Sunday, April 14, 2013
Hands-On Preview with: State of Decay (XBLA)
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Several sites including GameCritics.com were
invited to a preview event for the upcoming XBLA title ‘State of Decay’ on April 12. The
gathering took place at Undead Labs, located in Seattle Washington. I attended, and was able to spend about four hours with a near-final build of
the game. In addition, several of the developers were nearby throughout the day
to answer questions.
For those not familiar with State of Decay, you can catch
the latest trailer here, you can read my interview with one of the writers here, and I also covered an earlier build of the game here.
In a nutshell, it's a zombie title that avoids being a
standard shooter by focusing on what it might be like to try and survive
through a zombie apocalypse - maintaining a group, conserving supplies,
fortifying a long-term base, and so on. Very few titles have attempted such an
approach, and this is a project I've been excited about ever since first laying
eyes on it. Zombies may be passé when it comes to being gun fodder, but I'm of
the opinion that there is still plenty of fresh material to be explored. The
Walking Dead proved that be true, and State of Decay appears to be another zombie
title with a different spin on the genre.
The game begins with two men returning from a camping trip
and being set upon by zombies. They are unaware of what's happened in their
absence, so after fighting off some nearby undead, they make their way to a
ranger station where other survivors are holed up.
Once there, they are instructed to climb a nearby water tower
and survey the area. This is a smart mechanic similar to the one that makes
portions of the map visible in Assassin’s Creed, although I think it's more
sensible and convincing here. The character can see what's immediately visible
from the tower (interesting locations are marked with ‘?'s) and after spending
a little time looking at each, they will be able to identify what’s there and mark
it on the map. However, the ability to see and identify these areas is
dependent on a character’s 'Wits' stat. Someone who's not too bright will see
and identify less than someone who’s on the sharper side.
From there, the character must escort some survivors to a nearby church. It seems simple enough, but the developers were clear to say that they wanted the world to be open and explorable as soon as possible, and they weren't kidding. Just a few moments after the game begins, the player is free to ignore the instructions and hike anywhere on the map that they can reach.
From there, the character must escort some survivors to a nearby church. It seems simple enough, but the developers were clear to say that they wanted the world to be open and explorable as soon as possible, and they weren't kidding. Just a few moments after the game begins, the player is free to ignore the instructions and hike anywhere on the map that they can reach.
My initial impressions after the first fifteen or twenty
minutes was that State of Decay is huge. Bigger than huge, really… It seemed
absolutely massive. It's been stated that this game is the largest ever
released on XBLA, and the developers confirmed this.
As a quick example of how big and open it is, the reviewer sitting next to me completed the church mission within five or ten minutes, whereas I discovered an abandoned campsite and started scavenging for usable goods. From there, I started checking out other interesting locations, and before I knew it, at least half an hour had passed before I had accomplished my actual goal.
Once I finally reached the church, there were a collection of survivors within the fortified building. They had some basic amenities like a kitchen, places to sleep, and a central place for all characters to store supplies, tools and goods. Within its walls it was immediately obvious that there was a lot going on and a lot to do. Many systems are either clearly on display, or suggested. Unfortunately, the game stumbled here.
As a quick example of how big and open it is, the reviewer sitting next to me completed the church mission within five or ten minutes, whereas I discovered an abandoned campsite and started scavenging for usable goods. From there, I started checking out other interesting locations, and before I knew it, at least half an hour had passed before I had accomplished my actual goal.
Once I finally reached the church, there were a collection of survivors within the fortified building. They had some basic amenities like a kitchen, places to sleep, and a central place for all characters to store supplies, tools and goods. Within its walls it was immediately obvious that there was a lot going on and a lot to do. Many systems are either clearly on display, or suggested. Unfortunately, the game stumbled here.
To be brutally honest, I was surprised at the lack of tutorials or substantial introduction to the various workings of the formula. State of Decay will likely be different than players might expect and I think it's safe to say that not much will be immediately intuitive. In light of so much complexity, it was hard to understand how many obvious cues and teaching moments were omitted.
For example, some citizens requested that I build new
facilities such as extra sleeping bunks, an infirmary, and so on. It's not at
all obvious how to do this, or what's required. Once I figured out that raw
materials were required, I didn't know what they looked like, where to get
them, or what to do when I found them.
Other aspects were also in need of greater illumination. Fatigue and strength play a crucial role in the game -- when one character gets worn out from too much running or too much fighting, they need to rest or else they become easy pickings for the undead. I ran out of healthy, active characters soon after reaching the church, and I couldn't figure out how to get new ones, how to rest the ones I already had, or to activate people that were in my area but not selectable.
