Pretty unknown video game developer Undead Labs first and only game so far, State of Decay came out recently on Xbox 360 and has been getting pretty good positive reviews and selling very well on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It is currently the second fastest selling Xbox Live Arcade title in the console history and currently only behind Minecraft in terms of units sold.
The game was released on Wednesday 5th June on Xbox 360 and Undead Labs have announced that the game has already sold a quarter of a million copies.
Undead Labs said: “This was you. We did not have an ad budget. We didn’t have a physical copy to load onto shelves, no worldwide multimedia push, no studio reputation with millions of followers. All we had was what we believed was a great game and a great community. And make no mistake, a solid game is not enough, not in 2013. Plenty of great games wither away in obscurity. This train got rolling because you got out and pushed.”
The PC version is still coming to PC in the future but don’t expect it anytime soon.
Undead Labs Community director Sanya Weathers said “we are still working on the PC version, and I don’t have a really good estimate for completion. Too much depends on third parties. It isn’t going to be soon by any meaningful use of the word ‘soon’.”
Videos:
State of Decay Trailer.
State of Decay Tactics Trailer.
State of Decay Distraction Trailer.
State of Decay Garden Building (Alpha) Trailer.
Screenshots:
(Click an image to see a larger version)
Undead Labs have submitted Title Update 1 to certification on Friday so the update should be available next week. More about it can be read here.
Title Update 1
- NEW: Playable characters can no longer be killed by the simulation
- Workshop now repairs weapons and vehicles at game dawn rather than the next real-world day.
- Reduced cooldown times of commands in the Radio Menu, notably Words of Encouragement, Words of Inspiration, and Medical Advice.
- NPCs no longer get stuck behind the counter or on the stairs at the gun shop in Spencer’s Mill.
- The “Too many infestations!” event will now only occur when there are too many infestations within 500m of your Home, rather than anywhere in the world.
- UPDATED: The “Too many infestations” to-do item is now cleared when there is only one remaining infestation within 500m of your Home, rather than anywhere in the world.
- You must now be close to the ranger station for the Memento mission scene to play. Previously you would be teleported to the station if you left before the end of the mission.
- Community members will properly interact with Facilities in your home. Previously they would stop after a period of time.
- Feral zombie now properly dodges vehicles approaching at an angle.
- NPCs will now reliably reach warehouse between Mt. Tanner and Spencer’s Mill when called to gather supplies.
- You can now punch out through the windshield of a vehicle if both doors are blocked.
- Zombies and NPCs no longer get stuck behind the grocery store in Marshall.
- NPCs now properly move to the proper location during cinematic scenes.
- Zombies no longer fall through floor in the Marshall courthouse.
- Zombies can no longer get under porch or floor at the Wilkerson’s farmhouse.
- Fixed a few rare crash bugs.
- Fixed various translations bugs.
Undead Labs?
From en.wikipedia.org “Undead Labs is a Seattle, Washington based game development studio, which was founded in 2009 by Jeff Strain a former Blizzard employee and one of the co-founders of ArenaNet.”
“Undead Labs was founded with the sole focus on zombie based games. On 3rd February 2011 Undead Labs announced that they were partnering with Microsoft Game Studios to publish their games on the Xbox 360.This decision was made after most of the other publishers who showed interest in the games was requesting what they described as “World of Warcraft clones”.The first game codenamed Class3 (State of Decay) will be a third person shooter arcade game in which the player is set to survive in an open-world sandbox. The game will act as a way to publicise their title more and allow gamers to submit feedback to help tweak and refine the gameplay for the MMO, that is codenamed Class4.”
State of Decay?
From undeadlabs.com: “The end is here. Life as you knew it has gone to hell after the mother of all zombie outbreaks. Now you and the few scattered survivors must band together to survive and rebuild in a 3rd-person action game set in a dynamic open world. You choose where to make your stand, designing and fortifying your home base, performing daring raids for food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors with unique talents. The open, sandbox world develops in real-time, shaped by your actions, dynamically generating content based on your choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.”
Thoughts
I haven’t played State of Decay yet but from what I seen and heard it looks very good. It’s a mix of all the good zombie games: Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, Dead Island and other games such as Freedom Fighters. State of Decay does many game mechanics that aren’t all the best they could be but are still more well done than games with a more sole purpose. State of Decay is basically the game zombie fans always wanted and focuses more on groups rather than individual survival and has opportunities for some interesting emergent storytelling.
Expect to see more updates and maybe DLC for State of Decay in the future and when the game finally comes to PC expect the game to look a bit better and be smoother and with less bugs. If the PC version is popular enough it may get a good modding scene behind it and then the next thing you know people have made a mod for multiplayer, if not that then lots of horses.
PlayStation 3 players can play the Last of Us and Xbox 360 players can play State of Decay, there not the same but at least both are good games in their own right.
State of Decay is available now for 1600 Microsoft Points and will come out sometime later for the PC.
Some of my other opinions:
- My Opinion: Everything You Need to Know About the Xbox One. My Thoughts on Sony, Microsoft and Much More.
- The Best Video Games of 2012 and Other Awards.
- My Opinion: Everything You Need to Know About the PlayStation 4 and Much More.
- Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas 2012. Also Stalk Father Christmas Around on Google Maps.
- New Space Hulk Video Game Announced and My Thoughts.
- Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Winners and My Quick Thoughts on Award Ceremonies.
- Twenty New Grand Theft Auto V Screenshots and The Second Trailer. Also My Thoughts on The Games Potential.
- Assassin’s Creed Anthology is Out Soon. Also My Thoughts on What is Cheaper Digital or Physical?.
- The Walt Disney Company Now Owns Lucasfilm with New Star Wars Episode VII in Three Years. Also My Thoughts.
- Hotline Miami and First Update is Available. Also Three Trailers and Some of My Thoughts on The Game.
- My Opinion: Star Wars The Old Republic Subscriptions Plummet and is Now Going Free-To-Play.
- My Opinion: In Minecraft all Animals are Homosexuals and Why its Hard to Make Genderless Games and Films.
King Toko 
Needs DLC. Got this day 1 and can’t quit playing. Just finished all the main missions and you don’t want it to end so I’m going back to all survey points to check that I got ’em all. I was hoping this would be a big game, something I’d have on my system that’s really good that I could defer to between other disc games and DLC can do that and will keep this great game fresh.