And not like in Assassin’s Creed, where you climb up, tap one button, and now have all the locations on your map. In State of Decay, you discover surrounding locations by climbing tall structures and focusing on all the locations around you. After learning the basics of combat, movement, and stealth, the game introduces you to aspects you may not be accustomed to in a zombie adventure game while the three of you leave the woods and head into Trumbull Valley. And by “right into the action,” I mean you have to start fighting right after you hit start. The original State of Decay throws you right into the action, as friends Marcus and Ed meet Maya, an off duty soldier, on a camping trip in the mountains that’s turned into a zombie apocalypse.

So you’re not to be blamed if you’re not hyped for the sequel, or even aware of it for that matter, but there are a few reasons why you should be. State of Decay (and its upcoming sequel announced at last E3) is the sole game for the small Undead Labs team based in Seattle, and they simply don’t have the marketing or PR resources available that some of these other devs have. This is a game that originally came out on the Xbox Live Arcade and didn’t have a big time developer like Valve or Naughty Dog behind them. It wouldn’t be fair to refer to State of Decay as “unappreciated,” but it’s not one of the prime examples someone would think of when thinking of zombie games.

Marcus state of decay