State of Decay

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Currently State of Decay is on steam sale and I find myself kinda in the mood for that type of game so I was wondering what people thought of it and its mechanics/length/etc and how it compared to the first one. Which I also never played but I do remember watching some lets plays from it and it looking neat.

 

meiam

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I though the 2nd one was really disappointing, everything good about it was what was good about 1. Almost everything new was uninteresting and they really didn't bother pushing the formula. Honestly it felt more like an expansion/beefy DLC than new game.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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I don't think anyone liked State of Decay 2. I heard literally nothing good about the game.
 

SilentPony

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I don't think anyone liked State of Decay 2. I heard literally nothing good about the game.
Its the Wind Waker of State of Decay, ie a cartoon parody of what was supposed to be a serious series. I played it and we had like Borderlands level cartoonish characters who are all about being AWESOME and RADICAL and carry civilian missile launchers.
 

Worgen

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Its the Wind Waker of State of Decay, ie a cartoon parody of what was supposed to be a serious series. I played it and we had like Borderlands level cartoonish characters who are all about being AWESOME and RADICAL and carry civilian missile launchers.
Wait, so its widely claimed to be one of the best but was much maligned back in the day for how different it looks?
 

SilentPony

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Wait, so its widely claimed to be one of the best but was much maligned back in the day for how different it looks?
No just a cartoon parody that almost destroyed a franchise and was swept under the rug as an experiment that didn't work.
 

Worgen

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No just a cartoon parody that almost destroyed a franchise and was swept under the rug as an experiment that didn't work.
.... So... nothing like Wind Waker then... Do you mean Skyward Sword? I mean it still wouldn't be right but it would be closer.
 

SilentPony

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.... So... nothing like Wind Waker then... Do you mean Skyward Sword? I mean it still wouldn't be right but it would be closer.
No, no Wind Waker, that weird cel-shaded game Nintendo is desperate to keep from the archives and doesn't like admitting actually happened.
 

Worgen

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No, no Wind Waker, that weird cel-shaded game Nintendo is desperate to keep from the archives and doesn't like admitting actually happened.
You mean the one that got an HD rerelease on the Wiiu and even was included in the Nintendo Select line and has an Amibo? If they are trying to hide it they are doing a sucky job.
 

wings012

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I had some fun with State of Decay 2. I would describe it as a zombie sandbox roguelite(though each session is far too long to be very roguey I guess), which sorta does an okay job of putting up an illusion that your characters are unique and have defined characters when... they don't really? Your characters are kinda defined by a mixed bag of traits so you can have characters that are absolute equivalents of one another.

You're basically trying to reclaim society in a zombie apocalypse. You can set up a base, gather more survivors which gives you more people to work with. Death is permanent as well. The overarching goal of the game is to destroy all the zombie nests around the map, and each one gets more difficult to tackle as you destroy more.

You can build a radio and eventually get quests to rescue people or do other sorts of things, and this can lead you to meet other subfactions whom you can build up relationships with for various benefits.

The general game loop is just scavenging resources, doing sidequests, building up your base and gear and then taking out a zombie nest when you are ready to.

You also have to elect a leader of your community, and they come in various 'classes' which determines what unique base buildings you can build and some other traits I don't remember. This is also tied to the ending of your game. After you clear all the zombie nests, you have to finish the questline of your leader which then finishes the game.

You can then start a new game bringing forward some gear, characters and such and start a new game in a different location. There's quite a few maps to play in so there's some replayability. And the idea is to increase the difficulty as you go along.

I got the game to play coop with a friend. It doesn't have a proper coop? You bring one of your settlement's characters to play in the host's gameworld. Based on how much you do there and how long you play with the host - you get a bunch of rewards after you leave. You also keep any loot that's on your character and loot is instanced for each player so there's no need to fight over loot with the host player. A problem I had with this system is that my characters would get exhausted or injured, and I'd have to log off back to my own game to get them to rest and recover. I wish I could just take control of my friend's settlers and play alongside him rather than having to manage my own game.

I liked the combat, except the juggernauts which felt too bullet spongey. Otherwise it feels good sneaking around, headshotting zombies or stealth killing them. Melee feels good too.

I think it's well made, but I kinda saw through the illusion I guess and it didn't appeal to me so much. It's a bunch of modular pieces of game that rearranges itself in slightly different ways that gives the illusion of a bespoke experience, when it's actually procedural in nature. I have a friend who kept playing through multiple games, carrying forward stuff, increasing difficulty and trying to get all the endings. I didn't manage to get one ending cause after destroying all the zombie nests on my map, I had my leader questline bug out. Due to the procedural nature of the quests, I just got dealt a shitty hand and had to kill inaccessible zombies or loot inaccessible bodies to progress. I got stuck, quit and restart and had to redo the entire questline and I kinda just ragequitted after that.

Fundamentally it's just a loop of procedurally generated zombie flavoured activities.
 
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Kae

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No just a cartoon parody that almost destroyed a franchise and was swept under the rug as an experiment that didn't work.
You mean the game that's generally considered pretty good and that almost everyone that talks about it nowadays thinks is mostly good if a bit flawed?

With the flaws being that it's clearly unfinished and a temple is missing and it's padded out by cumbersome navigation mechanics and an extremely long mandatory fetch quest, and depending on who you ask also being too easy.

In any case this is weird, I hadn't heard anyone complain about Windwaker's cartooniness since I was a small child, and the graphics are generally praised, like even back in the day the critics loved the graphics, even if there was controversy over the change in style and the only people I remember complaining about it were edgy teens.
 

bobdark

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I've beaten it a few times on xbox, it is a fine game that runs pretty well now a days and the issues at launch have been fixed. The whole game is just clearing out the blood plague and moving on to the next area. If your interested you can try it on game pass for the pc.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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It's the only xbox exclusive I miss since jumping ship tbh. Many an hour twas spent twiddling over whether to take ole depressed Timmy teamate out back of the field for euthanasia on the drive back while keyed up on some meth I robbed from somebody's bathroom cabinet. Wasn't around to check out the sequel, had the standalone expansion at least, though I hear the main criticism is they seem less interested in polishing the game up than releasing more of them, which does track with my limited experience.