State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition is set to infect Xbox One on April 28th
State of Decay was a 360 sleeper hit, which provided a unique take on the zombie apocalypse paradigm. In State of Decay, you control and manage an entire community of survivor NPCs, tending their wounds, fatigue, equipment and so on, as you make your way through a sprawling contemporary open world setting.
The Year One Survival Edition comprises State of Decay, as well as the add-ons Breakdown, Lifeline, and a trunk load of other improvements (including the ability to use car trunks!)
Xbox 360 owners who purchase SoD:YOSE will enjoy a 33% discount, and if you purchase before May 12th, you'll receive the State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition Day One Edition... edition, which contains the exclusive "Prepper's Pack", which contains various weapons and a reinforced zombie resistant SUV.
YOSE beefs up the original State of Decay offering with remastered 1080p graphics, boosted lighting, textures and adjustments to gameplay. Year One survivalists will enjoy new missions, weapons, extra content, fresh combat maneuvers and an expanded array of execution animations, which were a tad lacking in the original.
For those new to the franchise, Undead Labs' have a multi-year, multi-title deal with Microsoft which has been compared to the deal Xbox previously had with Bungie on Halo. State of Decay has long been a community driven project, which sees a team led by World of Warcraft lead programmer Jeff Strain move towards a massively multiplayer State of Decay iteration.
State of Decay was a proof of concept for Microsoft Studios, whose resource scavenging, base building and NPC community management gameplay would seemingly lend itself perfectly to a multiplayer component. As State of Decay uses CryEngine, the team opted to drop multiplayer from this version, as what they'd hoped to accomplish currently isn't possible on that engine - but have guaranteed the in-development Xbox One sequel would indeed be constructed with multiplayer in mind.
So far in zombie games this year we've had Dying Light's fast-paced open world action and Zombie Army Trilogy's bloody multiplayer gauntlets, State of Decay is a very different beast. Our own Paul Acevedo has been hands on with the remake, and for gamers looking for a more methodical survival horror experience, I cannot recommend State of Decay enough.
