digitec plays: One zombie slice with "State of Decay 2"
17.5.2018
Translation: machine translated
Fighting for survival, building bases and collecting resources. This is how you pass the time in "State of Decay 2". A lot has changed compared to its predecessor, and not just that you can now beat up zombies with four players.
Sneak, fight, loot and return to the supposedly safe base. In "State of Decay 2", you fight for survival in a zombie-infected world. But not alone. At the beginning, you choose a team of two, who differ in their abilities such as stamina, accuracy, etc. And shortly afterwards, new companions will join you.
In "State of Decay 2", you are no longer a lone zombie slayer, but play as different characters with different strengths and weaknesses. If you accidentally end up on the plate of a hungry undead, you have to say goodbye to the character. "State of Decay 2" is not called a survival game for nothing. Ideally, you will already have gathered a powerful squad around you so that you can set off with a new character. If you are playing solo, you can also take a computer-controlled companion with you. If you prefer human companions, you can also go out as a team of four.
Loot, loot, loot
State of Decay 2 doesn't have a real story. It is primarily about clearing houses, petrol stations and other shelters of zombies and scavenging for valuable resources. You use these to supply your base with food, medicine and ammunition. If resources become scarce, this will affect morale and the survivors will go for each other's throats. So keep collecting materials, building new facilities and keeping the troops happy.
Gathering resources like this makes you pretty tired, which is why your characters need to sleep regularly. Otherwise they collapse and are an easy target for zombies. Fortunately, you can convert cleared buildings into outposts. You can eat there and, depending on the situation, are regularly supplied with new resources or given additional sleeping facilities. To set up an outpost, however, you need reputation points, which are earned through various activities such as quests, killing zombies, etc.
As in the first part, you usually face the zombies with melee weapons. Firearms make a lot of noise and ammunition is scarce. But it's still a lot of fun to load zombies onto the bonnet with a roaring car. It doesn't always have to be discreet. In addition to the 0815 brain-eaters, there are also plague zombies. These are significantly stronger and more aggressive and are easily recognisable by their glowing red eyes. They are often found around plague hearts, a pulsating boil that keeps the zombie population high in an area.
More complex than it seems
The mixture of looting, expanding the base, managing characters and helping the survivors in the area ensures that you always have something to do. The constant gathering, unloading, gathering, unloading of resources can become exhausting over time. So far, however, the gameplay loop has kept me motivated enough to keep leaving the sheltered headquarters to explore new areas. The search for better loot with which you can improve yourself and your base, the new companions and the many survivors in need of help keep you on your toes. However, you shouldn't expect too much variation.
The game nevertheless conceals more systems than you might think at first glance. As each character has very different abilities, you have to weigh up carefully who you give one of the limited slots to. The base also doesn't have enough space for all upgrades. And your reputation points are nowhere near enough to capture every outpost. There are many balls to juggle. It's just a shame that you only keep the loot in co-op mode, but don't make any other mission progress.
"State of Decay 2" is available as a cross-buy for PC and Xbox One. This means you can play with one version on both systems. The save state is synchronised. The PC version looks practically the same, but runs more smoothly than the Xbox One X version. Which is astonishing, as "State of Decay 2" is not particularly eye-catching. What's more, the standard controller controls are so stupidly assigned that I almost lost interest. Racing on LB, who does that?
Apart from that, "State of Decay 2" makes an entertaining impression on me. I played the first part excessively and this one was much edgier. For just under 30 francs, you get a fun zombie survival management simulator that you can finally share with friends.
Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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