Other aspects were also in need of greater illumination. Fatigue and strength play a crucial role in the game -- when one character gets worn out from too much running or too much fighting, they need to rest or else they become easy pickings for the undead. I ran out of healthy, active characters soon after reaching the church, and I couldn't figure out how to get new ones, how to rest the ones I already had, or to activate people that were in my area but not selectable.
There were a number of crucial gameplay mechanics which went surprisingly unexplained, and I had many, many questions about what was going on and how things work. I don't mean to sound negative, but the number of obvious oversights that I noticed will likely play a crucial role in its success -- there's no question in my mind about the depth or complexity in the State of Decay experience, but getting players into the game and teaching them how to actually play is step one in the process. The developers took notes from myself and the other reviewers who had similar concerns, and I hope there’s enough time left to make a few tweaks before launch.
Once I had all of my questions answered and started to get a better understanding of the systems State of Decay contains, I was surprised to see how much of a sim experience it is, and just how detailed things get.
In one scenario given by one of the developers, he explained that the general health of the community must be maintained with proper sleep, medicine and nutrition. If those things aren’t taken care of, people will start fighting or leaving, and less manpower means a smaller chance of survival.
Interestingly, to supplement this system, there are series
of perks and bonuses that can be awarded when the right type of person is in
the right type of facility. If you find a chef and put them to work in the
kitchen, the food is so tasty that it can grant a bonus to the community. If
there's no chef available, people will still get fed, but there's no bonus. If
you put someone who is completely clueless about food in the kitchen, they may
not recognize that some food has spoiled and serve it.
If community members eat spoiled food, there's a chance that
they may get sick or some members may die. If the player has a doctor in the
community, they can arrange for medicine-retrieval missions and will know how
to heal those who need it. If there’s no doctor in the community, then it's likely
that some will perish or be rendered inactive for some time. This was just one
example, and there were others given of the different ways having the right
characters in the right circumstances with the right supplies can have a great
impact on the player experience and the overall survival of the group.
In terms of the characters themselves, the game takes an approach where each member of the community is important, although there is no one central protagonist to the game. The player takes a “god game" role and can jump into the body of any survivor at any time, as long as they are in "friendly" status.
Each character has ratings in Stamina (running/attacking), Wits (searching for items, surveying territory), Combat (brawling and melee weapons) and Guns (shooting). These skills all level up individually with use. For example, running more often will increase a character’s stamina. Using melee weapons will increase their fighting, and so on. Since these skill levels are unique to each character, the player will soon develop preferences for which person to do which job, and judgment must always be used – in State of Decay, the death of any character is absolutely permanent, so it's wiser to keep someone with a high science or medical ability back at base, rather than sending them out to do a scouting run or to collect supplies.
Individual relationships between the characters do factor
into events, and the player may need to take action to make
problematic community members a part of the team, or to kick them out if
they're causing too much trouble. Some characters may become lost or infected,
and it's up to the player to gauge whether the effort of resolving the situation is worth losing an opportunity elsewhere. Very
often, missions are on an invisible timer, so minutes spent keeping a lid on
things at home or carrying supplies from abandoned houses back to base means
that someone is going without help somewhere else, or a zombie horde is roaming
around unchecked.
When asked about the campaign, it was confirmed that there
is an actual beginning, middle, and end to State of Decay, so people concerned
about not getting a complete single player experience can rest easy. The game
is described to have a fairly structured beginning before branching out into a
lot of open-world, sandbox-style play in the middle, and then once a certain
number of objectives have been achieved, the game will start rolling towards a
conclusion to events. From what I gathered, the ultimate goal of the plot is to
survive long enough to help everyone escape the valley where the game takes
place. However, that didn't seem to be immediately obvious, so players should
be prepared to spend quite a bit of time on keeping the community going and
taking advantage of the resources and commodities that can be found in the
area.
That's not to say that real-time combat doesn't happen in State of
Decay, though. Players will spend quite a bit of time finding melee weapons and
guns to use, and vehicles are also a great way to get rid of unwanted crowds.
The zombies in the game are surprisingly alert, so any gunfire or careless
searching in homes will quickly draw large numbers. Taking out one or two zombies
is a simple thing, but any more than that becomes a real threat that's not
easily dispatched. Certain strategies must be used to survive, such as simply
avoiding some areas or coming back later when there are less zombies around,
or by creating distractions to lure the undead away from areas that are
critical.
