State of Decay opens with a store clerk coming home from a fishing trip to a world that has already ended. No chosen one, no briefing — just Marcus Campbell and a valley that has stopped working. Undead Labs developed it, Microsoft Studios published it, and it arrived on Xbox 360 on June 5, 2013. The Windows version followed through Steam Early Access on September 20, 2013, with the full release on November 5. Our score is 6.7 out of 10.
Trailer, via IGN.
Marcus Campbell Reaches the Church of the Ascension
The story is set in Trumbull Valley. Marcus is joined by his friend Ed Jones, a local, and then by Maya Torres, a soldier. Ed is wounded early. The three reach Lily Ritter by walkie-talkie, follow her directions, and arrive at a church called the Church of the Ascension, where Lily and other survivors have made a home base. Lily lets them stay.
The United States Army is in the valley, led by Sergeant Erik Tan and Captain Diane Montressor. Its priority is not evacuation. It wants to contain the outbreak and find its cause.
Judge Lawton, the local civic leader, has barricaded the courthouse with law enforcement and placed citizens under martial law, planning to rebuild once the incursion blows over. The courthouse falls to a zombie attack and Lawton dies. Montressor is evacuated, leaving Tan and his men behind.
Watch Towers, Gardens and Sleeping Quarters
State of Decay mixes third-person shooting and combat with simulation. You pick a location, then reinforce it with watch towers, gardens, sleeping quarters, kitchens, workshops and medical bays. You keep survivors safe and healthy, or you do not.
Resources are the grind: food, medicine, ammo and construction materials. They come from scavenging or trading with NPCs. Only food can be grown at the base, which makes every other category a reason to leave the walls.
The map is 16 square kilometers, with 8 square kilometers playable. The open world develops in real time and generates content based on your choices and the growing zombie threat. You choose where to make your stand, raid for food and ammunition, and rescue other playable survivors with their own talents.
Traits and Attitude Across 150 Characters
The game runs on people. The Storyline mode features around 150 characters with varying faces and clothing. Each has a fixed set of traits that help or hurt — tiring out faster, or learning a skill faster. Most characters, outside the story-locked ones, can be assigned to survivor groups and recruited.
Two relationship meters govern that. One decides whether a survivor can be recruited. The other decides whether they can be controlled. You control one survivor at a time, though you can ask an AI-controlled survivor to come along, and some missions hand you one or more AI companions anyway.
Each character also carries an attitude parameter, moved by events: a near-death experience, the death of another character, finishing something hard. Those attitudes feed back into the group.
Bodies at the Reservoir
The back half of the story turns on the Army’s failure. The player and Sergeant Tan find numerous dead bodies dumped at the reservoir, which explains the “Black Fever” that has plagued survivors in Trumbull Valley. The water source is contaminated. Long-term survival in the valley is no longer an option.
The plan becomes leaving. The group raids a zombie-infested warehouse for explosives, then heads for the only road out, blocked by a massive concrete wall. Tan sets the charges while the player holds off incoming zombies. The detonator malfunctions.
The Base Is the Best Idea Here
The base is the strongest thing in the game, and it is why State of Decay still has a reputation. Fortifying a site, balancing food against medicine against ammo against construction materials, and watching morale move because someone almost died — that is a machine that produces stories without scripting them.
| System | What it governs | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Base facilities | Watch towers, gardens, sleeping quarters, kitchens, workshops, medical bays | Keeps survivors safe and healthy |
| Resources | Food, medicine, ammo, construction materials | Gathered by scavenging or trading; only food can be grown |
| Relationship meters | Recruitment and control | Decides who joins and who you can play |
| Attitude | Reaction to near-death, death, hard tasks | Moves group behavior |
The traits system does quiet work too. A survivor who tires easily is a liability on a long run, and the game never announces that. You find out.
The Shooting Is the Weak Half
Combat is where State of Decay comes apart. The game lists shooter, stealth, role-playing and strategy among its elements, and the shooting is the one that feels least settled. The tension the base creates — you need to leave, and leaving is dangerous — is undercut when the fighting is the least interesting thing you do.
The 150-character roster is breadth, not depth. Fixed traits and an attitude value are not the same as a person. The story characters carry the plot; everyone else is a resource with a face.
The Trumbull Valley campaign ends on a malfunctioning detonator, a cliffhanger doing the work a conclusion should do.
Year-One Survival Edition and Two Sequels
A remastered version, the Year-One Survival Edition, came to Windows and Xbox One on April 28, 2015, to mixed reviews from critics. The original had sold over 1 million units by November 2013.
State of Decay 2 was announced at Xbox’s E3 2016 press conference, added cooperative multiplayer, and released on May 22, 2018. State of Decay 3 was announced at Xbox’s 2020 Games Showcase and is in development.
A Strong Idea That Outruns Its Execution
State of Decay is a game whose best idea outruns its execution. The base-building and resource management hold up because they turn ordinary upkeep into the actual stakes. The shooting, the thin supporting cast and the unfinished ending hold it back.
The 6.7 out of 10 is the right landing spot. It is not a knock on the concept — the concept is strong enough that Undead Labs got two more games out of it. It is a measure of how much of the game is spent waiting for the parts that work to come back around.
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