto it.  All these addons require resources to build, so there is going to be an emphasis on gathering.  It seems that when you come across some resources there are a few different ways you can go about acquiring them.   First you can just keep them for yourself.  Second, you can take them back to your base.  And third, you can have NPCs from your base come and get them and take them back to base.  I'm not sure if maybe there will be a certain "success percentage" attached to having NPCs come get them, but it would make sense.  It would make you think more about having them do it for you if they only had a 20% chance of making it back with the goods.

Your allies can require medical treatment for wounds and sickness, so you can see even your human resources will require management.  The possibilities that this game present are intriguing, so I can't wait until it comes out!

Let us know what you think of State of Decay in the comments section below.  Stay tuned to Big Ups Gaming for more on upcoming games like this one.  Thanks for reading.

***EDIT***

The game reportedly will cost 1600 Microsoft Points when it releases.