After activating a debug mode, we saw the full selection of
weapons, items and abilities in the game, and it was quite diverse. Dozens of
firearms, all sorts of swords, bats and tools, mines, grenade launchers, even
airstrikes and sniper teams. I wouldn't say that the game is anything at all
like a GTA in the sense that players can run around at random and cause all
sorts of havoc (the stakes are too high and the resources are too limited) but
there is definitely some potential for amusing mayhem to happen.
Before arriving at the event, I took a few questions via
Twitter from my followers, and here are those responses:
> What gun do you get first?
I'm not sure if the starting equipment is randomly generated
(and it also depends on how much searching you do at the start of the game) but
I had a rifle and a pistol just a few minutes after the game began.
> Can you alternate between characters, or do you need to
die before you can switch?
Players can switch between any “friendly” character at any
time.
> What are the plans for DLC or future support of this
title?
According to the developers, any future support depends
entirely on Microsoft and what they decide. They had no information at all on
any future plans after release. However, the game is built with a certain
structure which is very conducive towards adding new items or other content in
the future. The possibility is certainly there.
> How do other survivors factor into your campaign? Will
they fight you, or raid your supplies?
The answers I was getting were a little vague, but the
overall sense I got was that while other survivors and groups are in the area,
they will not be a major source of conflict.
> How much changes between play sessions? If a person
can't play the game for a week or two, will your camp be completely overrun in
your absence?
If there are any buildings that were started or if any characters
are currently collecting resources, those actions will be completed while the
player is away and the machine is off. Players do not have to worry about
coming back to a camp full of zombies, since negative consequences will not
occur when the player is not present. The developers wanted to be clear that
this game isn't supposed to be the sort of ‘virtual pet’ that will die if you
don't check in once a day, although certain events will continue during
downtime.
> Will maps be randomly generated every time you start a new game?
The landscape and buildings are not randomly generated.
Those features will remain consistent in every new game. Characters, quests,
available items, number and location of zombies and so forth will be assigned
based on certain formulas, and will vary from game to game. While every game
will still have the same story beats and beginning/middle/end, there's quite a
bit that can change or happen differently.
> How long is the game?
Obviously quite a bit will depend on how much of the
peripheral activities of player engages in, and how thorough they are in their
play style. It was estimated that if someone was trying to crit-path their way
through the game by moving as quickly as possible, doing the absolute bare
minimum required to pass, and skipping all of the non-essential content, they would
clock in somewhere around fifteen hours. Based on what I saw and how much time
I spent myself, I could easily imagine this game running for forty hours or
longer, depending on a number of things.
> When will the game be released?
Sometime in June. It is not known whether or not the game
will be part of the expected ‘Summer of Arcade’ promotion.
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That's it for my preview coverage on State of Decay. While
there are definitely a few rough patches that are in need of polish, the core
experience was refreshingly different, and much deeper than I expected. I'm
even more excited for this title now than I was before, and I can easily
imagine the game eating up days at a time while I board up windows and fend off
the undead.
Infinite thanks to PR superstar Sanya Weathers for
organizing the event, and to all the members of Undead Labs for being so open,
welcoming, and eager to have us there and give us such an up-close look at what
they've been working on for the last couple of years.
Also, thanks to the Twitter folks who sent in questions,
including @G_Brett_96, @PMewse, @ColeCervo, @19mitch84, @srodd15, @SaulDarias,
@Ron_Perlman_DDS, @JoelPepper1, @josh999josh, and @rossi_bill. Apologies if I
overlooked anyone!
Thanks for reading!
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Posts
Will there be customization of the character(s)?
No, none of the characters are customizable. Sorry!
I have been following this game for well over a year, post actively on the forums, and never really got an answer to this question. Besides the story mode, will the player be able to continue the game past the storyline? Sort of like an infinite mode or sandbox until everything is gone and death is definitely going to happen mode?
Once you finish the storyline, it's over. No freeplay, NG+ or sandbox mode.
BUT, you can reload your last save, choose to NOT finish the last mission, and then play as long as you want to.
How about the PS3? Will it come availale for that system,. perhaps later?
Well, the game has been heavily funded from start to finish by Microsoft, so I'm thinking that it's probably not very likely. I mean, I suppose anything is possible but I wouldn't bank on it.
Cheese brO cheese if this games is under or at most 1600 mcrosoft points I will be getting it on the day of it's realse and check out odst1130 on YouTube for great commentary and fun and friendly atmosfear
Hey if the game gets good sales do you think that they will add multiplayer such as splitscreen or xbox libe play
I suppose anything is possible, but there was no mention about either of those things being added at any point.
Also, from the way the game is structured, I'm guessing that it would probably be something large enough to be held back for a sequel or the next MMO-type installment, if that is still happening.
BTW, I asked if the MMO was still a thing, but the answer was "no comment".